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Book Review of Susan Ee’s Angelfall

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Angelfall

I picked up a copy go Susan Ee‘s YA novel, Angelfall from the KDP free list.

Description from Goodreads:
It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco where she’ll risk everything to rescue her sister and he’ll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

Review:
I thought that this was a pretty good read. There were some really great parts. Such as the paranoid schizophrenic mother who forced her daughter to take numerous self-defence classes, in case the daughter should ever need to defend herself from HER. That does something moving to my insides. I also liked Penryn and Raffie, as well as Obi and his crew.

I did occasionally wonder where all the normal people were. I mean there had to be a few non-homicidal or non-victimised people out there. There just had to be. But Penryn only seemed to meet up with potential murders or completely broken people. That didn’t feel particularly realistic to me. Sure there’d obviously be some, even a lot, but EVERYONE?

That’s a small quibble though. I only have two real complaints. One is that the whole thing had a bit of a ‘we did this, then I did this, and then this happened’ feel to it. This is often hard to avoid with any first person, present tense narrative, but I REALLY felt it here. What’s more, it felt very much like we were JUST getting an accounting of what Penryn was doing, without feeling like it was also leading up to anything. It felt like it just so happened that this minute to minute accounting of her life occurred in the midst of a post-apocalyptic dystopian future, as opposed to this future angelic war zone and her contributions to it being pivotal to it in any way. Interesting, but unimportant to the whole. I’m not saying that was the case, just that it felt that way.

The second is that the question of WHY is never addressed. It’s a bit like reading a novel set during D-Day without anyone knowing or telling the reader what World War II was about or why June 6th, 1944 was important. This lack of understanding stole a bit of the gravity from the story.

On the whole, however, I read it in a day and enjoyed it. I’d even be interested in picking up the sequel at some point.

Book Review of the Niki Slobodian series #1-4, by J.L. Murray

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I grabbed all of J.L. Murray‘s Niki Slobodian series off of the Amazon free list over the last year or so.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
The Devil is a Gentleman
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
The Devil Was an Angel

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue SeaDescription from Goodreads:
Niki Slobodian sees things – things that aren’t supposed to be there. Labeled an Abnormal by New Government, her name is tacked onto the Registry, which seems to be getting longer these days. Now she can’t work or she’ll end up the same place as her father: in prison. But with no money coming in, Niki’s getting desperate. 

So when a mysterious client offers to get her off the Registry in exchange for taking his case, Niki jumps at the chance. All she has to do is round up a homicidal Dark that’s escaped from Hell and is cruising around the city in borrowed bodies. The murders are piling up, with Niki’s notorious father somehow involved, and Niki’s running out of time. And it seems the Dark isn’t the only thing that escaped…

Review: 
I really quite enjoyed this book. I found Niki to be a strong, quick-witted heroine. Her sidekicks were useful and there was a surprising amount of humour. It all came together in an interesting paranormal action/adventure mystery with excellent writing and flawless editing. There did seem to be a lot of history between some of the characters that made me wonder if I was really reading the first book, but I caught up soon enough.

My only real complaint, two-fold as it is, was that the book felt very short. Amazon lists it at 160 pages, but I started it after dinner and was in bed before 11. In that time, I also bathed the kiddies and sent them off to dreamland. So even if it there is an physical page count of 160 somewhere, I bet it’s double spaced.

Also contributing to this perception of brevity was the way challenges were overcome very, very easily. If seemed like Niki and her crew waltzed in, said “be gone” and vanquished the big-bads effortlessly. Of course, it wasn’t that simple, but it felt like it was. She managed to solve two mysteries and save the day twice in the 160 pages available. That didn’t leave a lot for buildup, tension, or elaborate planning.

Yes, it all felt too easy but that really was made up for by the humour and engaging characters. I can’t wait to read The Devil is a Gentleman.

The Devil was a Gentleman Description from Goodreads: 
Where Niki goes, death is never far behind. 

Everyone Niki knows hates Congressman Frank Bradley. He is the father of New Government, after all. He started the Registry, and the world adopted it. Bradley is the man who separated Abnormals and Normals, and made it a crime for Abbies to exist.

So when Bradley shows up at Niki’s door bearing a terrible secret, then promptly disappears, she feels compelled to dig deeper. But the more Niki uncovers, the more danger she is in. A mysterious organization is out for her blood – literally – and her father’s criminal past may not be as self-serving as she thought. There is also the matter of Niki’s inscrutable employer Sam and the secret of his identity. With help from her partner Bobby Gage, Niki finds out just how little she knew about her family, and the truth of who she really is.

Review:
I’d call this another hit. I continue to enjoy Niki and Bobby’s wit and the mysteries Murray sets up for us. I also really started to feel the influence of, or similarities to Kim Harrison‘s The Hollows series or Laurell K. Hamilton‘s Anita Blake Vampire Hunter (before the plots devolved into cheap erotica). It has a similar gun toting, strong heroine with a tendency to gather followers, fans and abilities as the series progress.

Like the first, this book also felt short. It also introduced some interesting side characters, that seemed to have just been dropped unceremoniously and it ended on a doozy of a cliffhanger, which I hate, but the writing was just as crisp and well edited as in the first. I’m looking forward to book 3, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.

Before the Devil Knows You're DeadDescription from Goodreads:
The worlds are out of balance. The Creator is missing. And the war between Heaven and Hell has begun.

