After her parents mysteriously disappeared at the age of thirteen, Evangeline Evans has been on her own. As a military pilot for Olympus, the most powerful and technologically progressive Citadel of the new world, she keeps her reasons for finding them a secret.
Without warning a terrifying disease that could destroy civilization begins to infect citizens across the city. Only the race known as Angels—who brought advanced technology to Earth—seem to be immune to its devastation.
Evangeline and her husband Jack, an Artificial Intelligence designer, are swept into a secret war between the Dissidents in the Low Technology Zones and The Quorum of Zeus.
The Human race is on the precipice of Extinction. Who will prevail? Angel or Human? High Tech Olympian or Low Tech Dissident?
I grew up in the small, rural town of Boring, OR with my six brothers and sisters.
After graduating from High School in Gresham, OR, I attended BYU-ID and received my Associate's Degree in Pre-Med. After that, I returned to Portland, OR, and attended Portland State University, where I earned my Bachelor's Degree in Biology/Pre-Med before changing my career track to Architecture.
I completed my second Bachelor's Degree in Architecture at Portland State University before achieving my Master of Architecture Degree from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT.
After graduation, my wife and I moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where we adopted four children over the next eight years.
I currently live in the Salt Lake City area, where I am an Associate Member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the League of Utah Writers. My other interests include movies, singing, and motorcycles.
I was very lucky to be given a free copy of this book to read and give honest feedback on, because it was a fantastic read and I would recommend it to anyone! The writing style is mature and well-developed, especially for a first novel. The author expresses settings and characters through the action, painting a vivid picture in the reader’s head without doing too much ‘telling’. I got hooked into the story quickly and couldn’t stop reading until I got to the end. There was so much action and mystery throughout that I was desperate to know all the answers: What are the Angels? What really happened to Evangeline’s parents? What are the shady Olympus officials up to and why have they got a problem with Evangeline? Why are the Dissidents standing up to the government?
The plot was gripping and once the answers to these questions came, I wasn’t disappointed! This is a fantastic sci-fi novel that has everything – an engrossing storyline, fascinating futuristic technology, interesting and relatable characters and some fantastic bad guys! I cannot wait for more from this talented author!
Nicholas Adams Of course I think it's awesome! But I'm not allowed to give it a Five-Star rating since I already rated it from my own personal account.
‘Avenging Angels’, the first installment in ‘The Seraphim Chronicles’ series written by Nicholas Adams is good piece of SF/fantasy fiction, a debut work that can be equally recommended for its style and story the author skillfully brought.
The main character, pilot named Evangeline Evans is unhappy person – troubled by her past, she will be drawn into the secret war between the Dissidents in the Low Technology Zones and Olympus, the most advanced Citadel of future world.
Beside this major premise of story, Evangeline will become part of several other events such as strange accident involving one member of another race called Angels who as refugees with superior technology came to Earth or unclear illness of her colleague.
Soon, it will be evident that this terrifying disease could wipe out the whole human kind, infecting citizens all around the city one by one, while only the Angels seem to be immune to its consequences.
And when the dark scenario for human kind, the brink of extinction, becomes ever more certain, Evangeline and her husband Jack, are going to try finding a cure. But time is running out…
Nicholas Adams with his well-written debut book succeeds to take you by surprise and grabs reader attention all through his book of more than 400 pages. The most impressive part of author’s work is his style that not for a single moment makes you feel bored, quite opposite.
Therefore, fans of SF/fantasy fiction should look no further – Nicholas Adams is a new name that needs to be remembered, while ‘Avenging Angels’, the beginning of his series, can be fully recommended.
I was given a copy of this book by the author for the purpose of unbiased review, while all the presented information is based on my impressions.
The author of this tale is from the city of Boring, Oregon. However, his suspense story is anything but the name of his rural childhood town. Avenging Angels is spun with a web of gripping suspense as a military pilot, Evangeline, and her technically savy husband, Jack, take on the big brother world of the Quorum. Adams paints a grim, cold futuristic world of humans living with special peaceful beings referred to as ‘Angels.’ One Angel is found dead due to mysterious causes and Evangeline and her friends, The Dissidents, set out to investigate why the Angels are dying. On her investigative journey, she learns the reasons for her parents’ sudden abandonment when she was a child, the Angels’ true identity and purpose on Earth, and the reason for the Angels’ disease. This book has all of the ingredients of a good science fiction story: epic battles, technological wonders, cold hearted antagonists, tyrannical settings, and a plot that will not disappoint the reader who loves suspense, action, adventure, and mystery. Adams’ narrative style is detailed, technical, and fast paced. Avenging Angels has the potential to become a blockbuster story in any medium. My ‘HAT’ is off to this author.
I received this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway. I enjoyed the story though it was slow in a few spots. The characters are well developed and unique. The book has something for everyone. Its heavy on mystery and technology, but there's romance, politics, space, war, espionage, rampant disease, aliens, AI, no vampires or ghosts yet, but who knows. This book has plenty of twists and turns that force you to pay attention or go careening off the road. I found the angel characters particularly intriguing. We perceive angels as the embodiment of good, but in the story they are often used for evil purposes and indeed seem to be potentially evil themselves. Just the fact that they are always smiling is creepy enough. These are not biblical angels but an alien race and you know alien involvement rarely works out in the humans favor. I am truly looking forward to the sequel.
