A review of reviews of books 1 and 2 of the All Souls Trilogy (Deborah Harkness)

I have been wanting to blog about the first two books of Harkness' All Souls Trilogy for some time now, but I got distracted doing uni paperwork, family visits and things, so now I am not really sure if I could remember enough to structure a whole blog post of original content...
SOLUTION! I am reading reviews on each of the books and am going to comment on points which i strongly agree/disagree with.

Book 1
Jenny Turner for The Guardian (February 2011)
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/12/discovery-witches-deborah-harkness-review

"As will be obvious by now, this is a very silly novel. Characters and relationships are stereotyped. The historical background is a total pudding. The prose is terrible. And yet, the ideas have just enough suction, somehow, to present an undemanding reader with some nice frissons."

Obviously, as a large fan of these books someone saying that it is a very silly novel was a little hurtful. I am not sure what she means about characters and relationships being sterotyped, however it does bring me to the twilight-esque nature of the relationship between the main characters... Matthew is very protective over Diana much like Edward is over Bella. In Harkness' books however she does give a valid reason for his protectiveness (given after a large section of the story, but better than none at all). I also like the Diana seems a lot less helpless than Bella does.
I'm not sure about the historical background as I do not claim to be an expert on that time period, but I think what Turner has failed to understand is that what makes historical fiction so great is the ability to take real events and personalities and mold them to fit your story so that it feels like it really happened that way. I don't think the point of a historical novel is to be 100% accurate...

I liked, for example, the way Diana tries to sublimate her magic powers in running and rowing and doing yoga

Also a big fan of this, it seems to be something not really addressed in other books with magic in (that I've read anyway). Many talk about the dangers of using too much magic, but none talk about how to deal with excess magic which remains in your system. This was really great to see.

But think about it: a history professor dropping scholarly research for toshy fantasy. Some actions really do speak louder than words.

This is just a bit harsh really! I think Harkness is just trying to combine two things she really loves...

Book 2
Sherryl Connelly for New York Daily News (July 2012)
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/book-review-shadow-night-deborah-harkness-article-1.1103095

"“Shadow of Night” is such rich, period fun, particularly delightful in its witty characterization of historical immortals. William Shakespeare, for instance, trails “Kit” Marlowe begging for ideas while making his living as a forger."

I've got to say that I really did love the historical element of the second novel. And getting someone's take on the characterisation and behaviours of historical individuals was really fun.


Margot Adler for NPR Books
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/10/155358905/witches-sequel-casts-a-complex-spell 

The book is too complex at times, with so many characters, although anyone with a huge interest in Shakespearean England will find a host of fascinating details and descriptions.

I did find it a little complex at times, but it wasn't to such an extreme extent that it disrupted from the flow of reading. It really did feel like I had been plunged into Elizabethan England with the pair of them!