Diana Bishop was born a witch, but she refused to practice or even use her innate abilities. She pursued a human career as a historian. One day, she studied an ancient manuscript and, unintentionally, unlocked its magical secret. That triggered a series of brutal pursuits and also, gradually, revealed the truth behind her parents’ violent and tragic deaths.
The world has 3 creatures — witches, daemons, and vampires — that live among humans. These creatures established a covenant to avoid being noticed by humans, lest being persecuted to extinction. The manuscript that Diana discovered may reveal the greatest secret of all: the origins of those creatures and how would they survive. But if fallen to the wrong hands, it may also become the ultimate weapon for one type of creature to control others.
Deborah Harkness pushed the envelope of genres. On the surface, this is a standard fantasy. It gradually turned into a love story, then family, then maturation, and lastly, an epic battle. She intertwined all those plots and sub-plots with ease. At the same time, managed to depict the characters vividly, adding depths and layers to the heroine protagonist, and her surrounding characters, as the story evolves. Interesting that there was really no antagonist, or villain, in this book. Peter Knox and Satu both had only minor roles and appeared only briefly. This is really about Diana Bishop’s struggle with herself: thus a maturation genre.
This first book of the trilogy ended with a journey to the unknown. Deborah did not even try to make this book whole by itself.
And that’s my biggest nit to pick. There is a difference between sequels and one story broken down into several books. Each of the sequels should be independent, that they can be read by themselves. Otherwise the author should have finished the whole story before publishing the first one. If I proceed to read book two, I would need to wait for the third book. And I knew that will be an agony.
Guess I should pace myself.
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