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A Discovery of Witches: A Novel (All Souls…
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A Discovery of Witches: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy) (edition 2011)

by Deborah E. Harkness

Series: All Souls (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
11,332725583 (3.77)451
Fiction. Literature. Romance. Thriller. HTML:Book one of the New York Times-bestselling All Souls Series"a wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry Potter and Twilight (People).
 
/> Now [a] hot show thats like Twilight meets Outlander (Thrillist) airing on AMC and BBC America, as well as streaming on Sundance Now and Shudder.
Deborah Harknesss sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches, has brought her into the spotlight and galvanized fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont.
Harkness has created a universe to rival those of Anne Rice, Diana Gabaldon, and Elizabeth Kostova, and she adds a scholar's depth to this riveting tale of magic and suspense. The story continues in book two, Shadow of Night, book three, The Book of Life, and the fourth in the series, Times Convert.… (more)
Member:bonnieclyde
Title:A Discovery of Witches: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy)
Authors:Deborah E. Harkness
Info:Viking Adult (2011), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 592 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:None

Work Information

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

  1. 245
    Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (Anonymous user, SunnySD)
    Anonymous user: Both are epic fantasy novels...time travel, mystery, unlikely love interests.
  2. 204
    The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (clamairy)
    clamairy: Similar themes of magic and academia.
  3. 151
    The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe (bnbookgirl)
  4. 41
    Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell (SunnySD)
    SunnySD: Scholarly heroines, mysterious goings on, and much time spent in libraries...
  5. 20
    Overseas by Beatriz Williams (rlb0616)
    rlb0616: No witches or vampires, but it does have time travel. Also, there are many similarities between the two male leads.
  6. 31
    City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte (thenothing)
    thenothing: alchemy, time travel, romance, mystery
  7. 20
    Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (DowntownLibrarian)
    DowntownLibrarian: If you enjoy learning some history along with your fantasy....
  8. 20
    The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman (tralliott)
  9. 20
    The Immortal City by Amy Kuivalainen (Dariah)
  10. 10
    The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones (debbiereads)
  11. 10
    This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar (lottpoet)
    lottpoet: intense fantastical love story
  12. 11
    A Hidden Fire by Elizabeth Hunter (Friederike.Geissler)
  13. 01
    Sunshine by Robin McKinley (lottpoet)
    lottpoet: magic users, demons and vampires aren't supposed to mix; an intense magic user-vampire relationship under extreme pressure
  14. 79
    Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (bookwyrmm)
  15. 1619
    Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (happyhinsons)
  16. 05
    Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott (Mumugrrl)
    Mumugrrl: Not the same kind of feel as A Discovery of Witches, but it does involve Oxford, alchemy and the ghost of Isaac Newton.
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» See also 451 mentions

English (706)  Dutch (3)  Finnish (2)  Hungarian (2)  Piratical (1)  French (1)  Spanish (1)  All languages (716)
Showing 1-5 of 706 (next | show all)
Re-Read January 2021: I give another star to this book (originally rated 3 stars, now 4 stars).
I did not appreciate how well-written this book is upon first read. I studied history so I suppose the main character's profession interests me (she studied the History of Science) which makes the book all the more enjoyable.

If you enjoy slow-burn paranormal romance fantasy some fun historical fiction you'll enjoy this read. Maybe later in the year I will re-read books 2 & 3 :) ( )
  s_carr | Feb 25, 2024 |
Brutal quantities of borderline-abusive heterosexual kink in this otherwise inoffensive disposable urban fantasy. I know how common "strong independent woman falls for overprotective, controlling man and likes it" kinks are among straight people, but y'all need to negotiate that shit properly.

I was going to see if I could think of anything else to say about this book, but... no, not really.

Not great sequence of events:

0. main character puts up token resistance to getting Protected and Taken Care Of,
1. main character get kidnapped,
2. the kidnapper points out all the ways her special new instahusband is abusive and controlling,
3. you're cheering on the kidnapper and hoping this is a turning point in the story/relationship,
4. the kidnapper proceeds to torture main character near unto death,
5. main character spends the rest of the book getting PROTECTED and TAKEN CARE OF but now she's so traumatized she appreciates it.


A few points returned for ~witchy maiden aunts~ who are explicitly witches and explicitly married to each other? IDK, that's a trope I can get behind.

ALSO ALSO: [complaints about fantasy political systems] global government of tens of millions by an unelected board of 9 people (9!!) is a weird system of government and a very weird thing to replicate when you plot to overthrow the existing government. ( )
  caedocyon | Feb 23, 2024 |
Historical fiction meets paranormal romance. Novels about vampires, witches, and demons are generally not my thing, but I enjoyed this book a great deal. The story is imaginative and detailed, with smart writing. I intend to read the next two books in the trilogy to follow the story of witch Diana Bishop and vampire Matthew Montclair and their families. ( )
  bschweiger | Feb 4, 2024 |
Very much a Mary Sue, though not as bad as in Twilight. Probably because there is intelligent discussions in it. Curious how this plays out in the subsequent books. ( )
  BrandyWinn | Feb 2, 2024 |
Love the concept of creatures living among us. Like the mystery of the manuscript and the coming war. I’d be ok with the romance if it had been more earned. My general pet peeve of romance novels is that there’s too much love at first sight stuff and this seems to take that to a whole new level. Crazy stuff happens on this novel and all of it in less than a month! Give this too me on a longer timeline and maybe I’d feel more invested.

