>>> SPOILERS BELOW <<<
The novel, by US scholar Deborah Harkness, starts solidly. Readers are introduced to Diana Bishop, a young tenured Yale professor who also happens to be a witch who also happens to reject her magical heritage because of a traumatic childhood event. Diana inadvertently opens Ashmole 782, a mysterious, enchanted alchemical manuscript, which activates the Plot. The tall, dark, brooding Matthew Claremont, also a professor, also a vampire, wants that book! But witches don't trust vampires, and vice versa! WILL THE TWO OF THEM EVER OVERCOME THEIR DOUBTS AND DIFFERENCES AND FALL IN LOVE, AGAINST ALL ODDS?
Once the Love Interest comes into the picture, Diana is revealed to be a Mary Sue: a character who excels at everything. In A Discovery of Witches, Diana is an intellectual giant, athletic, and brave, so brave! Her only physical flaw--alas!--is an errant strand of hair that she simply cannot get under control! All the better for her vampire protector to, you guessed it, tuck it tenderly behind her ear! But Diana needs no protector! She is a fiercely independent woman, who got where she is with her amazing smarts and hard work and definitely not her magic! Which--double alas!--she cannot use properly*, possibly because it is an allegory for how hard it is for a woman to flex her mind muscles with all the insecure man-babies around! Only a vampire with multiple doctorates can possibly be her match!
(*Mocking aside, Diana can't use her magic because her mom saw the future, bound her against her own magic, and sacrificed herself and her husband so Diana could live. Grim stuff, but as a parent I can relate. Although my ghost would be all, i literally died for u, why u no appreciate me versus Rebecca Bishop's actively helpful apparition in a moment of crisis.)
And because Diana is all that, she earns the grudging admiration of all the non-villain characters she meets. Yes, even the dreaded vampire mother-in-law, the surly vampire brother-in-law, and the snooty vampire geneticist!
As for Matthew...I just can't with him. He's so big and strong and smart and sophisticated and devoted and so transparently a fantasy. He initially keeps away from our heroine because he has a past and anger issues but she's just so amazing that he comes to love her more than he's ever loved anyone in all his 1,500 years. He also refuses to boink Diana despite her multiple invitations. Rude!!! Also, c.f. Edward Cullen.
All griping aside, the world Harkness creates in A Discovery of Witches is a genuine joy. Essentially, there are four humanoid species: humans, witches, vampires, and daemons. Those last three are vividly described; for example, witches can cast spells and use magic (two different things!), vampires like research because of the long hours and isolation, and daemons tend to become famous/infamous because of their hyper-creativity. The non-humans try not to intermingle because it attracts unwanted attention, giving rise to taboos and bigoted ideas against the other species. But Ashmole 782, the spellbound book that Diana briefly reads, threatens to expose the (possibly common) origin(s) of all four species. Matthew's quest for the manuscript is revealed to be due to his desire to understand their beginnings, because his research in different fields all point to the eventual extinction of the non-humans. He thinks Ashmole 782 can help stop that.
Meanwhile, a group dedicated to keeping all the species apart is also keen to get the manuscript, and every single member so far has been unpleasant or downright evil. As villains go, the witches of that group have been fairly effective, with Satu the Finn being the standout for kidnapping and torture. While Diana and Matthew's adversaries appear to be stand-ins for the dangers of narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy, they also might represent ignorance? I don't know; I haven't read books two and three!
Which bring us to the best part of the novel: the mystery at the center. What does Ashmole 782 contain? Why are three pages cut out, and who did the cutting? What will the humans do to complicate the interspecies conflict, and how will it involve the daemon Nathaniel's apparently elite hacker skillz? Can Harkness write the time travel aspect in a way that makes sense? Can everyone get over Diana, or will my eyeballs roll right out of my head? I can't wait to find out!!!
On a final note, it's really fun to read about the history of science, and specifically alchemy, Diana's specialty. There are moments of wry humor throughout the book, e.g. Diana resisting the urge to type, "Book sighed" when she first opens Ashmole 782. Hopefully the other two books will have more of those, instead of the other characters fawning over the main character.
TL;DR: Twilight with graduate degrees and more money.
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This post brought to you by the New England Patriots' sixth Super Bowl win! :P
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