The Paper Labyrinth: A Book-wide Puzzle Solving Adventure (The Paper Labyrinth Series)

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All in all, I did enjoy it and I’m compelled enough by Mosse’s writing to definitely give more books of hers a try. I did really want to know what was going to happen and I loved the religious and philosophical aspects of it. I just preferred the historical setting and characters to the modern ones. Firstly, the vast majority of puzzles in the book occupy only a single-side, meaning that there is twice as much puzzle content in the book as in many other titles (where the left-hand side is usually a QR code linking to the answer verification)

What I did really find fascinating was how Mosse wrote the Cathars’ beliefs around life and reincarnation and how that could be intertwined with the Grail stories. It was really cool how she interpreted that and I found the whole thing very compelling. I liked how much emphasis there was on mutual respect and working together between the guardians of the Books: Jewish, Muslim and Christian; men and women. July 2005. In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery-two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls, and the pattern of a labyrinth; between the skeletons, a stone ring, and a small leather bag. There was a disparity of quality between the two time lines. The author is clearly in love with (and well-versed in) the history. The plotting, the immersive setting and the characterization are all far richer when we are with Alais in the 1200's. I got this book in an airport and I've to say it was not the best idea. Not because it was a bad choice, but because after I started reading I couldn't stop, so I didn't sleep in the eleven hours that took to land. Needless to say, I got down the plane tired but utterly fascinated by the world created by Mosse.

Mosse combines two stories: a historical fiction, set against the invasion of the Pays d'Oc; the other, a modern thriller set in the Languedoc region of France. In these parallel stories, bad people with suspect motives are searching for the treasures that embody the secret wisdom of the Cathars (symbolized by a labyrinth). In both stories, the protagonist is trying to figure out what these treasures can be, along with how to stop the villians, without getting killed in the process. El estilo narrativo de la autora es bueno, te mantiene conectada a la historia a través de un equilibrio entre los géneros abordados, sin exagerar en ninguno de ellos. Está escrita con un estilo muy directo, sin grandes descripciones, ni siquiera de los personajes, lo que te hace entrar pronto en acción en una historia que engancha, aunque a veces los continuos cambios de escenarios, hace que te desconciertes. This book focuses on the Cathars, a gnostic sect centered in the Pays d'Oc, (modern southwestern France). Several legends have been told about the Cathars, including that they practiced ancient mystical rituals and that they were the guardians of the Holy Grail. What is known is that the Cathars rivaled the established church in parts of Western Europe. In the 13th century, Catholic churchmen and French nobles led an invasion of the Pays d'Oc and a bloody suppression of the Cathars, whom they regarded as heretics.

There are grammatical errors and anachronisms that I found really irritating (for example, references in 1209 to 'Saint Francis' when he was in fact not sainted until 1228) and some incredibly clunky prose.Crees que puedes cambiar tu destino? (...) Así es, porque si no fuera así, nada tendría sentido. Si simplemente estuviéramos siguiendo una senda predeterminada, entonces todas las experiencias que nos convierten en quienes somos (el amor, el dolor, la alegría, el aprendizaje, los cambios...) no servirían de nada." I've seen a handful of comparisons between Labyrinth and Dan Brown books and....I guess. Labyrinth has secret societies and questionable religious motivations. It has relics and symbols and a wee bit of romance. But Labyrinth doesn't feel like Dan Brown to me, despite the topical similarities. Brilliant. Archaeology ladies get into all sorts of European adventure hi-jinx with a parallel time slip story line and get caught up with sinister occult goings on which ultimately wind up being tied into their own personal family history making it a sort of GRAIL LORE: THIS TIME IT'S PERSONAL style read. More murders, maniacs, manoeuvring and mendacity than Murder on the Orient Express. Whoa. You let someone wander around on an excavation randomly digging holes wherever they like? That is NOT how it is done. Now they've found something and are tramping into a cave and moving finds and relics around without photographing or drawing them first? And they're not even an archaeologist? Ok, that's it my head just E-X-P-L-O-D-E-D , really it did, there's brain all over the place. Good job my brain exploded before the introduction of the fact that the Assistant dig director is also stealing antiquities. And obviously because there is archaeology and the grail involved then they all have PhD's. Let's face it, after Dr Robert Langdon of DaVinci Code fame, only giving these ladies a Masters degree would make you feel like they were not quite clever enough to be dealing with the subject matter.