REVIEW: Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #2) by Deborah Harkness

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My Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Shadow of Night, the second book in the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness, picks up right where A Discovery of Witches left off. Having just timewalked back to 1590, Diana and Matthew find themselves back in Elizabethan London surrounded by Matthew's friends, the mysterious coterie known as the School of Night. Diana is quite impressed to find Sir Walter Raleigh, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Harriot, and Henry Percy among those residing at Matthew's house, The Old Lodge in Woodstock.

Among this wily group of artists, astronomers, and spies, Diana and Matthew confide their secrets, and the goals they hope to accomplish while there—find out more about the mysterious manuscript Ashmole 782, as well as locate a witch tutor who can help Diana master her magic. But of course, all does not go according to plan, especially since they've landed themselves just outside of Scotland where the witch hunt is in full swing. The pair also doesn't even know for sure if the mysterious manuscript exists yet so they're left to just search blindly. All the while, they do their best to preserve history and not leave too much of a mark; for overstepping too much in the past can cause a great many changes in the future yet to come.

This book was quite good, though not necessarily quite as good as the first in the series. I loved meeting all the famous historical characters and getting to know their personality and quirks. The author does such a good job at bringing these characters to life, including the famous historical ones, that it felt as if they were my own friends I was cavorting with. Due to the breadth of new faces introduced, the list of characters at the end of the book was a welcome relief to help me keep track of who's who. I must also admit that the companion reading guide, The All Souls Real-time Reading Companion (free for Amazon Kindle), came in quite handy here as well, as did Wikipedia which is just a long press away on my Kindle. :)

Overall, this was a worthy second and a great follow-up to A Discovery of Witches, one that left me breathless to discover how it all wraps up in the last and final book, The Book of Life, which I plan to start reading right away.