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An Occupation of Angels
A British secret agent is caught in a plot to assassinate archangels who settled Earth after WWII in this classic thriller from the World Fantasy Award winning author!“Sharp, brutal, cool--yet also stunningly imaginative and perfectly realised." ―Michael Marshall, bestselling author of The Straw Men trilogyIn 1945, the Archangels materialised over the battlefields of Europe, ushering in a new Cold War. Fifty years later, they are being killed off… one by one.But who – or what – can kill an angel?Killarney is a shadow executive for the Bureau, British Intelligence’s most secret organisation. She is the best – and she always works alone. Sent on a desperate mission to locate a missing cryptographer who may prove the key to the murders, Killarney finds herself running for her life, from London to Paris to Moscow, leading to a confrontation with a very human evil in the frozen wastelands of Novosibirsk.Plagued by dreams of a different world, and haunted by a swastika adorned with angel wings, it could take all of Killarney’s resources to survive, when Heaven itself may be threatened, and God herself may be walking the earth…“Fast moving, powerfully phantasmagoric fantasy” – Adam Roberts“A novella of blistering, ballistic energy and ferocious cleverness” – James Lovegrove“A breathless adventure story, finely crafted and rammed home with the assured confidence of an author very much in his stride.” – SFRevue.com
90 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2005
6 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
About the author
Lavie Tidhar
398 books731 followersLavie Tidhar was raised on a kibbutz in Israel. He has travelled extensively since he was a teenager, living in South Africa, the UK, Laos, and the small island nation of Vanuatu.
Tidhar began publishing with a poetry collection in Hebrew in 1998, but soon moved to fiction, becoming a prolific author of short stories early in the 21st century.
Temporal Spiders, Spatial Webs won the 2003 Clarke-Bradbury competition, sponsored by the European Space Agency, while The Night Train (2010) was a Sturgeon Award finalist.
Linked story collection HebrewPunk (2007) contains stories of Jewish pulp fantasy.
He co-wrote dark fantasy novel The Tel Aviv Dossier (2009) with Nir Yaniv. The Bookman Histories series, combining literary and historical characters with steampunk elements, includes The Bookman (2010), Camera Obscura (2011), and The Great Game (2012).
Standalone novel Osama (2011) combines pulp adventure with a sophisticated look at the impact of terrorism. It won the 2012 World Fantasy Award, and was a finalist for the Campbell Memorial Award, British Science Fiction Award, and a Kitschie.
His latest novels are Martian Sands and The Violent Century.
Much of Tidhar’s best work is done at novella length, including An Occupation of Angels (2005), Cloud Permutations (2010), British Fantasy Award winner Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God (2011), and Jesus & the Eightfold Path (2011).
Tidhar advocates bringing international SF to a wider audience, and has edited The Apex Book of World SF (2009) and The Apex Book of World SF 2 (2012).
He is also editor-in-chief of the World SF Blog , and in 2011 was a finalist for a World Fantasy Award for his work there.
He also edited A Dick and Jane Primer for Adults (2008); wrote Michael Marshall Smith: The Annotated Bibliography (2004); wrote weird picture book Going to The Moon (2012, with artist Paul McCaffery); and scripted one-shot comic Adolf Hitler’s I Dream of Ants! (2012, with artist Neil Struthers).
Tidhar lives with his wife in London.
Tidhar began publishing with a poetry collection in Hebrew in 1998, but soon moved to fiction, becoming a prolific author of short stories early in the 21st century.
Temporal Spiders, Spatial Webs won the 2003 Clarke-Bradbury competition, sponsored by the European Space Agency, while The Night Train (2010) was a Sturgeon Award finalist.
Linked story collection HebrewPunk (2007) contains stories of Jewish pulp fantasy.
He co-wrote dark fantasy novel The Tel Aviv Dossier (2009) with Nir Yaniv. The Bookman Histories series, combining literary and historical characters with steampunk elements, includes The Bookman (2010), Camera Obscura (2011), and The Great Game (2012).
Standalone novel Osama (2011) combines pulp adventure with a sophisticated look at the impact of terrorism. It won the 2012 World Fantasy Award, and was a finalist for the Campbell Memorial Award, British Science Fiction Award, and a Kitschie.
His latest novels are Martian Sands and The Violent Century.
Much of Tidhar’s best work is done at novella length, including An Occupation of Angels (2005), Cloud Permutations (2010), British Fantasy Award winner Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God (2011), and Jesus & the Eightfold Path (2011).
