Praise for The Black Bird Oracle
“The Black Bird Oracle was well worth the wait: Not only does it reunite us with the powerful love story of Diana and Matthew, it deftly explores the nexus of memory, history, and parenthood—the magic, pain, and promises mothers pass onto their children. Harkness’s lush prose makes a fantastical world real enough to touch; her characters are so real they feel like family.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult
“Haunting in every way. This is a story thick with family secrets, human heartache, and the kind of deep magic only Harkness can conjure. You will be enchanted.”—Leigh Bardugo, bestselling author of The Familiar
Praise for Deborah Harkness and the All Souls series
“Packed with gorgeous historical detail and a gutsy, brainy heroine to match . . . [Deborah] Harkness writes with thrilling gusto about the magical world.”—Entertainment Weekly
“A scintillating paranormal story . . . Discover why everyone’s talking about this magical book.”—USA Today
“Romantic, erudite, and suspenseful . . . Harkness attends to every scholarly and emotional detail with whimsy, sensuality, and humor.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“A wonderfully imaginative grown-up fantasy with all the magic of Harry Potter or Twilight . . . An irresistible tale of wizardry, science, and forbidden love.”—People
“Harkness has immersed and spellbound readers with her alternative universe. . . . Her ambitious melding of scientific and historical detail is inventive and brings surprising depth. . . . Brims with sensuality, intrigue, violence, and much-welcome humor.”—Los Angeles Times
“The charm in Deborah Harkness’s wildly successful All Souls trilogy lies not merely in the spells that its creature characters cast as they lurk pretty much in plain sight of humans, but in the adroit way Harkness has insinuated her world of demons, witches, and vampires into ours. . . . Harkness casts her own indelible spell of enchantment, heartbreak, and resilience. . . . She is terrific at bringing her magic world to life.”—The Boston Globe
“A tale of life-ever-after, romance, and family drama, and it is gloriously entertaining.”—Bustle
“Harkness works her own form of literary alchemy by deftly blending fantasy, romance, history, and horror into one completely bewitching book.”—Chicago Tribune
The Black Bird Oracle (All Souls Series #5)
Narrated by Jennifer Ikeda
Deborah HarknessUnabridged
The Black Bird Oracle (All Souls Series #5)
Narrated by Jennifer Ikeda
Deborah HarknessUnabridged
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Overview
The path from A Discovery of Witches to The Black Bird Oracle has been a long, twisted, and delightful one. Prepare to discover even more layers to the world of magic and dark academia we already love.
“The Black Bird Oracle deftly explores the nexus of memory, history, and parenthood-the magic, pain, and promises mothers pass onto their children.”-Jodi Picoult
Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, an Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clermont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two otherworldly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, traveled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana's family line.
Now, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family's future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply reads: It's time you came home, Diana.
On the hallowed ground of Ravenswood, the Proctor family home, and under the tutelage of Gwyneth, a talented witch grounded in higher magic, a new era begins for Diana: a confrontation with her family's dark past and a reckoning for her own desire for even greater power-if she can let go, finally, of her fear of wielding it.
In this stunning new novel, grand in scope, Deborah Harkness deepens the beloved world of All Souls with powerful new magic and long-hidden secrets, and the path Diana finds at Ravenswood leads to the most consequential moments yet in this cherished series.
Editorial Reviews
★ 06/01/2024
Harkness returns after a six-year hiatus in her "All Souls" series, whose most recent outing was 2018's Time's Convert. She picks up the story as witch and professor Diana Bishop is wrapping up the spring semester at Yale. She and her family—her vampire husband (knight/geneticist Matthew) and their twin Bright Born children—are preparing to head to Oxford. When an unkindness of ravens descends, carrying a magical ring and a message, their plans change. It's time for Diana to meet her father's side of the family, under the leadership of Gwyneth Proctor, an extraordinary witch of great knowledge. The visit carries with it promise and peril, as it pulls Diana into another stream of magic and a new realm of danger—a risk to both her and her children. Harkness balances the novel's threats with deep joy, filling the book with new characters (many of them ghosts), the power of nature, and the connection of family. Affirming Harkness's skill as a storyteller, the 464 pages unfold at a delightful speed, constantly moving the plot forward but also offering a lovely lull that creates a sensory experience; readers will get lost in the novel's details—magic camp flags, the mysterious Ravens' Wood, variously flavored teas, and the history of the Salem witch trials. Harkness is equally good at characterization. She puts a large cast in play while also reaching across the series and wonderfully blending new characters into a family that spans centuries, secrets, and expertises. VERDICT Marked by Harkness's deft evocations and appreciation of learning, this is a book to treasure. The portentous ending, rife with new story threads and threats, will leave readers hoping that she doesn't wait another six years to continue the series.—Neal Wyatt
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940160644608 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 07/16/2024 |
| Series: | All Souls Series , #5 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 362,808 |