Are you really at all surprised that so soon after watching the first two season of A Discovery of Witches that I would start reading the books? It really should come as no shock. Seeing as I burn through shows and movies as quick as I can, I figure if I like something enough I want to read the book before too many details escape my memory. That’s why as soon as I saw it was available I went to the closest library to rent the first book in Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Trilogy, A Discovery of Witches.
A series definitely was the best option to suit the details of this book, though naturally some things are harder to adapt to the screen then they are to the page. Overall though, I felt like a lot of the specifics of the book were captured in the show. One big difference that perhaps benefited the series was that it did not tell the story from Diana’s perspective as the book does. I liked this creative shift as it allowed us all to see more of what happened outside of Diana’s immediate thoughts and vicinity. In the book, Diana leads us much through the same path as the series, which starts with her calling up Ashmole 782. After she successfully gets the book, she gets spooked and promptly returns it. The next day she is introduced to a much more sinister environment at the library, but all the same is confronted by Matthew.
I think a lot more time was spent at Oxford, and Matthew spent a lot of time protecting Diana it felt like. Perhaps the only major difference here was that the two attended a creature-filled yoga class several times. I could see where this makes sense in the book and not in the show. I think they are trying to hammer home that the species almost never intermingle if they can help it. Once they determine Diana’s life is in serious danger from Peter Knox, they do travel to Sept-Tours, where the events on the page played out almost word for word in the show. Diana also gets taken and tortured by Satu, and then eventually they all make their way to Sarah and Em’s house before timewalking.
All the major components were there, and I can certainly understand some of the limited character interactions, given that they were all from Diana’s perspective. Although, there were maybe three chapters that were told more as a third party viewing Matthew, so I’m not quite sure why there couldn’t have been alternating perspectives, or even just told from the third person anyways. Regardless, perhaps my biggest issue with the book were the personalities. Matthew came across as much more possessive than in the series, but also a lot more standoffish. Not that his character in the show didn’t have his moments, but he just seemed slightly more unlikeable through this read. Also, I realize that while this book is science fiction and a fantasy, it is also primarily a romance, which means Diana is a little bit unbearable at times. It’s like once she fell in love with Matthew she sort of became less intellectually aware of things and outright ridiculous about other things. I even found myself noticing that something historical would get peppered into her dialogue every once in awhile just to make it seem like she was still scholarly. At least she came across less desperate in the show.
Overall though, this was a fun read and it was enjoyable to experience the story all over again! I look forward to getting my hands on the second novel, but I’ll have to decide if it’s worth reading the third novel before the final season airs. I’ve done myself dirty in the past by reading before watching!