A Discovery of Witches

We have a trinity of legendary magical romances to unpack here.

Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches, Anne Rice's The Witching Hour, and Cassandra Clare's City of Bones.

These three works really represent the absolute titans of supernatural world building.

They really do.

Let's start with Harkness.

A Discovery of Witches centers on Diana Bishop.

Now she is a brilliant historian of science at Oxford University, but she is also a witch who aggressively rejects her magic.

She wants nothing to do with it.

Okay, to, to, to head us out, what are you reading right now?

I'm reading A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness right now because it's October.

Yes.

Um, and it had been recommended to me a couple of times.

I have so many.

I have A Discovery of Witches.

That's high on my list as well.

I'm going to pull only priority ones now.

Actively participating in this whole dismantling of her own work.

So we are diving deep into a really fascinating critical essay today titled What A Discovery of Witches Does Better Than the Books.

It's such a brilliant essay.

It really is.

Yeah, the raw materials.

Right.

For you listening, if you haven't devoured the books or binged the show, A Discovery of Witches is a very peculiar beast.

That's a good way to put it.

Absolutely.

Well, for any fantasy readers out here, I would compare it probably to Raven Boys, A Discovery of Witches, Where the Dark Stand Still, um, Gallant.

So it is a dark YA urban fantasy, and it follows, uh, Era Martel, um, who is the fated Girl of Darkness.

Now, she had closed the door to all the occult since her grandmother disappeared at a pagan stone circle 10 years earlier.

I love a good witchy story.

A Discovery of Witches is constantly something that I'm listening to on repeat.

But I am really...

When I say that I'm a mood reader, I think it's more in the sense that, like, I have to really feel like I can sink my teeth into the story.

Char-lay.

Anyway, this email is actually about the Sc- Discovery of Witches.

Oh, did you read that one?

I did.

It's fantasy, it's a, y- a, you know, a female character, and I don't have to wade through the pages," unless that's what I'm looking for, and then I choose something else.

My second choice was A Discovery of Witches.

This is an older series, so maybe-

Mm

... lots of people have read this.

But I did feel like the main character in A Discovery of Witches, it's a witch-vampire romance, and I would say it's a fantasy with a romance subplot, but it is a definitely, that's a pretty big piece of it.

Well-built world.

Got-