‘A Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness (4)
I’ve come to think of this as the adult version of
‘Twilight’. This is the first in a trilogy of books dedicated to the history
and romance of a witch and a vampire. In this world, witches, vampires and
daemons exist among humans, know of each other, but rarely interact. Diana, the
main character, is an American witch teaching at Oxford, whose specialty is the
history of science. While she is researching alchemy in the old library of
Oxford, she stumbles upon a very old, magical book. Apparently it is very
valuable and her discovery attracts a large number of creatures (before
mentioned witches, vampires and daemons) including one very powerful and
interesting vampire, Matthew Clairmont. They join forces to understand what is
so important about the book. Added is the problem that Diana has forsaken her
magic due to tragedy in her past, yet seems to be a powerful witch with little
training. While this book has the obligatory star crossed lovers, I enjoyed it
for what was different than the teenage vampire books: a lot of history with a good dose of science.
Imagine the stories a 1500 year old, well-connected vampire can tell. Matthew
has met virtually all interesting scientist, poets and artists and has good
stories to share. This made for a good summer book with a little more heft than
typical ‘chick lit’.
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