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  • A Discovery of Witches

  • The All Souls Trilogy, Book 1
  • By: Deborah Harkness
  • Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
  • Length: 23 hrs and 59 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (4,772 ratings)
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A Discovery of Witches cover art

A Discovery of Witches

By: Deborah Harkness
Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
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Summary

Now a major Sky original production.

The number on international and Sunday Times best seller.

A Discovery of Witches is the first in the must-have, must-listen All Souls trilogy.

It begins with absence and desire. It begins with blood and fear. It begins with a discovery of witches.

Diana Bishop, a young scholar and descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she must navigate with a vampire, Matthew Clairmont.

This manuscript, Ashmole 782, holds the secrets of their past...and the key to their future.

©2011 Deborah Harkness (P)2011 Penguin Audio

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Critic reviews

"Rich, thrilling...captivating." (E. L. James)

"Intelligent and off-the-wall." (The Sunday Times)

"A bubbling cauldron of illicit desire." (Daily Mail)

What listeners say about A Discovery of Witches

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not a book for men really

Teen fiction sort of story. I'd put it half way between Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey (if Grey had actually been a vampire). Formulaic and predictable. Technically very well written and the performance by Jennifer Ikeda is exemplary. Were I to be frank though, the story seems to be a cynical exercise in filling the niche created by Twilight/FSoG etc. Candidly, I found some of the back-story concepts childish. Maybe they were meant to be and this is indeed a children's book. Perhaps I missed the "Ages 10 - 15" on the book description. If so, could audible put this in BIG RED LETTERS next to the title.

I listened to it in the car to and from work and it's fine for that. At 23 hours, it's good value for money but it's basically soap opera with witches and vampires.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Awful, hyped, terrible narration

I don’t get the hype with this book at all. The characters are not easy to like. The constant wine tasting made me roll my eyes. The historic references start to get ridiculous, and the science is beyond inaccurate. It’s supposed to be about magic but there’s no sense of magic to it. The narrator is awful too and her accents are dreadful. I really thought this was a terrible book.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

I really tried to like

The TV show brought this to my attention, so I thought I'd give it a go. The echo of the Twilight series is evident from the start. A strong willed women, unaware of her beauty and charms, a handsome vampire who hasn't really had his head turned until now. I found the story very slow, very cheesy and too many characters to care about. I found myself tutting constantly at how weak the main character was and how predictable it all was. I just couldn't stomach anymore after 6/7 hours, so gave up.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Call it a love story

It would be easier if it was called a 23 hour unabridged love story. Incredibly slow pace.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

interesting idea presented as a Bodice ripper.

This is a tale about a fantastic woman who is a fantastic academic and a fantastic athlete who is secretly a fantastic witch who meets a fantastic Vampire to uncover a fantastic secret. There the plot dies a quicker death than a Vampire in a tanning lounge. There are long descriptions of what clothes they wear, what food they eat, their cars and wonderful ( fantastic ) houses.
The plot is padded out with lengthy period of filler where little happens and the narrative is seemingly forgotten. The idea is good, but has been stretched like good dough and rolled out to cover a much greater time. The problem is that stretching dough makes it thin, and this is the filo pastry of stories. I gave up after 5 hours.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

disappointed

I was really disappointed. It was well rated so I hoped for something interesting, but it was not.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

a Mills and Boon type romance with added vampires.

far too much 'gazing into his cold grey eyes and not enough thrilling vampire action. poor stuff. And then it suddenly ended before the promised war of witches vampires and demons could get gping.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Another over powering controlling male lead

If you want to read yet another book about a weak minded pathetic women in need of a strong controlling male romantic lead to save her and order her about . Then this is the book for you.
It would be great if someone who write a book about a strong female lead unlike Diana who seems to either cry , have a panic attack or overly obsess about the male vampire lead.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Meh....

This was an okay listen. I enjoyed it but I find the world a fairly shallow puddle of imagination. There seems to be limitations to the reach of the characters within their world. The female lead is the perpetual damsel in distress and the whole concept isn’t exactly a win for feminism. If you like twilight I guess you can enjoy this if you don’t expect too much from it

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good start but disappointing ending

I read a hard copy of this book for the first two thirds of the book, which I mainly enjoyed. Some of the writing was lazy and made me cringe. When moved to the audio book I really didn't like the performance as I thought the speaker's voice was rather flat and irritating. The last part of the book back at Sarah's house got rather silly and I lost interest. However, a couple of others in my book group loved it and have devoured the two subsequent books.

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