Warning! Do not read
this story until you’ve read A
Discovery of Witches!
My review of A Discovery of Witches: http://ineedanotherbookcase.blogspot.com/2015/04/a-discovery-of-witches-by-deborah.html
Now, before I begin, for anyone who may have read the A Discovery of Witches close to its
release and have taken some time to get to its sequel, I recommend brushing up. It’s very detail heavy, so forgetting one bit
of information could have you scratching your head for chapters.
Immediately following the events of A Discovery of Witches,
Diana and Matthew have just timewalked to 1590 Elizabethan England. There they hope to locate the intact Ashmole
782, find Diana a witch who can teach her how to best use her magic, and stay
out of the Congregations watchful gaze. Diana
finds herself leaping feet first into the life of Matthew’s 500 years younger
self, a world of spies, political struggles, and the ever mysterious School of
Night, which includes such members as Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter
Raleigh. While Diana attempts to find a
proper tutor to aid her in mastering her magic, Matthew must deal with his own
past, a life he thought would forever stay buried. As they deal with their individual struggles,
they must also do everything in their power to locate Ashmole 782, a tome whose
true purpose slips further into mystery as their knowledge of it increases.
I was glad to finish Shadow
of Night, part two in the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness, and find myself
not too disappointed, as middle sequences of trilogies often leave me. I greatly enjoyed A Discovery of Witches, and the few problems I had with it were
largely fixed this time around. While
its prequel suffered from an excess of detail causing the story to progress at
strange intervals, Shadow of Night
was able to avoid those same problems. Here
the pace was even, the amount of detail used consistent throughout.
Starting this book I was looking forward to seeing Diana
fully manifest her powers and abilities, as the previous book had alluded to
the fact that they would very helpful against any of her or Matthew’s enemies. The progression of her power development was
very natural, taking time as she encountered natural roadblocks along the
way. My only complaint—and this is more
of a gripe than a criticism, brought about by other stories typically not
taking the route that Harkness did—was the lack of her power usage. She has these spectacular powers and doesn’t
use them. But as her reasons for not
using them align with her already very well establish mentality, I can’t say it’s
a fault of the writer, but instead a fault of this reader.
The alternate history direction this book took was
interesting, to say the least. It wasn’t
an outlandish direction for the book to take either, even though it’s a slightly
different category than A Discovery of
Witches fit into. I was able to
watch Diana interact with various predominant historical figures like Queen
Elizabeth I, Rudolf II, Sir Walter Raleigh, and numerous others. Also, how she
and Matthew became involved in various well-known historical events was both
entertaining and eye-opening. This is
where Harkness’ historian chops shined brightest, as she wove Diana and Matthew’s
path through the late 16th Century into historical blind spots. While I read I had Google ready to go so I
could fully appreciate the very real history used in this work of fiction, as I
often stopped to look up dates, places, and people.
However, while Shadow
of Night is a well-constructed book, it was a bit of a step down from its
predecessor.
The first installment of the trilogy had the problem of
losing the reader to the level of detail used in describing the scene, as well
as pacing, but those points were largely corrected this time around, each scene
an excellent balance of detail and action.
However, the pace at which the story progressed through the plot was
incredibly slow. There are a range of mini-story
arcs in this book, but not enough to fully justify the length. One part of me loved it, the way each day was
described with such detail, allowing full immersion into the Diana’s life
without losing track of what was actually happening. The sensory details were amazing while not
overpowering. Unfortunately, the other
part of me quickly grew tired of it, wanting some actual progress in the story
to be made.
Did the level of writing change or deteriorate throughout
the story? No. Could this book have been much shorter
without losing any of the power of the writing or skimping on key events? Yes. I’d
say this is a problem of excellent skill in the wrong place. This type of writing is perfect for
contemporary fantasy, but there’s just too much writing. If a book can be half the length and not lose
anything in the plot, then there’s a problem.
Simultaneously, I like words, especially when they’re used to construct excellent
sentences. The writing is very pretty so
I can’t dislike the book too much, even though the plot suffers heavily due to
the stretching of events. Regrettably, I’m
going to have to rate the book placing higher emphasis on storytelling ability
rather than appearance.
For anyone who enjoyed A
Discovery of Witches, I am confident that they’ll equally enjoy Shadow of Night. A historical fiction full of beautiful
writing, this contemporary fantasy is a must read for any lovers of drama, the
supernatural, historical fiction, or fantasy.
Rating 3/5
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