In her thrilling second installment in the All Souls Trilogy, Deborah Harkness is back with Shadow of Night. The novel takes place immediately where Discovery of Witches left off, with Diana and Matthew successfully traveling back through time to 1590 so that Diana may better access her powers and together they can find the elusive manuscript, Ashmole 782. Harkness does a wonderful job of not overly rehashing the events of the previous novel. Oftentimes, authors will spend endless pages discussing the previous novel’s events, and readers can become very bored. Instead, Harkness throws her characters into action and the beautiful scenery of 1590 England.
Immediately upon traveling through time, however, Diana’s magic begins to act up and draws unwanted attention to both her and Matthew. Quickly realizing that this trip into the past will not be as smooth as they naively thought, Diana and Matthew must work together to confront heartbreakingly tragic situations and danger that is constantly following them.
It is very clear that Harkness is an accomplished scholar and takes pride in her knowledge of history, art and especially wine. Within the first few pages readers are introduced to Christopher Marlowe, Galileo, William Shakespeare, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Harkness makes these characters extremely believable, and while it is a story about witches and vampires, they blend perfectly into the story. This series is unlike the popular vampire fiction that is flooding the publishing world today. The characters’ supernatural talents (except for Diana the witch) really take a backseat to the relationships and obstacles that they must overcome. Harkness develops her characters to an extent that the readers want them to succeed and care about their outcomes. Avid history lovers will appreciate the time and detail that Harkness goes into describing the Elizabethan era and how truthful Harkness is to this time period.
It was an absolute wonderful read and I will be recommending this series to everyone I know. If you have not read Discovery of Witches, first, make sure to do so! While the books are a bit long they are worth it simply for the ride the author takes you on!
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