The Doors You Mark Are Your Own by Okla Elliott and Raul Clement

In this pseudo-translated historical text, originally written by an author from a time in our own alternate distant future, we learn of a world before that time yet occurring after the fall of our own (or possibly our recent past). As stated by the book’s own summary, this “blends elements of Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and Golden Age Hollywood.”  The main story itself is that of a world that had been nearly destroyed due to events not limited to, but largely centered on, the contamination of the world’s water, causing nekrosis in all those it infected.  However, various dying cultures managed to come together and settle around a clean water source and survive, though on a much smaller scale than they previously existed.  Now, that same contamination has reappeared and tensions are growing within and amongst the various cities.  In the greatest and most powerful of these cities, Joshua City, the leader uses this reemergence as an excuse to declare war on the others, starting with the herdspeople of Ulan-Ude, as the first step in gaining power of all seven cities.  However, this military campaign has led to civil unrest within Joshua City’s own borders.  The foremost of the points of view shown to us belong to that of Nikolas, Marcik, and Adrian.

As noted in the summary, this book is fictitious but still possesses a very real air about it.  Along with footnotes, there are moments within the false history/story—which is to say, not including the prologue(s)—when the nonexistent original author, Aleksander Tuvim, and the two real authors but self-described translators, Okla Elliott and Raul Clement, will pause the story and speak to the readers directly, elaborating on certain events in this history, providing both their own opinions and context on matters in such a way that it adds to the wonderful blurring of the line between historical retelling and fictitious story.

Though not a completely encompassing element of the The Doors You Mark Are Your Own, the book almost comes off as a ‘before’ story that so many popular series in entertainment lack.  This isn’t to say that the story isn’t outstandingly brilliant in its own right, but it is still an interesting element to consider.  In most stories, movies, or shows—most good ones, anyway—that begin with the key conflict already ongoing will have, at some point, a character briefly address the history of how and why the conflict came to be.  While that may address and clarify some key points, the audience is still left wondering about other details.  Given that this is the first installment of a lengthy trilogy, I’m interested to see whether the series will stay anchored in the current setting of Nikolas, Marcik, and Adrian’s timeline, as this book is itself just a ‘translation’ of Tuvim’s documentation of recent historical events, or if the story will precede to see change in his time, as the ‘translators’ of the book are well into the future of Aleksander Tuvim’s timeline.  Regardless, the book as a whole is marvelously crafted and has left me wondering just how the story will proceed. 

What is in a name?  At the end of the 8 page prologue—which is nothing when compared to the bulk of the book—a pivotal character (really, the pivotal character) in Tuvim’s modern day has a flashback.  While it means nothing at the time, it carries with it an implied weight.  At first the reader is only left to wonder at what it might mean, who are the people mentioned in it, what is so important about the name, what does ‘Messenger’ mean?  In fact, the prologue as a whole is well executed, giving bits of information to the reader, dropping names and events, keeping the reader curious throughout the book as they wait to actually see it unfold, see how the present came to be.  The prologue’s vagueness is perfect and it’s a promise of an exciting story to those who read on, a promise that it keeps.

Nikolas the Revolutionary.  A doktoral student turned revolutionary, and younger brother to Marcik.  Nikolas is a realist, aware of how the world works, with ambition and the wherewithal to achieve his goals; he is also aware that he doesn’t know everything and, as such, is always able to concede to that fact.  While he may sometimes come off as arrogant, he does what he believes is best for the largest number of people, which brings about the obvious pros and cons of any philosophy closely resembling “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”  He wanted to become a doktor because he believed that he would be able to find a cure for the nekrosis caused by the water contamination.  When he found he couldn’t work within the system to help the people, he instead decided to change the system in order to help the people.  One problem with his character development is that his progression in certain areas fall slightly into the category of ‘Instant Expert.’  It isn’t much, but to even be in this category to a small degree is disheartening for a book with events that are otherwise very realistic and well thought out.  At the same time, while he gains high skill levels almost unbelievably quickly, he utilizes them in a believable way, making it a hard point to judge.  Do we attribute his growth speed to being a ‘natural’ or a ‘genius’ and overlook it or do we let that point stand out as a flaw in the story?  I’ll leave that decision to each individual reader.

