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Darth J 's Reviews > The Book of Life
The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy, #3)
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by
4.25 stars
"It begins with A Discovery of Witches..."
Between the absinthe-green covers of this tome lies the final chapter of the All Souls Trilogy, where we find Diana and Matthew still on their search for the elusive Book of Life.
Bound in the blood, skin, and hair of daemons, witches, and vampires, the Book of Life is an allegorical alchemical text detailing the history of the three races (henceforth collectively known as the "Bright Born"). Also known as "Ashmole 782" (which sounds like a nightclub in Amsterdam, jussayin'), the Book of Life is much sought after by witches who believe it to be the first spell book.
With Matthew's blood rage and Diana's discovery of her being a special type of witch called a "weaver", they are able to (view spoiler).
Diana must also stand up to a council of other Bright Born and inform them of the poor decisions they've made throughout history, due to their collective and willful ignorance.
One thing I could say I didn't like about this series is that there are just way too many characters to keep track of. You'd think they'd all be important though, because there are so many of them, but it turns out that maybe only 10 or so you actually need to pay attention to.
Another thing is that not only is the text overcrowded with too many extraneous characters, but the attention to detail on the most minute things borders on gaudy. While it's great to set the scene and let the audience know how each of the (seemingly endless) vampire houses are decorated, the ostentatiousness of it all distracts from the flow of the story and could be cut down by about 100 pages over the course of the entire series.
While Deborah Harkness is quite a talented writer, I do need to point out that I thought that the villain's dialogue was strange. Yes, usually all bad guys have a long-winded speech that belies their narcissism, but Benjamin's lines were written almost as if the author passed off her manuscript and let someone else fill in for this part. It's bizarre how fast the tone changes from literary fiction to soap opera dialogue when he's on the page.
I could have also done without the religious bits. I mean, the witches are born this way, their powers are genetic... I just think it's really tired to have every other book about witches include some BS about goddesses. Maybe I just prefer magical beings to be secular like in Harry Potter, but throwing around paganism when the powers are biological seems incredibly cliché and so lazy for a writer who has clearly put so much effort and research into her books.
Overall, I liked this series. The first installment was fantastic, the second was bloated with info dumps, but this final act seemed to wrap it all up neatly with a bow.
"It begins with A Discovery of Witches..."
Between the absinthe-green covers of this tome lies the final chapter of the All Souls Trilogy, where we find Diana and Matthew still on their search for the elusive Book of Life.
Bound in the blood, skin, and hair of daemons, witches, and vampires, the Book of Life is an allegorical alchemical text detailing the history of the three races (henceforth collectively known as the "Bright Born"). Also known as "Ashmole 782" (which sounds like a nightclub in Amsterdam, jussayin'), the Book of Life is much sought after by witches who believe it to be the first spell book.
With Matthew's blood rage and Diana's discovery of her being a special type of witch called a "weaver", they are able to (view spoiler).
Diana must also stand up to a council of other Bright Born and inform them of the poor decisions they've made throughout history, due to their collective and willful ignorance.
One thing I could say I didn't like about this series is that there are just way too many characters to keep track of. You'd think they'd all be important though, because there are so many of them, but it turns out that maybe only 10 or so you actually need to pay attention to.
Another thing is that not only is the text overcrowded with too many extraneous characters, but the attention to detail on the most minute things borders on gaudy. While it's great to set the scene and let the audience know how each of the (seemingly endless) vampire houses are decorated, the ostentatiousness of it all distracts from the flow of the story and could be cut down by about 100 pages over the course of the entire series.
While Deborah Harkness is quite a talented writer, I do need to point out that I thought that the villain's dialogue was strange. Yes, usually all bad guys have a long-winded speech that belies their narcissism, but Benjamin's lines were written almost as if the author passed off her manuscript and let someone else fill in for this part. It's bizarre how fast the tone changes from literary fiction to soap opera dialogue when he's on the page.
I could have also done without the religious bits. I mean, the witches are born this way, their powers are genetic... I just think it's really tired to have every other book about witches include some BS about goddesses. Maybe I just prefer magical beings to be secular like in Harry Potter, but throwing around paganism when the powers are biological seems incredibly cliché and so lazy for a writer who has clearly put so much effort and research into her books.
Overall, I liked this series. The first installment was fantastic, the second was bloated with info dumps, but this final act seemed to wrap it all up neatly with a bow.
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Reading Progress
June 13, 2013
– Shelved
July 16, 2014
–
Started Reading
July 18, 2014
–
21.21%
"Guys, there's a magic tree in this that's just growing random things. I smell a plot device, but I'd still like a tree that can do this IRL.\n 
\n It reminds me of the omni plant in the sims."
page
119
\n It reminds me of the omni plant in the sims."
July 21, 2014
–
73.8%
"I had an AHS flashback when the house just magically started playing Rhiannon.\n 
"
page
414
"
July 22, 2014
–
76.29%
"So many superfluous characters to remember who is who and why they are overcrowding the story.\n 
"
page
428
"
"
July 23, 2014
–
Finished Reading
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by
Darth J
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rated it 4 stars
Sep 17, 2013 08:57AM
Please don't let this trilogy end badly. I've read too many disappointing final entries in series lately and I hope it doesn't happen with this one. :/
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I agree! Way too many bad endings. But I am pretty confident this one will be phenomenal.
I hope this one is good. The first was great, but the second was a bit dry and long-winded. I'm hoping that Shadow of Night was only dull in order to lower expectations about the third one (only to blow us away when we read it), kind of like how Empire Strikes Back was mostly boring to make Return of the Jedi seem like a great finale. Harkness is obviously a talented writer. I think she is one of the few lauded authors out there today who actually deserve all of their praise. The reader can tell that she takes her time to research in order to deliver a well thought-out product. I only wish that she knew how to move the story along at a good pace sometimes while also dropping those information bombs. She sets up the rest of the story, but it weighs down the plot at times.
With so many lackluster final installments to other series that have been released in the last few years, I am really hoping that she delivers a quality ending. If the third book is anything like the first, then it shouldn't be a problem.
