Fallen Angels

by Joel Cadena

Cadena's first novel, "Fallen Angels" reads like "Sherlock Holmes" meets "Interview With a Vampire" meets "Good Omens" meets the "X-Files" meets "Ancient Aliens" meets " The DaVinci Code" meets "Indiana Jones" and all thrown together in a delicious soup that is "Orwellian" or "Kubrickian" and still has room left over for the ancient philosophical dogmas and myths that have abounded for thousands of years! This is a magical must-read that conjures up a woven blend of the mystical; adventure; and romance; and truly questions the notion of "why are we here" in the Universe. Cadena blends realism, fantasy and science fiction that breaks through boundaries in ways that leave us wanting more. The characters are richly developed and tango with each other in ways that are fantastically human. And in other ways fantastically non-human. All the time gathering up the emotions, strengths and weaknesses of the human consciousness that can make us weep or make us laugh or make us dance in wonder and quite possibly make us question our reality and how we perceive the Universe. Cadena's first novel takes heavy topics and puts them into plain view where anyone can relate to. This is the kind of writing that turns myth into reality and reality into myth and leaves us with a sense of enlightenment, wonder and joy that the world is in great need of these days. There is a sort of "mad genius" in Cadena's writing. A mad genius wrote here and left a his name is Joel Cadena and the method of his madness recalls memories of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus" and Bram Stoker's "Dracula." Cadena has blended together a remarkable first combining elements of the history of human-kind with elements of what may have preceded human-kind with elements of where the modern human race seems to be evolving towards. And he accomplishes this task in a wild ride that can leave you breathless and wanting to read the story over and over again and wanting more of it. There will be much anticipation for a second book to follow "Fallen Angels," which by the ending of this novel indicates that there most certainly is something brewing for many of those characters to return. Cadena reminds me a little of William Gibson; Harlan Ellison; Philip K. Dick and William S. the ability to play with the past, present and future that makes too much sense. It is obvious that Cadena spent a large amount of time researching the topics of this novel. One can take a particular detail out of the novel and investigate it and find that it is a part of our historical past, or an actual documented fact, or origin. Cadena has looked deep into the past of human nature. Looked into the present of human nature. And he is looking at possible futures of human-kinds existence. Cadena’s novel, “Fallen Angels” does not purely belong in the fantasy genre; nor does it fall into the science-fiction genre or for that matter into the fiction genre. What this novel does is put the reader into a factual universe and plays with the notions of fantasy and science-fiction in what is considered to be by many, true and believable. The beliefs of God or gods. The belief of angels and demons. The belief of science as god. The belief in that in all of this human condition that there is something more than us. I believe Cadena calls these things out. He screams for them in the what is the meaning of any of it; if not for love! A world out of love is condemned to be just that! he says. And what actually is a society that is out of love? How can it exist? At the underlying belly of Cadena’s writing exists something that we all know and fear, and he writes it It’s that what we have become to the planet Earth is unyielding; Over-populating and living without any fear. Terrorizing it. And in the finding some way to survive our own terrorism. Cadena just doesn’t write about the facts that are there and one can be consumed over; Cadena writes from the gut.

313 pages, Paperback

Published January 10, 2020