Tidhar advocates bringing international SF to a wider audience, and has edited The Apex Book of World SF (2009) and The Apex Book of World SF 2 (2012).
He is also editor-in-chief of the World SF Blog , and in 2011 was a finalist for a World Fantasy Award for his work there.
He also edited A Dick and Jane Primer for Adults (2008); wrote Michael Marshall Smith: The Annotated Bibliography (2004); wrote weird picture book Going to The Moon (2012, with artist Paul McCaffery); and scripted one-shot comic Adolf Hitler’s I Dream of Ants! (2012, with artist Neil Struthers).
Tidhar lives with his wife in London.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 6, 2011
A spy thriller novella about an alt history Cold War with angels. Would have been more interesting if I hadn’t already read Tim Powers’s Declare. As it is I have read that, and this is flat and personalityless. It has this style which basically consists of saying, yeah, if I was a short film, I’d be in black-and-white and I’d have all these weird jump cuts. Because that’s, like, artistic. But whatever, it was good background noise for lying around after having my wisdom teeth dug out with a pick and a trowel, so fine.
. . . And for one brief, shining moment, I am caught up on all my reviews.
Now all I have to do is never read again.
. . . And for one brief, shining moment, I am caught up on all my reviews.
Now all I have to do is never read again.
June 25, 2012
This book reads like a third-rate Charlie Stross wannabe writing a fourth-rate James Bond pastiche -- which is especially pathetic when you consider Stross is a third rate writer to begin with, which makes this a tenth rate book.
The protagonist is the worst sort of jut-jawed hero from the Jerry Ahern school of men's fiction -- competent and violent with no remorse or personality. The only thing unusual thing about her is that she's a woman -- but she's so bland that you wouldn't notice except for the occasional pronoun.
Still, she's practically a character from Flaubert compared to everyone else in the story. Her bosses in British intelligence talk like Captain Mandrake -- "Listen, Killarney, must dash. Pop around if you have some time" -- except where Sellers did it with irony, Tidhar seems to be serious.
But even that pales in comparison to the clichefest that erupts when we meet the villain. I'm sorry, Lavie, but making Josef Mengele your baddie doesn't mean you can trot out every mad scientist cliche in the book -- some of them so old that Sax Rohmer would've been embarrassed to use them. Mengele was evil; he wasn't a mustache-twirling villain who violated every commandment on the Evil Overlord List.
I should've just reread The Boys from Brazil, which has the decency to not be shit.
The protagonist is the worst sort of jut-jawed hero from the Jerry Ahern school of men's fiction -- competent and violent with no remorse or personality. The only thing unusual thing about her is that she's a woman -- but she's so bland that you wouldn't notice except for the occasional pronoun.
Still, she's practically a character from Flaubert compared to everyone else in the story. Her bosses in British intelligence talk like Captain Mandrake -- "Listen, Killarney, must dash. Pop around if you have some time" -- except where Sellers did it with irony, Tidhar seems to be serious.
But even that pales in comparison to the clichefest that erupts when we meet the villain. I'm sorry, Lavie, but making Josef Mengele your baddie doesn't mean you can trot out every mad scientist cliche in the book -- some of them so old that Sax Rohmer would've been embarrassed to use them. Mengele was evil; he wasn't a mustache-twirling villain who violated every commandment on the Evil Overlord List.
I should've just reread The Boys from Brazil, which has the decency to not be shit.
March 24, 2016
This book/novella reads sort of like a dark fantasy/alt history story mashed up with a bit of James Bond, and John LeCarré's Cold War spy stories... with angels. There's a British secret organization sending agents around the world on secret business, spying on other countries and agencies, and also keeping an eye on the archangels who arrived at the end of WW2. The main character, Killarney, ends up trekking across a lot of Europe and the Soviet Union, on a mission to try and figure out who or what is going after the archangels.
It's an extremely fast-paced story, and I enjoyed reading it, and also enjoyed the setting: definitely an interesting take on alt history - imagining a world where the Cold War is still on, and complicated by the angelic presence in various countries - and a rather interesting take on angels, as well. What I missed was a bit more depth to the character of Killarney (she comes across as a pretty turbo-charged and one-dimensional Bond-type hero), and maybe a bit more backstory on exactly what the heavenly host have been doing on Earth. But then, I don't think this story was really meant to provide those things: it's a rollicking, speeding trip from start to finish, and it did leave me interested in the world Tidhar has invented.
