A review on angel-based novels.

It was incredibly hard to come up with a pithy title for this blog post. I think most people will agree that I have not succeeded :( In general, most angel books seemed to have become completely disassociated from Christianity or any religion at all, which while not necessarily bad does result in a lot of the books feeling like they're missing something. The advantage of writing about angels is that there's a lot people know about them already. An author can use their exisiting knowledge to construct an angel-filled world which is both relateable and different. Sadly a lot of authors have instead used their creative power to create an entity known as the kinky angel, which makes about as much sense as a vegetarian vampire. Anyway...

Angel-based novels: The greats and the atrocious

Awesome!

Sharon Shinn: Archangel series: I cannot stress enough how great this series is. It starts in a world which is colonised by people escaping the destruction of earth, and on the way genetically modify angels to watch over everyone and to keep the peace. As a means of doing this, one angel is appointed as Archangel for 20 years; furthermore, in order to prevent any possible apartheid between angels and humans, all angels must marry humans-any union between two angels would result in monster children. The world is divided into 3 angelic holds and the ethnic groups are the Edori, the Jansai, the Mandivvi, Luxor, and angels. Their God, known as Jehovah, watches over all of them, and makes sure humans have desirable mates through “the kiss”, which lights up when people meet their soul mate-or perfect genetic mate. However, fast forward 200 years, and the latest archangel is corrupt, and has permitted the mass enslaving of the Edori by the Jansai and the merchant classes, and the next candidate to become Archangel manages to be both anti-social while being socially conscious. His tenure will begin in 6 months time when he’ll lead the Gloria (a ceremony to let Jehovah know that their world is at peace in order to prevent him taking action against them)-and he’s yet to discover who his wife will be. The world Sharon Shinn has built is believable, the plotline is consistent, and the character’s are vividly drawn and appealing to read about. I would recommend this book to anyone. However, I have not enjoyed the four books which have followed. They’re better than average, but think this book was fine on its own.

Angels Unlimited: I’m aware that these books are sort of aimed at an age group where 13 is thought to be ancient…I may have been given the recommendation to read this book by a 7 year old who told me that the coolest girl in the class was reading them. And I may have been 15 at the time, overhearing this conversation between the 7 year old and her mother… Anyway, moving rapidly on. This series starts when Melanie gets run down by a joy rider on her 13^th birthday. She then rapidly ascends to Heaven to discover that Heaven is an awesome city by the sea where everyone comes from different time zones and can all effortlessly speak all languages. Sounds awesome J But she also finds out that angels are locked in an eternal battle against the powers of darkness (also known as PODs). Each book is about her being on a mission to save the world, one individual at a time. The books send her all through time, from 1920s America, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome, Feudal Japan, Victorian England, colonial West Indies, as well as the 22^nd century and her own time, where she gets to see the impact of her death on her friends…This series is very enjoyable, her best friends Lola and Reuben are great and keep her out of trouble, and her arch-nemesis who sort of becomes her friend, Brice, is very funny, with a great back story.

Not so great:

Eternal-Cynthia Leigh Smith: A book about a guardian angel who’s also in love with his ward. As such, when it’s time for her life to end, he intervenes. With the result that her destiny changes and she winds up being a vampire. Not the best night out. As punishment, he gets stripped of his post, and she gets whisked away to learn how the ways of being a vampire. Miranda, his ward is a pretty shallow vampire, and there aren’t any memorable characters from this book; so really, the less said the better.

Blue Blood Series-Melissa De La Cruz: These are hard to categorise because on the one hand they’re vampire novels, but on the other hand her premise is that vampires are actually fallen angels and as such are gorgeous and twisted (I blame Twilight for this…lame). The series is centred around a girl called Schuyler Van Alen and her school which is essentially a school for vampires and rich normals. The clichés pile up when you realise that the lives of these supposedly eternal beings revolve around designer clothes and holidays. Drinking blood and the many murders that happen in this series are overshadowed, by descriptions of clothes and parties, since those things are a bit of a downer to a socialite. Blue Blood was a promising start to the series, but it went rapidly down hill, in Masquerade, Revelations, and the Van Alen Legacy. I get the feeling that the author was commissioned to write more books for the series, and used spread the existing plot line more thinly against more books. A severe criticism would be the ridiculous cliff hanger between Masquerade and Revelations which was one of the most annoying ever. Although if that doesn’t put you off the constant incest might.  

Atrocious category:

Angel’s Guild-Nalini Singh: her main fault is that she got the balance wrong. In an ideal paranormal novel, I feel a balance of 80% plot and 20% sexual promise or actual sex scenes is good. However, this series clearly decided to go another way. In a world where angels rule and vampires exist to serve them the main character, Elena has had a traumatic childhood and has now become a guild hunter. I describe in this way because both these facts are mention every 10 seconds or so. Not much happens in this book except for Elena meeting the archangel of New York, Raphael who decides he wants her immediately. He then goes temporarily crazy, so she has to shoot him. Thankfully, this does not discourage them from hooking up and doing the “classic thing” of letting sex do their talking for them. As an afterthought there is a plotline about the doings of other archangels and one of them wants to raise the dead… but this surprisingly only features in the last 30 pages of the book. There are some interesting things about this book, but it felt disappointing to have the heroine vacillate between fear and lust, with no emotional payoff or plot development.