A Discovery of Witches ~ Deborah Harkness

20 January 2012

A quick, light read. Diana Bishop, an historian specializing in ancient alchemical manuscripts, also comes from a long line of witches. While studying at Oxford's Bodleian library, she unknowingly retrieves a bewitched manuscript that unleashes a flurry of "creatures," including a vampire, Matthew de Clermont, and an assortment of curious daemons and deadly jealous witches, all intent on acquiring the manuscript for themselves, no matter the cost to Diana. Meanwhile, Diana stubbornly insists she wants no part in being a witch, even as she seemingly unknowingly practices magic left and right. First of a trilogy, Discovery follows Diana from Oxford, to a secluded castle in the countryside of France, to New York State, as well as her psychological journey to understand the new world unfolding around her, all as she seeks to uncover the secret of the importance of the manuscript.

At times I felt the plot to be contrived and predictable, however I found the novel as a whole to be entertaining and absorbing. I would have liked to see more character development of the minor characters, like Marthe. Less reliance on magic to explain away complicated situations - yes, these are supernatural creatures being depicted, but supernatural creatures who have evolved to be invisible in a modern world. I would also classify this as a romance, which has never been what you would call my favorite genre, so by the end of was groaning aloud in some scenes and skipping ahead, but some readers of romance may find these torturous scenes for me to be innocently charming.

One thing that got to irritate me by the end was Harkness' portrayal of vampires, which I thought to be wholly implausible. I appreciate that she was justifying their existence through a more realistic historical rendering of their possible evolution, but it tried too hard to be different from the way other vampires are portrayed in literature. I did like her portrayal of witches, however, and was somewhat delighted in her portrayal of daemons - I plan to try and read the other books when they come out, and I hope to see more daemons in them.