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A review by marik0n
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
5.0
I think the back cover of the book says it all. But okay, let me also say some things.
In general, I go bananas for books with historians and scholars in general as leading characters. That is one of the reasons I enjoy Dan Brown and Isabelle Allende's books. They manage to incorporate important pieces of story into their books, without tiring or confusing the reader. That's also why I liked this book.
Extremely interesting from the beginning, descriptive enough without getting tiring, but enough to make you feel as though a film is developing in front of your eyes (I know I often mention this, but for me it is a great skill for a writer to be able to do it, because lengthy descriptions have caused me trouble reading a book a lot of times, and even quit reading it at all). The plot is of great interest and develops smoothly. I didn't want to get my hands off it, and when I did - necessarily because of obligations that haunt me - I couldn't help but keep thinking about it. The chapters are about twenty pages each, which never seems to be enough.
The clues about the protagonist's thoughts and experiences seemed a bit less than I would have liked, but this was balanced by the delightful romance that co-existed with the right doses of mystery, anxiety and action.
I really liked the fact that there was no much emphasis put on the homosexual Sarah-Emily relationship, which made it look like a very normal element of life, in a completely natural way.
The paranormal world is presented in a completely logical and scientifically explained way. Like alchemy - so does the book's plot balances between magic and logic, unrealistic and rational, designing a very realistic and accessible world for the reader.
The thing that I honestly didn't like was Matthew's dominant role in Diana's development, though there are some extenuating things about it. It was generally a very enjoyable book and I have already started reading the second part of the trilogy.
In general, I go bananas for books with historians and scholars in general as leading characters. That is one of the reasons I enjoy Dan Brown and Isabelle Allende's books. They manage to incorporate important pieces of story into their books, without tiring or confusing the reader. That's also why I liked this book.
Extremely interesting from the beginning, descriptive enough without getting tiring, but enough to make you feel as though a film is developing in front of your eyes (I know I often mention this, but for me it is a great skill for a writer to be able to do it, because lengthy descriptions have caused me trouble reading a book a lot of times, and even quit reading it at all). The plot is of great interest and develops smoothly. I didn't want to get my hands off it, and when I did - necessarily because of obligations that haunt me - I couldn't help but keep thinking about it. The chapters are about twenty pages each, which never seems to be enough.
The clues about the protagonist's thoughts and experiences seemed a bit less than I would have liked, but this was balanced by the delightful romance that co-existed with the right doses of mystery, anxiety and action.
I really liked the fact that there was no much emphasis put on the homosexual Sarah-Emily relationship, which made it look like a very normal element of life, in a completely natural way.
The paranormal world is presented in a completely logical and scientifically explained way. Like alchemy - so does the book's plot balances between magic and logic, unrealistic and rational, designing a very realistic and accessible world for the reader.
The thing that I honestly didn't like was Matthew's dominant role in Diana's development, though there are some extenuating things about it. It was generally a very enjoyable book and I have already started reading the second part of the trilogy.