Thursday 26 February 2015

Review ~ The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

20555167
Headline
July 2015

The Book of Life is the place where history, science, magic and romance combine and where the All Souls trilogy finally reaches its dramatic conclusion.

The Book of Life is the third and final part of the All Souls trilogy in which vampire scientist, Matthew Clairmont and his wife, historian and witch, Diana Bishop, search for the elusive alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, which is also known as The Book of Life.

The story is intense, complicated and filled to bursting with historical references to vampires, witches and daemons, and as the search for the mysterious Ashmole 782 gets underway, nothing and no-one is allowed to get in Matthew and Diana’s way. The ever present threat to their ordered world is real, their fear is tangible and the terrifying urgency of their search is controlled in a remarkably realistic way. Old grudges are allowed to fester, whilst forgotten resentments and malevolent forces constantly seek to outwit them. However, with a little help from their friends, true goodness will overcome pure evil and light will eventually shine through the darkness.

As the story draws to its inevitable conclusion, there is a definite sense of wrapping up all the loose ends, and after such an epic journey it’s gratifying to see some sort of resolution take place. My only criticism is that without prior knowledge of the previous two books in the trilogy, this book would be almost impossible to read, as so much of this story is reliant on what has gone before. My advice would be to start at the very beginning and take the journey into the All Souls trilogy alongside Matthew and Diana. I'm sure you won’t be disappointed.





I read this book as part of the Love Reading.co.uk Reading Panel.

The paperback of The Book of Life will be available from all good book shops from the 9th April 2015.

Amazon UK


My thanks also to NetGalley and Headline for my digital copy of this book




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