Niki Slobodian came back, but there were side effect. She is filled with a strange power no one seems to be able to explain. Not even Sam. She is also plagued with strange visions whenever she touches anyone. This does nothing but complicate the fact that she may be the reason for the war raging in the streets of her own city. A war that could mean the end of humanity. 

Niki has always done whatever she had to for the people she loves, but this time is different. With carnage escalating and the people she cares for in danger, Niki and Sam must work together to save what is left of humanity. And with a psychotic archangel trying to assume to post of the Creator, and one slim chance to right the balance, the odds are against them.

Nothing is ever easy for a Slobodian. Not even stopping a war that could unmake the world.

Review:
I’m still enjoying this series, but it’s also faltering in much the same way as many other such series. There seems to come a time when the main character reaches a point where she goes from being an exceptionally powerful or talented whatever, to becoming the most powerful. It becomes unbelievable after a while and I think Niki reached that point in this book. Perhaps it will be pulled back a bit in the next one. I hope so. Because if she remains so all-powerful, what challenge can there really be? I’m holding off on my judgment on this until I finish the next book.

Some major Biblical characters are offed in this book. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that one…and I’m not even religious. But it’s difficult to fathom using preexisting myths and then ignoring or changing large parts of them in order to fit the plot. It’s jarring. Be that as it may, Niki again proved herself to be a resilient woman of stellar moral fibre and imperturbable determination.

The Devil was an AngelDescription from Goodreads:
Niki Slobodian knows loss. She knows tragedy. But she has never known this kind of pain. After the war the Archangel Michael waged on her city, Niki is dealing with the loss of her loved ones. And the haunting suspicion that everything was her fault. As well as her new duty to help all the lost souls cross over.

But when Niki’s only living friend, Bobby Gage, comes up missing, she has to take action. She enlists the help of Lucifer and together they learn that Bobby has been tracking Kane, the man who murdered his family, and is now killing again, leaving a trail of mutilated corpses all across the globe. And with the power to disappear unnoticed, it seems an impossible feat to find him and stop him.

But Niki is familiar with the impossible. And she would do anything to help her only living friend. Anything.

Review:
I’d say this was a great end to the series, but I get the distinct impression that it isn’t actually the end. Rather, The Devil was an Angel is simply the most recent book published in the series. I’d certainly be interested in reading more if Ms. Murray decides to write them, but I’d be disappointed if it turned into one of those series that never actually concludes. I find that so unsatisfying.

I was plenty satisfied with this book, however. Niki continued learning about herself and her abilities. She grew a lot as a character, especially around the matter of acceptance. Lucifer was an interesting incarnation of himself. I really felt bad for poor Sam though, despite all his misdeeds and the first half of the book is almost devastatingly sad.

There is quite a bit more gore in this book than the previous ones. I’m not particularly bothered by this, but some might be. But Ms. Murray’s writing remained exceptional ’till the end. Thumbs up.

Review of Hanna Peach’s Angelfire

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AngelfireI initially downloaded Hanna Peach‘s Angelfire from the Amazon KDP list, but she later also sent me an updated copy.

Description from Goodreads:
An army of angels walks among us. They have kept us safe and ignorant − so far.

Earthbound for centuries and ruled by the Elders, they have established hidden cities, a society and the Code: obey your Elders, kill all demons, eliminate Rogue-angels, protect the mortals, remain hidden. Their warriors are the ungifted Earthborn angels armed with blades and the “borrowed magics” of distilled angel-blood tattoos.

Alyxandria is a young warrior with a fondness for customized knives and illegal night-races. If only she could overcome the taint of her parents, who abandoned her to become Rogues. When Alyx saves Israel, a gifted mortal with a past, she is forbidden to see him again. But she can’t help herself, drawn to him through their Guardian-bond, an ancient and long-forgotten bond; if he dies, she dies.

Alyx begins to dig into the Elders’ secrets − two thousand years of secrets, which begin with the death of the Archangel Raphael. She is not prepared when she uncovers an Elder’s dark plan. Somewhere on Earth is a key to unlock Hell. Somewhere on Earth are pieces of an amulet that control Lucifer and his army. Somehow Israel is the link and now both sides are after him. Who can Alyx trust when Good and Evil are no longer clear?

The war for Earth begins.

Review:
Angelfire is an interesting addition to the angels versus demons collective. Alyx is a strong-willed heroine who has no problem standing up for herself. Though she does seem to float aimlessly from one chaotic near miss to the next, but maybe that’s actually the hand of destiny at work. Israel is imminently likeable and I adored the pirates.

The writing was admittedly pretty choppy in the beginning, jumping from seemingly random event to random event, giving a lot of detailed technical explanations, and introducing a lot of extraneous characters who played no significant role in the book. As a result it took a long time to figure out what exactly was going on, but it evened out eventually and became a pretty good read. I did find the info-breaks really disruptive though. I would have really preferred a glossary at the end to interruptions in the story.

As much as I enjoyed the story, this is not a stand alone book. It is obviously book one of what is going to be a big series. A lot of ground work is set here, but there is no sense of completion, no satisfying conclusion. I look forward to it’s continuation.

On a possibly irrelevant side note, and I don’t think I’m the first to mention this, the book has a really cool cover with a winged angel on it. But the angels in it don’t actually have wings. The only mention of anyone having wings is attributed to a demon. That irks me. It feels wrong.