The All Souls Trilogy Boxed Set

I started with a truely delightful experience from the TV series "A Discovery of Witches" featuring Teresa Palmer and Matthew Goode. The second season aired recently. At that point, I felt I needed to read the triology upon which it's based. I must admit, the trilogy is amazing. Obviously the books include details that a series cannot possibly contain, but the story is told with additional details and visualizations that truly broaden the experience. The author has a style that is so colorful and rich that her narrative enhances your own enjoyment of the stories. I think her background as an historian feed this fantasy in a meaningful and charming way. The mix of real historical characters, some as "creatures", and fictional ones creates an interesting context for history and an alternative reality. It is REAL fun to have this new perspective. It reminds of the "what if" genre that poses a view that would not be expected, but conjures up a whole dimension of motivations and goals. This has been a great read for me, and as a fan of fantasy in general, I do not view it as a collage of stolen themes from other books. I don't believe a melange of scenes reminiscent of other stories is a downside since after all "Shakespeare invented them all anyway". IMHO, it is an extraordinary collection and enjoyable for fantasy fans and non-fantasy fans alike. My wife says its a bit saucier than the TV series, but that's ok. It works.

I watched the movie and had to have the books to fill in the blanks. They are great, well written. Easy to read. Really interesting story if you're into vampires, magic, etc.

I am a huge fan of books and films that touch on the fantastical world of magic and am also a huge history buff and love anything regarding Tudor/Elizabethan time. This is the perfect marriage of those genres plus so much more!!! This trilogy set in modern day Oxford centers around Dr. Diana Bishop-a highly respected Tenured Yale Professor in her 30s who specializes in Alchemy and History doing research at Oxford and Professor Matthew Clairmont- a Fellow of All Souls College at Oxford who studies biochemistry and evolution; a modern day Darwin. The difference is Diana is a witch and Matthew is a vampire in a world where creatures are hiding in plain sight. It is against the rules for otherworldly creatures to even interact; however these two meet when Matthew finds out that a witch has somehow found and opened a mysterious enchanted manuscript that has been missing for hundreds of years that Matthew has been obsessed with finding is Diana- a witch who does not use her powers and suppresses her witch life in an effort to be "normal". As Matthew tries to recover this manuscript from Diana which he believes to be the creature version of Darwins book Origin and can help explain creature origins he falls in love with her and they begin a forbidden romance that breaks the covenant. The covenant is an ancient agreement made over 1000 years ago by creatures (witches, vampires and demons) which forbides interspecies relationships, or creatures getting involved in politics or religion. The covenant has been enforced by The Congregation- a select group of 3 of each of the creatures. Having broken the covenant by falling in love and also having the congregation interested in obtaining the manuscript only Diana seems to be able to access; Diana and Matthew are now wanted outlaws and this is their story. It is a tdilogy that although involves vampires and witches is definitely made for adults only and touches on the topics of history, science, magic, alchemy, romance, witches, vampires, demons, family, honor, betrayal and more...you will read them all in a weekend and then re-read them until the TV series releases season 2 based on book 2 in January 2021!!! Highly recommended!!! You wont be able to put it down!!

Absolutely love this series. I reread it all the time. The writing is great, the characters are well developed, plot is interesting. Highly recommend!

Got into this under the influence of a friend who likes Outlander, and is amped on the show-- which is actually pretty good. The entire trilogy was on sale for Kindle at a *very* deep discount. I just finished Book 1, and while at times I get really engaged, the only things that separate this from your run-of-the-mill vampire fiction/'chick lit' is an emphasis on history and science, and a characterization of witches that is refreshingly low key. Also the characters are adults with jobs and lives, which is a nice change from loner, rebel teens and mouthy, grownup misfits. Otherwise this is typical for the genre: Centered on abusive relationships (mother/son, father/son, father/daughter, brother/brother, man/woman, etc.), the stakes are relatively low (for LOVE and the future of ALL SUPERHUMANITY!), the vampire mythos is tailored to fit the story (pretty people with anger management issues), the language gets florid and ridiculous at times (so. much. useless. minutiae), the worldbuilding is scattershot (if it's Thursday this must be France), the Romeo & Juliet of it all (avoidable dramz.), sex being verboten (denying women pleasure because G*D forbid), the existence of vampire sperm (what the hell even), etc. To be fair, that might be intentional as Harkness apparently wrote the trilogy as a 'thought experiment' to capitalize on the popularity of vampire fiction. Smart woman. Good stuff with minimal spoilers: --The history! The science! My favorite bits are where the couple gets nerdy about alchemy and history time travel. That's when I like them and want to learn more. --Harkness has a background in history, science, and the occult. She makes existing, documented things understandable and interesting. She does fun stuff with time travel. And history. Love a writer who sees historical figures about whom little is known and creates stories for and around them. That, my friends, is clever and I'm here for it. --Diana is a lot less grating than a lot of heroines in the genre: She runs and rows for reasons other than being in shape or keeping her girlish figure, she says 'no' when her boundaries are crossed, is relatable in her practicality and appreciation for truth and realness. She's likable for reasons other than her looks or that she's 'nice', and she is steadfast in her convictions. Even if those convictions are deeply annoying and rooted in a relationship based on oops I'm ranting again. Also, she's smart, which is cool. --Witches are more than ciphers in flowy skirts, reeking of patchouli. They haven't yet gone into the woods naked to dance around a campfire and I hold out hope that's not going to happen. --Sarah and Em are actual characters with feelings and stuff not token, quirky lesbians thrown in to tick off another trope box. They do have a difficult cat, though, and that's a little annoying. --THE HOUSE. I don't want to spoil you, but if you don't love the sentient house then not sure what your life is. It's a guilty pleasure, in other words. If you're expecting more than that then do yourself and the rest of us with genre fatigue a favor-- and I say this with zero malice-- please open your laptop and write better. Google 'NaNoWriMo', sign up, and start your outline now. Make vampires suck less (hah.). Four stars because I got all three books for less than $5 (!!!) and because Harkness is a genius. And I'm all in for a book with a female academic studying in England for some reason.

Cadeau aimé

Have read this trilogy a few times over the last few years and can never fail to get drawn into this marvellous scary world of witches and vampires with higher education thrown in for good measure. All previous reading of this series has been via Kindle but all 3 sets are now failing and I will not be getting replacements because newer units have terrible programming and weak batteries. But the “All Souls Trilogy” is excellent reading in any format. Marks are 10out of10 plus a gold star.

Llegaron a tiempo en perfectas condiciones Ya terminé de leer la trilogía, me encantó. Muy bien escritos. Buenas descripciones, excelentes personajes, buena historia

Os livros são de boa qualidade.

I really enjoyed reading this set, included explanations not able to be included in the TV series.