Citadel

Product Information

A superb blend of rugged action and haunting mystery based on real-life figures, Citadel is a vivid and richly atmospheric story of a group of heroic women who dared the odds to survive [provided by the publisher] a deeply satisfying literary adventure, brimming with all the romance, treachery and cliffhangers you would expect from the genre. It is also steeped in a passion for the region, its history and legends, and that magical shadow world where the two meet This is the first time I have written in a review on this blog reference to Scripture, but I do not apologize, it would be wrong of me as a reviewer to not state something in a book I see as incorrect, even if the book is fiction. I do wish I'd known that Kate Mosse weaves the supernatural in to all her books before I started reading this. If I had, the introduction of the Ghost Army wouldn't have jolted me to a halt. It just seemed so unnecessary and daft as the culmination of its appearance was unsatisfactory and confusing. I imagine this is what it's like for people watching From Dusk Til Dawn who haven't realised there were two directors which is why the film goes oddly vampiric halfway through. At last, I got my mitts on a copy of the final part of Kate Mosse's Languedoc trilogy. Citadel was published by Orion in October, it's been a long 5 year wait for this one. Historical fiction has never been my first love, and I'll admit that the first of the series; Labyrinth, sat on my shelf for a long time before I actually read it. I was amazed by the writing, by the story and how Mosse manages to captivate the reader with her complex plots and engaging characters. Labyrinth was followed by Sepulchre in 2007, and again, I loved it and have anticipated the release of Citadel for such a long time.

Overall, I did get enjoyment out of the novel and the character development was done very well. I enjoyed reading about Carcassonne and greatly enjoyed the history involved in the creation of the novel. Beautifully designed, it’s the perfect gift book for anyone interested in theatre, film, television. A one-off chance to celebrate the first fifty years of CFT and to look forward to the future. In Nazi occupied France the Citadel are a group of all-women freedom fighters - part of the Resistance, and determined to outwit both the Germans and the evil French collaborators. Led by 18 year old Sandrine Vidal, her sister and their friends, these woman show courage and daring, never knowing who is watching them or who will betray them to the authorities. In the fourth century a monk, Arinius, has been taxed with saving a document that the Christian leaders have decided is heretical. Like a few others, he disagrees and has accepted the task of taking the Codex to another land and hiding it safely away for a better time. Aroinius bleef nog even staan en keek zuidwaarts, naar de bergen, en vroeg zich af wat voor hem in het verschiet lag -In short, making it to the end, felt like a Herculanean struggle and one which I would not inflict on anyone. Moreover, I have no intention to attempt another Mosse novel again - my Year 11 narrative writings were more interesting and original! But Authié wants Raoul for his own purposes: Raoul is in possession of a map belonging to his former comrade, Antoine, who died under torture at the hands of Authié's henchman without revealing its whereabouts. Beneath his official guise, Authié is a kind of latter-day inquisitor, obsessed with restoring the purity of the Catholic faith; he knows that Antoine corresponded with Otto Rahn, and suspects that before Rahn's death the German passed to Antoine a map revealing the whereabouts of an ancient codex containing a secret so powerful it could change the course of the war. The Ahnenerbe are also pursuing this codex, apparently with Authié's assistance, though to their cost they fail to realise that his motivation for securing it is quite different to theirs.

I felt that the one redeeming feature was that much of the novel was drawn from historical detail. However, in her afterword, what Mosse actually reveals is that she has made everything up. Twisted facts entirely for her own purposes and played God with history to such an extent that nothing can be said to be even vaguely based on what was really occurring during this epoch. Then we meet a Dark Ages monk who is protecting a scroll known as the Codex. This secondary plot should have been left out of the book. It distracted me. It takes too much away from what could have been a great story of courageous female resistance fighters. Apparently Kate Mosse always includes a supernatural twist to her novels and this is why she had to force this storyline in for the trilogy to make sense. It’s a pity because it ruins the novel. The thrilling conclusion to her Languedoc trilogy . . . a mix of Girls Own adventure and wrenching war history Citadel is the final instalment in the Languedoc trilogy. I haven’t read Labyrinth and Sepulchre, and after struggling through Citadel I have no intention of doing so.Alas, it’s fair to say that Citadel and I did not hit it off. Ours was a date best described by words like “tepid” and “mediocre”. Citadel likes to talk about itself, and boy, it had certainly had its share of adventure sto relate. But I kept wondering when the real story would start and when I would actually learn something about what kind of book this was. Instead, it kept referencing new people and events in its life. And the worst, by far, was Arinius.

From the internationally bestselling author of Labyrinth and Sepulchre comes a thrilling novel, set in the South of France during World War II, that interweaves history and legend, love and conflict, passion and adventure, bringing to life brave women of the French Resistance and a secret they must protect from the Nazis. In Carcassonne, a colorful historic village nestled deep in the Pyrenees, a group of courageous and determined operatives are engaged in a lethal battle. Like their ancestors who fought to protect their land from Northern invaders seven hundred years before, these women—code-named Citadel—fight to liberate their home from the Germans. The 1942 storyline at least presents its share of obstacles for its characters. Sandrine certainly grows and changes as she matures from an unsure, impulsive girl into a clever and courageous woman. Although I found the simplistic way in which Mosse presents their decisions somewhat irritating, I really enjoyed how various characters, like Luce, rationalized their collaboration. In this respect, Citadel allows the reader to sympathize with what the ordinary citizens of these villages and towns must have felt as the Nazi occupation deepened. It’s all well and good to say that one would stand and fight against such an invader in theory. When it’s actually happening, it is a different thing entirely, more pernicious and less overtly easy to throw off. I never felt invested in the story of Arinius and wife Lupa. I was given a brief introduction to each of them, but never felt an attachment. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw." Revelation 1: 1-2. ESV The story itself is utterly cliche ridden. The lovers look into one another's eyes. their hearts burn with passion, there is much gazing at the stars, there is a Jewish lover, who is, of course taken and so and so on. In short, there is no originality or fervor in the writing. It is one trite cliche after another. In fact, as I was reading it, I kept imagining I was marking my Year 11 short stories and wanted to underline bits and write CLICHE in large red letters in the margin. If I had found several spelling mistakes and multiple erroneous attempts at a semi-colon I would not have been surprised.A breathtaking tale of daring and sacrifice that makes a triumphant finale to Mosse's Languedoc trilogy The Arinius storyline just never came together for me. Partly this is because his chapters are comparatively short and infrequent. I question whether their presence actually adds anything to the overall narrative. For the majority of the book, Arinius’ chapters are little more than descriptions of his travels through Gaul. It’s not until the very end that he experiences any sort of conflict, and as such, his story is quite boring.