Marcik the Soldier.  A Guardsman, a soldier of Joshua city, and older brother to Nikolas.  We are introduced to a Marcik who suffers in no small part from arrogance, similar to his brother Nikolas.  However, where Nikolas at least has acceptable reason for his arrogance, Marcik has none, being an unlikeable character upon his introduction.  During his military training, as well as the experiences he has while active, he is broken of that arrogance, and fully comes into his own as a character whose tale is a blast to follow.  We follow him for the entirety of his military career: leaving home for basic training, being deployed and surviving through many small encounters, getting captured and tortured, and many, many, many more events that to merely name would ruin. 

Adrian the Nurturer.  A doktoral student who roomed with Nikolas in his first semester of school and is an ardent believer in the god of the Book of the Before-time.  Where Nikolas is a realist, Adrian is an idealist, aware of the limitations of reality, but chooses to look past them at what could be rather than what is most likely.  That being said, Adrian is effected deeply when his ideals are actually confronted and destroyed before him.  He spends much of the story doing good, but is always conflicted when weighing his thoughts and actions against his perceived correct moral thoughts and actions.  Thanks to his time sent with Nikolas, Adrian spends a lot of time thinking about the morality and subjective nature of the world they live in and the events that unfold within it.  What truly makes his character interesting is seeing why he is so important when the story already has two brothers on their own side of a revolution.  Is he a neutral party who has the ability to sway either side?  Or is it something more?

There are other characters who hold their own import, but it is around these three that the stories revolves, and the beauty of these three characters is simple.  While Adrian is neutral but, arguably, a good character, neither Nikolas nor Marcik are good or evil.  If you’ll excuse the binary, both teeter back and forth across the line between the two sides without ever fully falling into one.  In fact, it is on questioning this binary of good and evil that the story ends, though with a promise of even more development in the next installment.

With a book this size, over 700 pages, there is going to be a fair amount of world building.  This story is marvelously crafted, the characters are intelligently designed, and the events are both thrilling and thought-provoking.  While this may come down to nothing more than personal preference, the book can take a while before sinking its hooks into the reader, as the majority of the world building takes place all at once in the beginning of the story.  There are multiple stories all happening at once so, while it is written very well and is in no way boring, the first hundred or so pages are very exposition heavy.  This is the way the world is, this is how people have their allegiances.  Important stuff but it can take a decent amount of time to build steam.  However, get through that (not to say there is nothing exciting or interesting happening, there is) and you’ll be rewarded with an enthralling story that seems to explode before your eyes.

As I said earlier, this book is beautiful.  I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading and who I think could make it through all 700+ pages of this trilogy’s first installment.  While some may be turned away by that length, and the promise of 1400 more pages, I know there are plenty of readers out there who will revel in that fact.  To those readers, spend some time getting lost in this pure-baikal story.

Rating: 4.5/5

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

Warning!  Do not read this story until you’ve read A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night!

My review of A Discovery of Witches: http://ineedanotherbookcase.blogspot.com/2015/04/a-discovery-of-witches-by-deborah.html

My review of Shadow of Night: http://ineedanotherbookcase.blogspot.com/2015/04/shadow-of-night-by-deborah-harkness.html

Once again, before beginning, for anyone who hasn’t read A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night, I recommend brushing up.  The books are very detail heavy and hold one long continuous story.  For anyone who hasn’t read either…this is not the starting point you are looking for.

After returning from 1590 Elizabethan London, the setting of Shadow of Night, Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont are back in the present, ready to finally uncover the mysteries contained in Ashmole 782.  They return to Matthew’s home in Sept-Tours, France with Diana nearing her due date.  As this wonderful moment of their life approaches, Diana, Matthew, along with their friends and family, must prepare for the dangers that arrive as they delve into the secrets of Ashmole 782, both within the Congregation, the council formed from all three supernatural groups, and without.  As secrets are uncovered, prepare yourself for the electrifying end of this expansive tale.

