"The Book of Life" by Deborah Harkness

This is a concluding novel in a trilogy. As with any book, whether it be a standalone or part of a series, I avoid any major spoilers. However, that doesn’t mean that there are absolutely zero spoilers. You have been warned!

The Book of Life (July 14, 2014) by Deborah Harkness.

Elizabethan London is truly back in the past now that Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont have returned to the present. They are surrounded again by their loved ones – with one glaringly significant exception – and are ready to track down the last missing pages of Ashmole 782, an enchanted alchemical manuscript. Their quest becomes urgent as a grave threat surfaces. This significant threat and Matthew go way back. His love of torturing is as strong as his abhorrence of the de Clermonts. Along with their painful deaths, he has obsessive plans for a super race and power over all. The disturbing question is: Just how does he plan to create such a race?

            The answer to that, amongst many others, is believed to be in the Book of Life (Ashmole 782). The witches believe that the book is a lost book of spells. Vampires believe that it is their lost history. (Daemons, apparently, are neutral.) The last time Diana saw it, it was in the Bodleian Library. If she calls it again, will it answer her? But what use will it be unless she can find the missing pages?

            There’s a significant change going on in the lives of Diana and Matthew that requires much adaptation. It’s not a bad change, but that doesn’t mean it’s without trepidation and plenty of questions without answers. That is all on top of the witchy skills Diana opened up whilst she was centuries back and to which she continues to get used to.

            There were two years between “Shadow of Night” and “The Book of Life.” Admittedly, I had to brush away some cobwebs in my mind in order to remember story details -- not the plot or any main points, but occasional supporting characters and locations and the like. And, while still full of history, it wasn’t overwhelming like all of the historical details of the second installment.

            This concluding, adult fiction novel is full of action, danger, a certain amount of mystery and plenty of intrigue. There is romance, blood rage, love, a firedrake, hatred, Sept-Tours, defeat, an orobouros and hope. There is a surplus of magic, full of color and even more complicated workings. History is woven into the story – it cannot be helped; after all, the author is a history professor – but so is strong emotion (both good and bad) and plenty of traveling (here, there, abroad and back again). I think what really upped my satisfaction with the story was the presence of humor, as compared to the other two novels. For example, I laughed aloud at Gallowglass crooning a sea chantey, because between each verse were lines such as, “What are you thinking, flying around the house like a demented parakeet?” Much soul is involved in this book, as evidenced by the strong characters – both main and supporting – that Harkness created. Overall, she has fashioned a masterful weaving with varied, colorful threads making up the fascinating, larger picture that is this trilogy.

            Book One in the All Souls Trilogy: A Discovery of Witches

            Book Two in the All Souls Trilogy: Shadow of Night