July 18, 2012

Review: Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness


Blurb:
Deborah Harkness exploded onto the literary scene with her debut novel, A Discovery of Witches, Book One of the magical All Souls Trilogy and an international publishing phenomenon. The novel introduced Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and reluctant witch, and the handsome geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont; together they found themselves at the center of a supernatural battle over an enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782.


Now, picking up from A Discovery of Witches’ cliffhanger ending, Shadow of Night plunges Diana and Matthew into Elizabethan London, a world of spies, subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the mysterious School of Night that includes Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh. Here, Diana must locate a witch to tutor her in magic, Matthew is forced to confront a past he thought he had put to rest, and the mystery of Ashmole 782 deepens.

Deborah Harkness has crafted a gripping journey through a world of alchemy, time travel, and magical discoveries, delivering one of the most hotly anticipated novels of the season.


My Thoughts:


I loved A Discovery of Witches (read my review) and was eagerly awaiting Shadow of Night but was a very dissapointed with the story. Diana and Matthew travel back to 1590 to search for Ashmole 782 and to find someone to help Diana get control of and learn how to use her magic more but the story just went off on historical tangents and almost no progress was made in either endevour until the very end. Several famous historical characters were thrown in to make the book more interesting but really I would have appreciated more story line dealing with Diana's magic and the search. The was just too much fluff and not enough meat in this story for me to enjoy this one as much as A Discovery of Witches.


Even with all that being said I'm still interested in reading the final book of this trilogy hoping that we finally get some resolution to the problems Diana and Matthew face.


Recommendation:
I wouldn't exactly recommend this one to anyone who hasn't read book one but if you have I'd say to save this one for a library read.






1 comments :

bermudaonion said...

I'm sorry this was a disappointment to you. I don't think this series is for me.