I really enjoyed this book because it had an enticing hook from the very beginning. As the story continued, conflicts were layered and the stakes continuously grew. The main and secondary characters were developed well though their actions, although at points it became repetitive. The world building and political aspect of this post-reconstructed North America was done exceptionally well and I was able to jump right into that world without being slowed down by overly complicated and confusing elements. Most people will enjoy this book, even if they are not into sci-fi because it doesn't dwell on the futuristic aspects, instead those aspects are used to further cultivate the conflict. I recommend this book to everybody who enjoys a good story with compelling characters and conflict that consistently intensifies throughout the book.
Adams launches the reader into the futuristic mega-city of Olympus, where pilot Evangeline Evans' world is turned upside-down. Evans had never enjoyed a simple life, and memories of her troubled past plague her frequently. Peculiar events are unfolding about her--a sudden disease that threatens the life of a younger recruit; an accident involving an Angel, a member of the peaceful race who fled from another planet as they sought refuge on Earth among the Humans.
This intriguing tale is cleverly woven as new characters and environments are introduced and come alive in the pages. Adams lures the reader in with his broad scope of imagination and the intertwining of the subplots within the story. An engaging and thought-provoking break-through novel.
Firstly, if you have read and enjoyed anything akin to The Time Trilogy (the "Wrinkle in Time" series) and/or The Space Trilogy (a C.S. Lewis series), and if you love symbolism among character names, the mixture of science/religion/mythology - give this story a go! (Or if you like Asimov...!)
In the spirit of an Nicholas Adams review, I'll say what I liked and then didn't-so-much.
The story has it all - the fairy-tale element, the drama, the quest, the twists & turns, appropriate comedic relief, and bits of the darker parts of thrills. The female protagonist is not overly-done-tough or unrealistically perfect, and I can appreciate any male writer who can craft a female character just so. You still want to be her, even though she's not "perfectly perfect" - tough, but not too tough...and I can't express myself any better than that right now.
I also like that the story moves along - nice little cliffhangers to end chapters (fun!) - and the story still moves along nicely even when it takes your (or, at least my) brain a bit to build the technical picture of the setting/equipment/process being described. So even a non-gamer or non-techie can "get it". The writing is strong. And it flows.
What I didn't like... Hard to say, because it was a fantastic read - and I don't want to disclose spoilers; and, although I am someone who really likes a lot of backstory, I know plenty of people who don't. I would have liked a little bit more on the history leading up to the presence of the current timeline in the book. Maybe my brain just had to adjust a little to get the hierarchy of the world down. And what was going on outside *this* world? So, I could have used just a little bit more exposition and maybe a little more meat to the motive of the "bad guys". Or maybe I rushed over what I think might have been missing because I was rushing along with the story to get to that ending... ;)
I enjoyed this science fiction thriller from an author I just found out about, but will definitely read more of. Follow along with Evangeline, a pilot in a futuristic time and part of the Olympic Military Corps, as she deals with first the loss of her parents at a young age and then Evangeline deals with a viral disease that is killing people. In this new world, Evangeline and second husband Jack have two AI children to worry about, but more than that they have a whole world they are going to have to save, if they can keep themselves alive against the evil that is in power. This is a great story and I'm sure book 2 is going to be just as intriguing. I have to say Nicholas Adams is a writer to watch for.
Mr. Adams has brought new life to Sci-Fi fiction. This futuristic thriller has a little something for everyone, Angels, Artifical Intelligence, and a half human half bot that along with her husband must keep them self from danger and save the world. This book is thought provoking in the sense that in the distant future, this could be our reality. The story held my attention from the very beginning and was a definite page turner. I honestly believe Mr. Adams has the potential to be a huge star. This story was highly engaging and left this reader wanting more. I do believe this book is the beginning of a long series of books. Great job Nicolas !
Avenging Angels (The Seraphim Chronicles Book 1) Written by Nicholas Adams
The story involved Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, organ transplants, disease, etc.These are topics I'm familiar with because I've often read materials on such topics and so I wasn't impressed with this story.
It's a somewhat interesting story but the story was way too slow in developing causing me to loose interest several times. Too much descriptive language and not enough of the plot of the story until much later in the book. I rate this book three stars.
I received this book as part of a Goodreads' giveaway. I really enjoyed the story. I thought some of the spots were slow, but I am looking forward to the next book. The characters were well developed. The book covers a wide range from mystery and technology, to romance, politics, space, war, espionage, rampant disease, aliens, AI, so something for all readers. There are plenty of twists and turns that make you pay attention, you will not want to stop reading. I found the angel characters particularly intriguing, as they are not biblical angels, but an alien race. I would recommend the book.
There was definitely a hesitation in coming into this, because I typically don't rave over spacey-sf novels, but I found, to my pleasant surprise, very little spacey-ness within this novel. Yes, it was the picture of SF, and it had some space travel, but it also was an Earthly SF novel, and I enjoyed my time with it.
