Time’s Convert, by Deborah Harkness

The runaway success of the author’s All Souls trilogy has made her unable to resist returning to that elaborately constructed world. This is great news for fans if she has another story to tell; unfortunately this novel appears to be a case of great characters in search of a story. It is fun to see how Diana and Matthew are coping as their Bright Born twins develop their magical powers as toddlers. It is interesting to discover Marcus’s first life in revolutionary America and his difficult vampire childhood and adolescence in the French Revolution. And it is fascinating to be taken through the stages of vampire rebirth with Phoebe’s transition in preparation for her marriage to Marcus. But the novel lacks an overall narrative drive equal to the search for the Book of Life in the first three books. Most attention is paid to Marcus and while his story is interesting it lacks a certain tension because we know he comes out ok in the end. Some anomalous details are irritating – Phoebe’s fuzzy memory is said to be common and will prevent her returning to her profession, but this vampire characteristic has apparently been no impediment to Matthew, Marcus and Miriam becoming doctors and researchers. The peripheral role of witches and daemons in this vampire story may indicate there are more novels to come that will focus on these aspects of the world. If so it is to be hoped that they constitute more than filling in the back stories left over from the trilogy.