A Discovery of Witches

A Novel

De: Deborah Harkness

Narrado por: Jennifer Ikeda

Book one of the New York Times best-selling All Souls Series—"a wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry Potter and Twilight” (People).

Now “[a] hot show that’s like Twilight meets Outlander” (Thrillist) airing on AMC and BBC America, as well as streaming on Sundance Now and Shudder.

Deborah Harkness’s sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches, has brought her into the spotlight and galvanized fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont.

Harkness has created a universe to rival those of Anne Rice, Diana Gabaldon, and Elizabeth Kostova, and she adds a scholar's depth to this riveting tale of magic and suspense. The story continues in book two, Shadow of Night, book three, The Book of Life, and the fourth in the series, Time’s Convert.

©2011 Deborah Harkness (P)2011 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“A wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry Potter or Twilight.... An irresistible tale of wizardry, science and forbidden love.” (People)

“Romantic, erudite, and suspenseful.... Harkness attends to every scholarly and emotional detail with whimsy, sensuality, and humor.” (O, The Oprah Magazine)

“A thoroughly grown-up novel packed with gorgeous historical detail and a gutsy, brainy heroine to match.... Harkness writes with thrilling gusto about the magical world.” (Entertainment Weekly)

Got Lost In It

glad this is such a long book...I put it on and started cleaning house and oh my gosh I got so lost in it I forgot to stop and eat...most of Spring Cleaning done...great building of characters. A much more believable world than some of the books I have listened to lately...Hope she writes another...

Enjoyable, Promising, but Still Evolving.

Half way through Part One, I was spreading the news and encouraging friends to read. Half way through Part II, I was still enchanted enjoyed the trip to Matthew's home and meeting his mother was delightful. Have a problem buying into the parts of Diana not being able to use her powers to save herself from evil witches. But the Author did come up with a half way swallowable reason why her she could call her powers forward at times and after all it is fantasy. Got a bit boring in Part III, too many characters being merged together, Diana taking too much time to accept her powers and gain some backbone, then the dumb mistake of agreeing to unknown favors to save Matthew, and you think the ghost would have been more helpful. Found it enjoyable, narration was very GOOD, if I lost my spot in the reading, I did not mind re-hearing parts until I got back on track. The vampire Matthew was smart, protective and devoted all lovable and enticing characters, the heroine too was smart, brave and a bit native a good blend. Enjoyed the history lessons along with the story telling. The time travel story parts sound promising for the next book section, (but, I am a BIG fan of Diana Gabaldon's time travel series, and have to keep remembering not to judge the stories side by side, the same for the Twilight series, my ALL time favorite.) Looking forward to the next book, hope the narrator is still Jennifer Ikeda. Then after the second book, I will decide if the first book was worth enduring the boring sections in the first. Yes, a most promising series for readers who enjoy fantasy, love and a mature sex without all the red-face details.

twilight for grownups

I listened to this book for a 24 hour road trip and it was perfect. it kept me interested the whole time and I enjoyed the readers different distinct voices for each character. the story reminds me of something like twilight for grownups but overall I found the blend of history and fiction to be interesting. id like to continue the series but boy are those books long! I do need to know how this story plays out though.

Appears to be Beginning of a Great Story

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

The author did a great job keeping the flow of the story and keeping me interested all the way through.

What did you like best about this story?

The interesting world that Harkness created. There was no secret really about the witches, vampires and daemons. It was all out in the open from the beginning. The discovery is more interesting than the discovery of witches.

Any additional comments?

From my Goodreads Review: While I have seen this book around for years, I have always been intimidated by the shear size of it (over 500 pages). In recent years, I have learned that the longer books have the best payoff if you have the time to commit to them.
Deborah Harkness pulled me in right away by not taking the usual method of discovery for the reader to learn about witches, vampires and daemons. Right from the beginning there is interesting things being learned from an established woman as a witch from a very distinguished family. A drawback of reading a book of this size is that sometimes the author loses you in an part that is just not interesting. That did not happen to me while reading this book. Even going horseback riding in France with the protagonist Diana and Matthew was fun to read.
While the ending of this book is a cliffhanger, I look forward to the next book due to Harkness' well developed characters and interesting world that she has built. I want to know more about what happens to Diana as she struggles to learn her power and fight for her love of Matthew, but also about other vampires and daemons. This was a great way to start, what I think will be a great trilogy.

I definitely recommend this book. This is the first title from Deborah Harkness that I have read, but I liked her smooth style and atypical approach to what could otherwise have been cliché and boring. Side note: This was also a great book on Audible, which I listened to when I was not able to sit and read it. Narrated by Jennifer Ikeda, who is new to me, but did a great job. Her accents were great and tone was melodic.

Excellent Story

This was a good storyline, the narrator was excellent and I look forward to book 2

Good, Not Great.

I think this book was a smart take on a very trendy genre.

The narrator is great, she switches from one accent to another effortlessly and her cadence makes listening a pleasure. She is definitely one of my favs.

The premise of the story was great, and for the first 3/4 of the book I couldn't stop listening... but then I got a little bored with all the logistics. I'd still recommend this book, and I'm sure I'll make time for the sequel- it just wasn't a five-star listen.

In short- the writing was great, the narrator was marvelous, the story was just trying a little too hard.

very enjoyable

I am looking forward to next book with anticipation. Hopefully will be just as consuming and enjoyable to listen to.

Spectacular

Do I love Vampire stories? I didn’t think so, but Deb has me convinced I had been reading the wrong ones until now. I like witches, but I didn’t know how much I would love the world wound around demons, vampires, and witches in this way. It’s captivating to read, and I don’t know how else to describe this, but it feels like coming home. The way Deborah creates dialogue and descriptions feels so natural. I appreciate the historical, scientific, and medical details and I wish all authors required such accuracy and perspective. Well done and a huge bravo on your first novel ever, I wouldn’t have ever guessed you weren’t a huge fiction writer before this!

Takes a bit…

Story dragged for the begining third but once the characters were more fully developed I found it to be much more enjoyable. I’m glad I stuck it out.

Amazing 9 or 10 time Through

This book grabs your interest right away and never let's go. Amazing. Author is awesome