URBAN FANTASY REVIEW: All Soul's Trilogy 2: Shadow of Night - Deborah Harkness

Release Date: 10/07/12

SYNOPSIS:

It began with A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES. Historian Diana Bishop, descended from a line of powerful witches, and long-lived vampire Matthew Clairmont have broken the laws dividing creatures. When Diana discovered a significant alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library, she sparked a struggle in which she became bound to Matthew. Now the fragile coexistence of witches, daemons, vampires and humans is dangerously threatened. Seeking safety, Diana and Matthew travel back in time to London, 1590. But they soon realise that the past may not provide a haven. Reclaiming his former identity as poet and spy for Queen Elizabeth, the vampire falls back in with a group of radicals known as the School of Night. Many are unruly daemons, the creative minds of the age, including playwright Christopher Marlowe and mathematician Thomas Harriot. Together Matthew and Diana scour Tudor London for the elusive manuscript Ashmole 782, and search for the witch who will teach Diana how to control her remarkable powers...Fall under the spell of Diana and Matthew once more in this stunning, richly imagined, epic tale.


REVIEW:

The second instalment in the addictive All Souls series and if like me you’ve been waiting with baited breath for this you’ll have a clear idea of how long the title sat on my table before I cracked open the pages and began reading. What unfurls within is a story that is just as twisted as the original with the characters learning to adapt to the changes in not only their personal lives but also in their time travel ones.

As with the original the prose is sharp, the pace wonderfully addictive and when added to an author who has obviously conducted research into the time period and brought it over without the use of info dumps also allows the reader to fully immerse themselves within the pages.

Finally add to the mix a deeper hidden theme that’s unveiling itself to be dealt with in the third and final part and all in I was a satisfied reader. Great stuff all round and a real joy to read. Cracking.