Saturday, February 12, 2011

2011 book 44

Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches
Diana Bishop was born to two of the most powerful witches in recent times, but has grown up shying away from her power and has become a historian instead. When she finds a weird ancient manuscript in the Bodleian Library, however, she can't deny what she is any longer--especially not when other creatures begin looking for her, most notably a handsome vampire scientist. OK, so I mostly liked this book a lot--the characters are all fascinating and I was intrigued by the world-building--but it did have some flaws. For one thing, some of the writing is weirdly awkward (first-person sections will suddenly turn third-person for a sentence) and the book would be at least 50 pages shorter without all the talk about wine (so boring). And parts of the book read way too much like Twilight (if Twilight was written for an adult audience and was more intellectual). What is with all these old-fashioned (read: chaste) male vampires? I'm a grownup, dammit, I'm not afraid of fictional characters who are in love sleeping with each other. Frankly, it's weird that they don't, and makes it harder to suspend disbelief in anything else going on (plus, I think it gives too much of the sequels away, or so I assume). Still, it was entertaining and I look forward to the next one in this series. B+.

4 comments:

Xtine said...

The world she created was awesome and I was especially happy when they got to New York. But those damn chaste vampires! What the hell?

Alicia K. said...

I know, right?? Especially in context, it read really false to me. At least they fooled around a little.

Christina said...

I agree with your assessment - the ending made me want to read this more, but the focus on the birth control tea and the not having sex seems pretty heavy-handed to me, too! At least they get it on more than in Twilight!

Alicia K. said...

I remembering wondering how soon they'd have a baby with weird powers. As long as they don't name it Renesmee . .