I am intrigued enough by the central mystery that I put book 2 on hold at the library but I’m really not convinced that I will read the full series. ( )
  hmonkeyreads | Jan 25, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 706 (next | show all)
"With books about fictional witches, it’s all too easy to fall back on tongue-in-cheek descriptors like “enchanting” or “spellbinding,” but both adjectives aptly describe the superbly entertaining saga Harkness has crafted. This is a riveting tale full of romance and danger that will have you on the edge of your seat, yet its chief strength lies in the wonderfully rich and ingenious mythology underlying the story. Entwining strands of science and history, Harkness creates a fresh explanation for how such creatures could arise that is so credible, you’ll have to keep reminding yourself this is fiction."
 
As will be obvious by now, this is a very silly novel. Characters and relationships are stereotyped. The historical background is a total pudding. The prose is terrible. And yet, the ideas have just enough suction, somehow, to present an undemanding reader with some nice frissons. I liked, for example, the way Diana tries to sublimate her magic powers in running and rowing and doing yoga – at a mixed vampire-witch-daemonic yoga class, participants struggle not to levitate during their vinyasas. And I liked the way Matthew and Diana smell to each other like Jo Malone candles: Diana is "horehound, frankincense, lady's mantle", Matthew is "cinnamon and clove".
 
"a thoroughly grown-up novel packed with gorgeous historical detail...Harkness writes with thrilling gusto about the magical world. Whether she's describing a yoga class for witches, daemons, and vampires or Diana's benignly haunted house, it's a treat to suspend disbelief. ... As the mysteries started to unravel, the pages turned faster, almost as if on their own. By the most satisfying end, Harkness had made me a believer.
 
"a romantic, erudite, and suspenseful first novel by Deborah Harkness. The first in a planned trilogy, it sets up blood drinkers and spell weavers as enemies for eternity in a feud as old as the Crusades; the duo confront social disapproval and intolerance as they elude evildoers and puzzle out enigmas throughout history. ...Harkness attends to every scholarly and emotional detail with whimsy, sensuality, and humor.
 
The protagonist is a witch. Her beau is a vampire. If you accept the argument that we’ve seen entirely too many of both kinds of characters in contemporary fiction, then you’re not alone. Yet, though Harkness seems to be arriving very late to a party that one hopes will soon break up, her debut novel has its merits; she writes well, for one thing, and, as a historian at the University of Southern California, she has a scholarly bent that plays out effectively here.
added by Shortride | editKirkus Reviews (Dec 15, 2010)
 

» Add other authors (23 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Harkness, Deborahprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Bützow, HeleneTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Belanger, FrancescaDesignersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Goretsky, TalCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ikeda, JenniferNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
It begins with absence and desire.
It begins with blood and fear.
It begins with a discovery of witches.
Dedication
For Lexie and Jake, and their bright futures.
First words
The leather-bound volume was nothing remarkable.
Quotations
The King just sits there, moving one square at time. The queen can move so freely. I suppose I'd rather lose the game than forfeit her freedom.
´Normal`is a bedtime story - a fable - that humans tell themselves to feel better when faced with overwhelming evidence that most of what's happening around them is not ´normal`at all.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (2)

Fiction. Literature. Romance. Thriller. HTML:Book one of the New York Times-bestselling All Souls Series"a wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry Potter and Twilight (People).
 
Now [a] hot show thats like Twilight meets Outlander (Thrillist) airing on AMC and BBC America, as well as streaming on Sundance Now and Shudder.
Deborah Harknesss sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches, has brought her into the spotlight and galvanized fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont.
Harkness has created a universe to rival those of Anne Rice, Diana Gabaldon, and Elizabeth Kostova, and she adds a scholar's depth to this riveting tale of magic and suspense. The story continues in book two, Shadow of Night, book three, The Book of Life, and the fourth in the series, Times Convert.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Discovering a magical manuscript in Oxford's library, scholar Diana Bishop, a descendant of witches who has rejected her heritage, inadvertently unleashes a fantastical underworld of daemons, witches and vampires whose activities center around an enchanted treasure." - NoveList Plus
Haiku summary
Witches, vampires
and daemons all want to read
book on alchemy.
(passion4reading)

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Average: (3.77)
0.5 18
1 147
1.5 16
2 245
2.5 40
3 576
3.5 156
4 1023
4.5 101
5 955

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