Long time no… yeah, whatever. Thing is: I read a book! I wanna talk about it! And where, if not here? „Talk“ might be a bit of a strech. „Make fun of it, because otherwise I will fly into an all-consuming rage“ is probably more accurat. Dear notblawg, this one´s for you.
The book´s name is „A Discovery of Witches“ by Deborah Harkness, it´s been around since 2011 and there´s a television series of it. I´ve not seen the latter, and I don´t plan to, for reasons that will become obvious later. The book found it´s way to my Kindle because I was following some Twitter Tips for books with vampires in it. My bad.
And in the great tradition of some truly amazing recaps of „50 Shades of Grey“ (seriously, go and read them, they are great. Also, they are relevant to this book, because, spoiler: both are „Twilight“ fanfiction.) I will try and go for it chapter by chapter.
We start in… a library. Not any library, Oxford´s Bodleian Library. Our protagonist, Dr Diana Bishop, is there for research on seventeenth-century-alchemism. One of the books she calls is giving her some kind of electrical shock, and she feels its magic calling to her. Literal magic, because she is a witch. But, due to the tragic death of her parents (also witches), she has supressed her powers and devoted her life to the most rational subject she could think of, the history of science. Here starts one of the book´s themes: Diana is the best. The bestest. Even as a child, she reminisces, she had a „precocious“ intellect, talked and read long before her peers, and a „prodigious, photographic memory“. So, she goes for academic pursuit instead of magical training, but magic leaks into her life. Diana tries her hand at acting? Magic will transform her and the rest of the cast. So, she goes for athletics and more science. She settles on history of alchemism, to prove that it was really scientific, only with a lot of weird metaphors. And while she sits there, thinking about her academic career, a second theme of the book arrises: Plot is bad. We have a witch, supressing her talents, sitting before a mysterious and challenging book, and what happens? We learn about her past. A lot. I don´t mind books that start slow, and I didn´t mind it instantly, but this will become an issue later.
(Let me digress a bit to talk about Tolkien: Lord of the Rings starts also quite boring, but then, plot and tension start to creep in. All this talk about the Shire and Hobbits, and then – mysterious ring! More talk about hobbits. Parties. Mysterious, ring-related vanishing! Ah, maybe still nothing. Back to hobbit business. Then. Worried sorcerer! Maybe pack your things, just in case. Oh, Frodo, you have to leave home. Go for a hike. Followed by deathly ringwraiths! Run for your life! And those are just the first chapters. Digressing finished.)
Back tho the Bodleian. Diana tries descringing the book with professional detachment, the book sighs. She tries to ignore it, but is in constant conflict. Use magic? Return the book? Touch the illustrations, that are weird even for an alchemical book? But she can´t use what she might learn that way in academic discourse. Words are shimmering and moving across its sides, so she… returns it. And that´s chapter one. Bear with me, next chapter we will meet the book´s Edward, or HVWAACI (Hot vampire with anger and control issues).
Kunst, Juristerei und Zombies 