Match BookThe Book of Life
Deborah Harkness
2014 · 564 pages · Fantasy
How it reads
The Book of Life is fantasy (historical fantasy, specifically), and its dominant mood is adventurous. It's driven by momentum, discovery and getting into trouble. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.
It's set in an international setting, in the historical past, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are love, power and politics and family. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.
It's a later book in a series — you'll usually want to start earlier. The ending resolves happily. At 564 pages it's a real commitment. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something adventurous
- you want a book that pulls you through
- you want to be sure it ends well
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or melancholy
- you want dense, lingering prose
- you want something you can finish this weekend
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- fantasy
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- international
- Setting: time
- historical
- Mood / feeling
- adventurous
- Pace
- fast paced
- Tone / weight
- balanced
- Length
- long
- Narrative style
- third person, several viewpoints
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- later in a series
- Themes
- love, power and politics, family
- Ending style
- resolved and happy
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
BoneshakerCherie PriestShares: fantasy, adventurous mood, balanced tone, fast paced
Red Seas Under Red SkiesScott LynchShares: fantasy, adventurous mood, balanced tone, fast paced
The Priory of the Orange TreeSamantha ShannonShares: fantasy, adventurous mood, balanced tone, fast paced
The City of BrassShannon A. ChakrabortyShares: fantasy, adventurous mood, balanced tone, fast paced
Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsJ.K. RowlingShares: fantasy, adventurous mood, balanced tone, fast paced- Mistborn: The Final EmpireBrandon SandersonShares: fantasy, adventurous mood, balanced tone, fast paced
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