It's an extremely fast-paced story, and I enjoyed reading it, and also enjoyed the setting: definitely an interesting take on alt history - imagining a world where the Cold War is still on, and complicated by the angelic presence in various countries - and a rather interesting take on angels, as well. What I missed was a bit more depth to the character of Killarney (she comes across as a pretty turbo-charged and one-dimensional Bond-type hero), and maybe a bit more backstory on exactly what the heavenly host have been doing on Earth. But then, I don't think this story was really meant to provide those things: it's a rollicking, speeding trip from start to finish, and it did leave me interested in the world Tidhar has invented.
December 10, 2019
They say Tidhar's Central Station is good, and perhaps I'll try and read it some time in the future but this novella was definitely a disappointment. One has to admit that the premise of the story is intriguing, and I was interested enough to read through the fast-paced junk of the rest of the plot right through to the way too easy resolution, if you can call it that. Now, though, I'm more interested not in hows and whys of angels' being on earth but in what were the editors of this book doing instead of their actual job. There're so many plot holes, inconsistences and writing blunders in this slim volume that I just have to assume they were having a great time. Unfortunately, Tidhar himself was so carried away with numerous samovars, frequently incorrect Russian and dead Executives in a barrel of puppies that he forgot whatever he knew about writing a book.
December 3, 2022
Lavie Tidhar never ceases to amaze me with his imagination and creativity! He is one of my absolute favorite authors and I sincerely hope he writes a sequel to this novella because I want more of this world!!! Unique alternative history of WWII and the present time. I definitely recommend this book if you enjoy an action/spy/thriller/fantasy!
March 22, 2021
Lavie Tidhar is one of my favourite authors, and this early novella is good fun but doesn't reached the heights of his later work. I would happily have spent more time with it though; there was plenty in here that could have been expanded.
November 25, 2025
This little novella is fun, but it raises far more questions than it tries to answer. It's nice to read a story without much exposition (although there is some) but I need a full length novel exploring the angels. As it is it's a fun cold war romp.
April 5, 2025
A curious mashup of genres that doesn't quite come together. Killarney is a master agent for a British spy service, except their brief is not human enemies, but angels; the angels have come to Earth at the end of WWII and become another element in the global Cold War power game and its associated espionage.
But while Killarney appears be a super-agent à la James Bond, she narrates the book in first person with the blunt, simplistic, repetitive sentences appropriate to the hard-boiled genre. (It doesn't help that the audio narrator has a fairly upper-class English accent, or at least it sounds that way to these American ears.) Sentences are short and often begin with "and"; adjectives are few; the most obvious words are used, even if they've just been used in the previous sentence. There's no trace of the suave Bond kind of agent; Killarney throws punches, breaks bones, wipes away the blood, and moves on.
And beyond the setup and their insertion into some standard (human) goodies vs. baddies conflicts, the whys and wherefores of the angels just aren't clear. Maybe if I'd read Paradise Lost more recently?
In addition, the recording quality of the Iambik audio edition was often thin, tinny nearly to the point of being grating.
All in all, I was kind of relieved when it was over.
But while Killarney appears be a super-agent à la James Bond, she narrates the book in first person with the blunt, simplistic, repetitive sentences appropriate to the hard-boiled genre. (It doesn't help that the audio narrator has a fairly upper-class English accent, or at least it sounds that way to these American ears.) Sentences are short and often begin with "and"; adjectives are few; the most obvious words are used, even if they've just been used in the previous sentence. There's no trace of the suave Bond kind of agent; Killarney throws punches, breaks bones, wipes away the blood, and moves on.
And beyond the setup and their insertion into some standard (human) goodies vs. baddies conflicts, the whys and wherefores of the angels just aren't clear. Maybe if I'd read Paradise Lost more recently?
In addition, the recording quality of the Iambik audio edition was often thin, tinny nearly to the point of being grating.
All in all, I was kind of relieved when it was over.
February 7, 2011
Near the end of the second world war, the angels came, drawn to places of great suffering and bloodshed. They've remained on Earth since then; some of them, like Metatron, silently watching over us, while others, like Azrael, getting involved in organized crime. That's the setup, but that's not the interesting part of this novella.
The interesting part is that someone's starting killing angels.
The killing isn't what interests our protagonist, MI6 agent Killarney, at first. After all, she starts the story by attempting to assassinate Raphael. What concerns her is the systematic way in which they're being eliminated, and how that will affect the power balance of the Cold War.