In A Discovery of Witches, the reader is introduced to Diana Bishop, alchemic historian and witch, and Matthew Clairmont, biochemist and 1500 year old vampire.  Together they pursue Ashmole 782, an ancient and mysterious tome sought after by witches, vampires and daemons for centuries.  Diana, reluctant to use her magic, has spent her life trying to push aside that part of her life.  However, with the appearance of this tome and Matthew’s romantic advances, she (as well as the reader) is brought into the world that she had spent her life trying to stay apart from.

In Shadow of Night, Diana and Matthew, in an effort to find some clue to the location of and mystery to Ashmole 782, travel back in time to 1590 Elizabethan London.  While searching, Diana also seeks out a fellow witch to help her understand her powerful, and dormant, magical abilities.  As they search for both tome and tutor, Matthew must reconcile his past life, a life that gives Diana a deeper understanding of Matthew, and his current, more mature mentality.

Finally, in The Book of Life, this uninterrupted trilogy comes to an end, as Diana and Matthew are once again in the present day, and the events surrounding Ashmole 782 come to a close.

In The Book of Life, the final installment of the All Souls Trilogy, there is a lot of new, but not unwarranted, information being thrown at the reader.  Events of the previous book have provided Diana and Matthew with new information that can only now be acted upon due to modern technology and, because of this, we get to see Chris again.  For those who don’t remember, Chris is Diana’s academic BFF introduced in A Discovery of Witches, and his small, but complex, character from the first book is fleshed out and he becomes an enjoyable secondary character.  And Chris is not alone in this, many other characters reprising their roles as they are brought to the foreground.  In the race to discover what secrets Ashmole 783 hides, there are no holds barred as a number of other characters take on life and import.

With the exception of the final section of the book (don’t worry, I’ll get to that) Harkness still writes with a loving attention to detail.  The world, events, and people will have you in rapture. Beautiful attention is paid to even the tiniest detail, and the complexities of the human (or otherwise) experience is wonderfully done.  Events of the prior books, and the time travel within, are given deeper meaning and brought to a neat and tidy close as the saga ends, leaving few loose ends for fans to wonder over.

Then there’s Diana.  Wow.  Finally, the culmination of all the witchy experiences the readers have seen as she traversed this timeline and, I’ve gotta say, it was definitely worth it.  To say I was 100% fine with how Diana and her powers turned out would be dishonest, but what I wanted would have been too strong a deviation from her already established character.  Given everything that the last two books, as well as prior events in this book, it’d be hard to find a reader that is legitimately disappointed.   

All notes of the fantastical and fictitious aside, the moral of this story is a timeless one that readers will, if current trends are to be believed, not tire of for generations to come.  Two lovers who shouldn’t be together are together and, despite the odds and opposition, they will fight tooth and nail to be true to themselves.

The primary downside of this book is the decrease of originality and life that the previous two had.  While this is definitely a strong book, it’s clear that it’s not quite as strong as the previous two (some weakness are overcome by the fact that this is a concluding piece, allowing for more possible points of merit than its predecessors).  Harkness loves history, which is made clear throughout the series and, while history has some play in The Book of Life, the strongest genre in this book is that of fantasy and fiction, rather than history.  Though entertaining, The Book of Life lacks the same level of scenic beauty and literal detail, many of the story’s subplots bordering cliché and trope-like.

The second downside of this book is the pace towards the finale.  Harkness has spent well over a thousand pages using loving detail to fully immerse the reader in this world and yet, when we come to the most crucial events, the concluding events that this entire story has been building up to…it’s rushed.  Any jumps in time taken previously were typically followed, at some point, by a summary of events that took place during that period, typically amounting to “this is why these events weren’t important for me to spend time on, you’re welcome” and the story was better for it.  However, nothing like that happens here.  Events, plans, and travels are rushed over and it feels more like Harkness is just trying to get to the end.  If it were any a number of other authors writing this, then I most likely wouldn’t have any problem with this but, since this is Harkness, I’ve come to expect a certain level of detail and care that just isn’t present.

All in all, it was an enjoyable end to the series.  While it wasn’t my favorite installment in the trilogy (though I had hoped it would be), it also wasn’t my least.  If you’ve read A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night you would be a fool to even consider skipping this book.  And to everyone who read this review knowing nothing about the prior two, if you’re a lover of words, fiction, fantasy, romance, vampires, witches, or history, then this is a must read.

Rating: 4/5

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

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 16^th 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