By Lisa King | Sunday, August 17
In my life, Alchemy is a personal passion. It is one of the least understood of the Esoteric Arts, and its rich and sometimes arcane symbolism is simultaneously confusing and yet suddenly transparent to the serious Initiate. Carl Jung, a longtime scholar of the language of birds, as the Art is often called, describes the Great Work:
“Alchemy, as a nature philosophy of great consideration in the Middle Ages, throws a bridge to the past, the gnosis, and also to the future, the modern psychology of the unconscious. Only by discovering alchemy have I clearly understood that the Unconscious is a process and that ego’s rapports with the unconscious and his contents initiate an evolution, more precisely a real metamorphoses of the psyche.” -from Memories, Dreams, Reflections
A bridge to the past and also to the future, indeed. It is clear from the first book in the All Souls Trilogy, A Discovery of Witches, that Harkness is a historian well versed in the ways of The Emerald Tablet. She has been a scholar of history for 28 years, and she has worked as a librarian in many prestigious repositories of wisdom: Oxford’s Bodleian Library, the All Souls College Library at Oxford, the British Library, London’s Guildhall Library, the Henry E. Huntington Library, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Newberry Library. This archival expertise is reflected in her imagery. Her writing is peppered with detailed and carefully researched minutiae about magical texts, rare books, and leaders of the clandestine practices. The reader revels in lush descriptions of the everyday life of Harkness’ heroine, hereditary Witch Diana Bishop–an ivy league-educated ingenue–who tries to avoid the suspicious stares of students and humans blissfully unaware that they are living among Creatures: Vampires, Witches, and Daemons. However, these Vampires don’t sparkle, they are genetic research scientists with tenure at Oxford; her Witches do not toil or trouble, they are herbalists, elemental masters, and stewards of the community; and some of the most brilliant artists, writers, and thinkers of great civilizations are actually quick-witted yet dazzlingly unpredictable Daemons.
Carrying right through to the second book, Shadow of Night, her time-spinning thriller where the eccentric aristocracy of once-upon-a-time suddenly live and breathe, Harkness again lavishes us with attention to historical provenance. She commands key occultists in Elizabethan London such as John Dee and Edward Kelley to jump to life. Even Rudolf II, the King of Bohemia in 1570’s Prague and his passion for all things Alchemical are bright and alive, just like the multi-colored crackles emanating from her lead Witch’s fingertips. She gives more than a nod to period dress, art, and court customs, which revives an ancient universe populated by these special Creatures.
All three books revolve around the intense love story between the appropriately named huntress of the moon, Diana Bishop, and her Vampire Prince Charming, Matthew de Clermont. But this isn’t Twilight. This love story is mature, passionate, protective and fraught with tension, which comes to a powerful climax in the final book in the Trilogy, The Book of Life. Complicating the star-crossed Witch/Vampire romance, is the age old dilemma: Vampires live a long time. They tend to accumulate multiple castles and sprawling estates, insane amounts of money, expensive wine, bizarre culture, impossible skills, and illustrious friends over the decades. Tall, dark, and tragically handsome, Matthew and his unpredictable large family of Vampire royalty are no exception. With personal Picasso’s hanging in the den, Vermeer’s in the dining room, and a fleet of Land Rovers at the family’s disposal, the cultivation of secrets and grudges should hardly come as a surprise. The story of Diana and Matthew harbors many enemies and quite a few skeletons in the closet. We meet them all.
One of the many mysteries swirling around the entire Trilogy is Ashmole 782, a rare and bewitched text that holds the secrets to the origins of potentially diseased and disintegrating Creature DNA. Discovered by the scholarly magus Diana in the famous Bodleian library, this book is the key to decoding the secrets of the extraordinary Creatures’ past, present, and more importantly, their uncertain future. But Discovery has a price. Many will kill to get their hands on it.
Whether Diana is learning the wolf pack-like customs of Vampire Law, or battling fellow Witches who are jealous of her unique powers as she Individuates, we realize just how rare and special her abilities really are. While the Creatures’ unsavory rigid and political law keepers, The Congregation, almost bring us to our knees, The Book of Life is a page turning conclusion to a young adult-driven and romantically appealing Trilogy of magic. It would be as impossible to decipher as Ashmole 782 as a stand alone tome, so I highly recommend that you read Books 1 and 2, before taking on Book 3. Descriptive and decorative as any Illuminated page from a traditional Alchemical text, as plot twisting as a Harry Potter novel, and as romantic as a Twilight tale, I suggest you grab a candle and some potent herbal tea and settle in for a long adventure. Make sure that you don your best velveteen gothic robe and tuck in with The Book of Life before bedtime. You are sure to have surreal valerian-induced dreams and a subsequent bloody mary in the morning, after spending all night under the covers with the Vampires and Witches of Harkness’ vivid imagination.
- Series: The Book of Life, All Souls Trilogy (Book 3)
- Hardcover: 576 pages
- Publisher: Viking Adult (July 15, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0670025593
- ISBN-13: 978-0670025596
No Big Wheel Press & Publishing House 