This was a really enjoyable, fast-paced read. The espionage elements reminded me of the Bourne stories at their best, and the fantasy elements took what's becoming a very common story element (angels) and presented them in a way that seemed fresh and exciting, but also stayed true to the mythology of Judaism and Christianity, if not to the theology of them.
The interesting part is that someone's starting killing angels.
The killing isn't what interests our protagonist, MI6 agent Killarney, at first. After all, she starts the story by attempting to assassinate Raphael. What concerns her is the systematic way in which they're being eliminated, and how that will affect the power balance of the Cold War.
This was a really enjoyable, fast-paced read. The espionage elements reminded me of the Bourne stories at their best, and the fantasy elements took what's becoming a very common story element (angels) and presented them in a way that seemed fresh and exciting, but also stayed true to the mythology of Judaism and Christianity, if not to the theology of them.
November 30, 2015
Fast-paced and stylistically intense, An Occupation of Angels is pseudo-paranormal spy story set in a world where angels came to Earth ending World War II. Killarney is a secret agent first assigned to assassinate an archangel, then tasked with discovering who's really behind the systematic slaying of the angels of the world. Could it be Nazis?
Tidhar's style is urgent and wickedly ironic. This is a religious study with little religion, a spy story with Nazi conspiracies, but not like the other books on the shelf. One can't help thinking Killarney herself is something different too, as they travel through her head in this world-spanning short novel. An Occupation of Angels is a great, vivid story perfect for libraries looking for something unique. It's taste won't be up all readers alley's, but it's a standout example of fantasy fiction.
Contains: violence
Tidhar's style is urgent and wickedly ironic. This is a religious study with little religion, a spy story with Nazi conspiracies, but not like the other books on the shelf. One can't help thinking Killarney herself is something different too, as they travel through her head in this world-spanning short novel. An Occupation of Angels is a great, vivid story perfect for libraries looking for something unique. It's taste won't be up all readers alley's, but it's a standout example of fantasy fiction.
Contains: violence
May 18, 2011
A bit cheesy at the end however was a nice good spy-like romp of fun.
The only problems I had was keeping the characters straight and keeping the settings in mind.
I'm also glad this book isn't one I wanted to throw across the room. It doesn't like to use shock language like other books would. Though, the comparing human/thin = good and large/obese = bad did give a good record scratch while I was reading.
The only problems I had was keeping the characters straight and keeping the settings in mind.
I'm also glad this book isn't one I wanted to throw across the room. It doesn't like to use shock language like other books would. Though, the comparing human/thin = good and large/obese = bad did give a good record scratch while I was reading.
January 24, 2014
The idea for this story is great, the problem is it just goes too fast.
Unlike other short books this one is quite complex, and it feels like it needs more pages to add more depth. I just couldn't connect with the characters and the Archangels just don't have any gravitas to them.
Great idea just a hard book to care for.
Unlike other short books this one is quite complex, and it feels like it needs more pages to add more depth. I just couldn't connect with the characters and the Archangels just don't have any gravitas to them.
Great idea just a hard book to care for.
April 20, 2015
I'm surprised by how much I actually enjoyed this novella. Mixing spycraft with fantasy was really interesting. In reality, this little book has everything it would need for a world to be perfect: angels, mad scientists, Nazis and spys. I admit I loved everything about it and I'd like to read more of Killarney's adventures (as well as learn what is it with "the organism" she keeps mentioning).
April 27, 2011
It's a fun little occult-spy-thriller. Well written, with an interesting premise.
June 21, 2011
Disjointed and poorly edited. Lots of good ideas but the execution left a lot to desire.
May 16, 2016
Nothing special. Too bad interesting idea, but not filled out at all...
June 20, 2014
interesting premise, not entirely sold on the execution
April 26, 2017
An alt-history where Angels appeared during WWII, fast-forwarded 25+ years.
I love the idea of this more than the execution. If it had another 100 pages or so, I think it would have been much more engaging. This is a radically changed world that we see very little of, with no real idea of how it's changed due to the appearance of Angels.
I love the idea of this more than the execution. If it had another 100 pages or so, I think it would have been much more engaging. This is a radically changed world that we see very little of, with no real idea of how it's changed due to the appearance of Angels.
January 29, 2019
Fun novella with spies and nazi scientists, and weird, freaky angels. It's done in a very fast-paced, dump you in the middle and let you figure it out as you go style. But while that works, I think the material is good enough to support a full length novel if done at a slightly slower, more introspective pace, and I think I'd have enjoyed that more, so 4 stars from me.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews