I don’t know how I came to buy this, but I expect that the promise of an epic set in a world of magic may have had something to do with. Sadly, it turned out that this magical epic was instead epically boring, starring the dullest witches and vampires I’ve ever had the misfortune to read about. Diana is an academic, studying the history of science and, in particular, alchemy. Apparently from a long line of witches, Diana has tried to steer clear of magic […]
Kill Your Darlings
Deborah Harkness knows a lot about a lot of things. Her depth and breadth of knowledge on things ranging from wine to Elizabethan England to brewing tea is certainly impressive, but the amount of detail crammed into these books sure does make for some slow going. The All Souls Trilogy is about a world in which witches, vampires, and daemons (in this case, daemons are humans who are more than us regular folk–musical prodigies, artistic savants, financial wizards, scientific geniuses–or sometimes drug addicts or mentally […]
When Elizabethan London is more interesting than the witches and vampires who inhabit it
Part fantasy, part historical fiction, Shadow of Night is the second book in the All Soul’s trilogy (and you really need to have read A Discovery of Witches first to get what is going on). As a tale about witches and vampires, there isn’t a lot of action or back story on the whole witch/vampire/daemon culture. But this book was full of day to day details of life in 16th century Europe, which was a surprising highlight for me. Shadow begins where Discovery left off, […]
Twilight for Adults
“If there really were vampires, what would they do for a living?” That is a question that this book became the unexpected answer to, according to the author on her blog. As for me, although I’ve read that Harkness hasn’t read the popular YA series, I’d dare say this book could be considered a Twilight for adults. Compliment? Or criticism? You decide. But at its simplest, there are vampires, witches, and daemons. (If you’re not sure what a daemon is…think borderline insane, ADHD, wildly creative […]