I liked the characters. There were quite a few all introduced at once (and a good handful disappeared after the introduction which turned out to be a flashback), which made remembering some of the minor characters more difficult, but overall, I found that the main characters, and the primary-secondary characters were all distinct, and unique.
They story itself is unique, though it is not until half way through, at the earliest that we get to see what a potential conflict for the novel will be. I do think that this is a hindrance. Perhaps if there was some indication of the conflict early on. In hindsight, the introduction was probably supposed to be that, but at the time, it just threw me off entirely.
Speaking of, I think the time-jump between the intro (Where E. is leading her patrol to the abandoned base) and when we first meet Jack needs to be more clearly distinguished. It took me too long to figure out that the Jack scenes (and consequently anything after that point) was significantly later than the first scenes.
My other complaint, though not too big of an issue, is the amount of info-dumping that occurred. Much of it was either integral, or important to know, but there was also random bits of backstory and info-dumping that were unnecessary. Again, that's more of a personal preference thing. And it wasn't enough to make me hate reading it. Adams writes an intriguing tale that I enjoy learning more about.
Not of consequence, but still worth noting. I found a scarce amount of typographical errors scattered through the course of the novel. Again, not enough to take away from my enjoyment, but still something that warrants another line-edit.
Overall, I would say that Adams has written a strong SF that is both imaginative, and also grounded in a realistic society. And it seems like he could be setting us up for a potential sequel, which I will be keeping my eyes on.
The cover is also pretty sweet looking. Props to the artist(s) involved.
I give Avenging Angels four smiling Angels out of five.
I received a digital copy of this book for free from the author.
The author has an interesting concept, although pieces of the story are recycled from other Sci-Fi books. The characters are slightly underdeveloped and the way the storyline is pieced together leaves something to be desired. The MAJOR flaw with this book is how it was obviously not edited...by anyone! There are words misspelled, incorrect grammar, whole passages that were repeated and even random letters just left dangling in the middle of paragraphs. Find any high school freshman, give them a highlighter, and they could find 80 percent of the flaws on their first read through. This is billed as the first book of a trilogy. I will not be reading the next two.
I enjoyed this science fiction thriller from an author I just found out about, but will definitely read more of. Follow along with Evangeline, a pilot in a futuristic time and part of the Olympic Military Corps, as she deals with first the loss of her parents at a young age and then Evangeline deals with a viral disease that is killing people. In this new world, Evangeline and second husband Jack have two AI children to worry about, but more than that they have a whole world they are going to have to save, if they can keep themselves alive against the evil that is in power. This is a great story and I'm sure book 2 is going to be just as intriguing. I have to say Nicholas Adams is a writer to watch for.
THE ANGELS’ SECRET is quite an interesting book! I love the flawed main characters and their real love for each other. I like how the world’s political situation is carefully (but a little too slowly for me) revealed. The Angels themselves are weird and fascinating and the plot is solid. I don’t like the malapropisms and occasional missing words; better editing is needed. Overall, this book is definitely worth your time!
I had a difficult time putting this book down. Lots of action, lots of intrigue, and lots of wondering where things would go. The end left me wanting more. Much more. I highly recommend this book and this author.
This is a fantastic futuristic book. The plot is engaging enough that you won't wanna put it down. The world building is brilliant and the characters are well developed. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading.
An interesting story with quite a few twists along the way. A good plot and characters interestingly combined with technology for a future post apocalyptic civilisation.
Avenging Angels by Nicholas Adam’s is set in an expansive immersive sci fi fantasy world where the plot centres on Evangeline, a TRTV pilot and her husband Jack, an artificial intelligence programmer.
This is a world that encompasses all the different strata of society from the social conflict between Dissidents and the higher level Olympians, to the mysterious race of seemingly benign Angels, as well as the usual citizenry that you might expect in, what at times feels like, a semi militarised society. The first half of the book is used to establish Evangeline, including her relationship with Jack, their AI children, her team and her superiors and the role and back story of the Angels, and here the plot is less linear, exploring different facets of life and relationships within this society and employing flash backs and digressions, which, for the more action oriented reader, can slow the momentum of the story at times.
However the pace starts to pick up as plot strands that have been planted in the early stages, particularly around the mysterious disappearance of Evangeline’s father, become central. The action is further jacked up by the appearance of a couple of black clad ninja assassins as Evangeline and Jack are drawn into a potentially devastating world altering crisis.
Nicholas Adams writes well, there is a nice flow to his prose, and his descriptions of Olympus and its events have a well rounded, thought-out feel, that suggest that he has spent a lot of time amongst his creations, crafting their world and its structural framework. This is a deeply immersive book and requires attention to keep track of the various plot points and depth of content that emerges, though much of it does ultimately come to resonate in the final third.
Overall a good read, particularly if you like complex alternative words.
Loved it! There were a few typos, and in chapter 75 there was section that was repeated (the author is aware of this {which I know because he left a little sticky note at the start of the section warning me}) but other than the repeated section, nothing was too distracting from the story line. I'm eager for the next book.