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By jamie, November 7, 2011 7:17 am

The other day a student asked me for my opinion on the Harry Potter books. When I replied enthusiastically and positively, he looked dismayed and informed me that “those books are satanic and they teach kids about witchcraft.” I disagreed, of course, and asked him if he has read the series – of course he has not. That’s pretty typical, unfortunately – people form opinions about a book without actually reading it.

Have you ever avoided a book because you were pretty sure you would disapprove of the contents? I don’t like the horror genre (in books or films), so I steer clear of that section (even the covers sometimes give me the creeps!), with few exceptions. That’s just a matter of personal preference, though. I don’t like to put scary thoughts in my head. I don’t think these books should be banned, however.

Unlike the Harry Potter universe, where the characters celebrated Christmas, this book keeps “creatures” out of the Christian holidays. (I have read to page 224 – through Chapter 17.) Diana, the lead witch, is a pagan, and she establishes ancient rules prohibiting creatures from participating in human religion and politics. I think this choice makes more sense, but some readers might disapprove of the choice.

Fiction is a bit tricky for me to blog about because I don’t want to give away too much of the story, but I still want to talk to you about the books. I will say that so far we have learned about the discrimination between the different types of non-humans, and that Harkness folds this into the dialogue without taking it over the top. Also, in her universe, creatures live in the human realm (unlike in H.P. where they have their own cities). As such, they regularly interact with humans – presumably they can even marry humans, but not other creatures (?) – and spend their lives hiding in plain sight, known to one another by various supernatural means (for witches, they feel different physical sensations based on what creature is looking at them – vampire stares feel cold, etc.).

Our lead characters are in academia. [SPOILER ALERT] The vampire studies DNA in an attempt to discover why members of his kind appear to be headed for extinction (along with the other creatures). There was a bit of DNA talk in Twilight, but I found it ridiculous; Harkness does a far better job, and when I read the scene in the lab, I actually felt dismayed that I will likely have to wait a couple of years for this story to be resolved. I read more slowly when I am really enjoying a work of fiction – I don’t want it to end! – and I find myself doing that already with this book and I’m not even half way though. AND there are two more books planned. I also try to avoid starting a book series unless it is complete – Harry Potter was a rare exception.

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By jamie, November 5, 2011 2:02 pm

I always forget how entertaining it is to read fiction until I pick up a novel. This one is so much fun that I am tempted to spend the entire weekend reading. (It’s not going to happen – if I don’t get two exams written tonight, as well as tackle the seven loads of laundry in various stages of completion, I will be sorry. Dinner is in the crock pot, so I have at least one other accomplishment to speak of for today.) I read through Chapter 9, through page 109, and I am hooked.

Deborah Harkness is a history professor, and this is her first novel – it’s the first of a planned trilogy. Don’t worry – this is not a horror book. I’m not interested in those. The main character is a witch who does not want to be a witch – she is a highly esteemed professor and researcher, and wants her accomplishments to be based on her own merit, not her use of witchcraft. So far she has met a vampire who is at least 500 years old (he’s cute – hm, wonder where THAT part of the story is leading…), and she has found a mysterious ancient text that has been lost for an unknown amount of time and apparently only she can read it – well, this may or may not be true; we still don’t know much about the book, other than her discovery has attracted all sorts of “creatures” to her and she may be in danger.

As a dedicated Harry Potter fan, I find myself trying to decide whether this new one is appropriate for kids who grew up with Harry and his friends. Harkness’ book is not written for children, and so far I think some kids might get restless with how much slower this story is to Rowling’s – the witch in this book describes spending hours in the library conducting research, and much of the “adventure” so far takes place in the minds and memories of the main characters, but I find Harkness’ descriptions rich and entertaining.

I haven’t read too many vampire books. I tried with Anne Rice, but only lasted until the beginning of the fourth book. I know she is very well loved and respected as a writer, so I will just say that I am not a fan based on the little I have read of her work, and that you are free to disagree. I have also read the Twilight series (Team Jacob!), and I enjoyed it, but I can’t help but see it as disturbing in terms of the messages it sends to young girls. I always have at least one defensive student when I discuss these books in our unit on gender inequality. (Let’s face facts – however much he “sparkles,” Edward is a known predator who stalks a young girl, repeatedly sneaks into her home while she is sleeping, and later takes complete physical and psychological control over her. However guilty and conflicted he feels about it, he still does it, and he is surely old enough to know better. But somehow this is all acceptable because “it’s true love.” Oh dear.)

I enjoy reading how every author either builds on existing creature lore or tries to refute it (sunlight may or may not kill a vampire, they might have fangs or not, etc.) Are there any well written vampire books that do NOT give us at least a glimpse of the guilt vampires feel at being deadly predators/damned? Oh, and what about daemons? What are they in other books?

Anyway, Harkness’ book might be made into a movie too – the film rights are spoken for at least. Then I started trying to mentally cast the lead roles in my head. If you read this one, be sure and let me know who should play Diana and Matthew.