So, a Discovery is the debut novel by an academic historian who specialises in the 17th Century which of course has a bearing on the direction the book takes and influences the number of really interesting references the book makes to historical characters and events. The book starts off in present day Oxford with the main character, a female academic, conducting literary research. In short order the story unravels – she finds a book with odd characteristics from which we find out she is indeed a ‘witch’ and from here the book starts to paint a picture of a world were humans are coexisting with Witches, Daemons and Vampires – not that they generally realise that, of course. This in itself is an interesting notion but the book goes further expanding upon the characteristics of these ‘creatures’ and paints a picture which goes somewhat against the traditional stereotype. The way that the author writes this coexistence isn’t too difficult to accept and I’m particularly taken by the concept that Daemons tend to work in the financial/political sphere, which may explain a few things!
The thrust of the story is the main characters efforts to wholly avoid using her given witches talents and live a normal life but slowly the use of magic becomes inevitable as she is drawn into a race between creatures vying to gain control of long lost manuscript which is believed to hold secrets – perhaps the secrets of their creation and destruction. This involves making a decision to stand with her own kind or choose to fall in with an unexpected ally – a vampire- which she does and unexpectedly a romance forms breaking eons old rules, leading to hostilities between creatures. As the story unfolds and follows her trials alongside the vampire and his family there are some superb historical references which add real substance to the book, and the use of geographical locations such as one in rural Auverge, in France, adds to the plausibility.
Perhaps the only yet most disappointing aspect of this book was the ending, it simply disappears and the reader has to wait for the next book. There is no real closure of many questions and as such there was a real sense of disappointment. That said, you know immediately how the next book will start and when (you need to read it) and in that sense I’m pretty much looking forward to seeing how the larger story unfolds but I still think the ending could have been handled much better.
Despite the ending I really enjoyed reading this book, which was quite an unusual type for me to try, and I shall be looking out for the sequel. If you’re happy to suspend disbelief this is a really enjoyable book, might appeal more to Rear Party but may appeal to a broader audience. 4 Mr tattie heeds from me.
A2_Matelot
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