Witches and Daemons and Vampires, Oh My!: The Journey of 100 Books Continues

Having failed at choosing a satisfying Halloween read  with Something Wicked This Way Comes I am taking up another gauntlet.  The next book to read is The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness, book three (and final entry) in her All Souls Trilogy. With only a couple of days to go before Halloween and the thickness of this book I will probably finish it around Thanksgiving but so be it.

The first two books (read back to back prior to the Journey of 100 Books) were an entertaining romp.  Set in a world where there are four species of intelligent life (Vampires, Witches, Daemons, and Humans) (levels of intelligence ranking vary depending on character but all agree Humans are the lowest on the ladder) we have a reluctant witch in peril because she has seen a grimoire that is coveted by the entire witch population.  Now many believe that since she has seen it she must be in possession of it and they want it even if it means killing her to get it.  Her life now in peril she is finding protection in the company of a dashing vampire with an impeccable taste in wine and more degrees than a thermometer.  Of course they fall in love, get married, that whole bit (his mother is so unimpressed).  Peril increases with each turned page.  We time travel.  We cast spells.  We suck blood.  The daemons, who are basically creative geniuses, so far seem to be around just to keep everything interesting.  The humans just seem to get in the way and gum up the works.

When I left them all at the end of book two our heroine and her be-fanged husband/protector had just arrived back in the current century after having visited the court of Queen Elizabeth I.  (You just wouldn’t believe who Walter Raleigh and Christopher Marlowe really were.  I never would have guessed).  The whole witch/vampire/deamon world is after the grimoire too so those who aren’t for them are truly against them.  The humans?  They don’t even know something is going on. It’s a race against time, several times.  Who will win?  Will our heroine find the book before all the others?  And if she does will she be able to use it for good before others use it for evil?

I’ll let you know.

©2014 M. Romeo LaFlamme