Darswords

Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After reading the first trio of the All Souls series, I was excited to find yet another two books. Sadly,
Saskia Maarleveld (Narrator) is no Jennifer Ikeda, who read the previous three books. Don’t get me wrong, Saskia did a fine job reading; I didn’t feel like she acted out the characters as well as Jennifer did. On the other hand, this book centers more on Marcus and his intended rather than Matthew and his wife, Diana. So the voices of our old friends don’t need to be the same.

What I liked about this book was all the time travel. Not instantaneous but through memories. Marcus has a lot of memories of the early colony days of America. Among the things he remembers is how he was made into a long-lived vampire. I do love his story. And you see what a person has to do as a ‘baby’ vampire as his fiancé has decided to become a baby to live as long as her mate. Deborah Harkness’s vampires seem different than other authors. I’m much more into the witches but that wasn’t the main subject this time.

What this series is best at is bringing in science and historical references. I think the author has researched these topics thoroughly. Yet I don’t feel her story suffers from factual diarrhea.

Since reading this book I looked for more of the series. I picked up The Jewel House thinking it was a part. I’m nearly finished reading it, and, sure enough, Ms. Harkness has done a lot of studying! But it wasn’t a part of the series. It is a stand-alone textbook of sorts. That review will come in a few days. Meanwhile, I found out she wrote book 5. I had to preorder it. I think it comes out after the 15th. I can’t wait!

I don’t want to discourage anyone from reading books 4 and 5. And if you like a little history of science, try ‘The Jewel House.’

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