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Zaniel Havelock #1
A Terrible Fall of Angels
Angels walk among us, but so do other unearthly beings in this brand new series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton.
Meet Detective Zaniel Havelock, a man with the special ability to communicate directly with angels. A former trained Angel speaker, he devoted his life to serving both the celestial beings and his fellow humans with his gift, but a terrible betrayal compelled him to leave that life behind. Now he’s a cop who is still working on the side of angels. But where there are angels, there are also demons. There’s no question that there’s evil at work when he’s called in to examine the murder scene of a college student—but is it just the evil that one human being can do to another, or is it something more? When demonic possession is a possibility, even angelic protection can only go so far. The race is on to stop a killer before he finds his next victim, as Zaniel is forced to confront his own very personal demons, and the past he never truly left behind.
The first in a new series from the author of the Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series.
Meet Detective Zaniel Havelock, a man with the special ability to communicate directly with angels. A former trained Angel speaker, he devoted his life to serving both the celestial beings and his fellow humans with his gift, but a terrible betrayal compelled him to leave that life behind. Now he’s a cop who is still working on the side of angels. But where there are angels, there are also demons. There’s no question that there’s evil at work when he’s called in to examine the murder scene of a college student—but is it just the evil that one human being can do to another, or is it something more? When demonic possession is a possibility, even angelic protection can only go so far. The race is on to stop a killer before he finds his next victim, as Zaniel is forced to confront his own very personal demons, and the past he never truly left behind.
The first in a new series from the author of the Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series.
496 pages, Paperback
First published August 17, 2021
813 people are currently reading
9927 people want to read
About the author
Laurell K. Hamilton
424 books25.7k followersLaurell K. Hamilton is one of the leading writers of paranormal fiction. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, Hamilton writes the popular Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels and the Meredith Gentry series. She is also the creator of a bestselling comic book series based on her Anita Blake novels and published by Marvel Comics. Hamilton is a full-time writer and lives in the suburbs of St. Louis with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 929 reviews
August 10, 2021
This is a whole-ass mess of a book. There is zero, and I mean ZERO reason for any of you to read this. For those of us still hate-reading the Anita Blake or Merry Gentry books because you at least know the characters and it's entertaining to see what craziness they are now involved in, even if said craziness is terribly written...well, all you have here is terrible writing about characters you don't and won't care about in the least. Seriously, there is no way this would have been published if Hamilton were not already an established author who could literally barf on a page and have her publishers enthusiastically print a giant run of her vomit in hardcover.
I'm going to kind of spoil some stuff about the book now, maybe? There's honestly so little plot and so much filler, it's really hard to tell. But if you don't want to know what happens for whatever reason, stop here.
Our hero is Detective Zaniel "Havoc" Havelock. We first meet him at a crime scene, which is covered in angel feathers...not because an angel was the perpetrator or the victim, but apparently to make sure someone who knew something about the supernatural would be called in right away, because otherwise the police might think it was just a regular old rape/murder, and not a demonic rape/murder. At the scene, an angel appears to Zaniel to explain all of this to him, because Zaniel is an Angel Speaker, who was trained and raised in the College of Angels, where they take kids with these particular types of magical talents. The angel says this was done by some weirdo kind of demon thing that doesn't follow typical rules, and tells Zaniel to deal with it. The actual sort of plot, if it were to go in a linear and rational fashion, basically goes (from here): Zaniel and fellow magic police figure out a college incel dude summoned the demon, he's merged with it in some kind of weird way that no one understands so that both he and the demon are sharing a malleable body that is neither fully demon or human, he's tracking down women he wanted but who didn't pay him enough attention to rape/murder them, he's hard to kill because he's not following the usual rules for demon-possessed humans, but then Zaniel kills him anyway by grabbing him and channeling holy fire, which, since this is apparently not that hard for Zaniel and causes no damage to anyone or anything else, seems like a relatively straight-forward solution to the issue, in no way necessitating any of the rest of the 90% of the material in the book, most of which is trying to set up some worldbuilding (kind of), or some recurring characters (maybe), but mostly is full of long expository plot diversions that go nowhere (of the sort familiar to any regular Hamilton reader) and end up having no bearing on the "plot," such as it is. (For example, Zaniel gets a couple of supernatural wounds that do weird things for reasons no one really understands, but seem like they might be relevant through the story, until he does the holy fire thing and apparently that cures them and we never really hear any more about what that was all about, and it didn't really affect anything along the way.)
There's also a side plot about Zaniel's history at the College of Angels, which apparently takes kids in really young (like 7) and cuts them off from their families entirely, and raises them to believe only in Christian theology and the power of angels, even though other theologies clearly have powers of their own, and these are visible to Zaniel and apparently other people trained at the COA. Piecing together the history from here and there, Zaniel was tight with a girl named Suriel and a boy named Levanael (all names assigned by the COA when they joined), until Levanael got kicked out of the COA because his powers drove him crazy, and then Zaniel kinda started an affair with a seraphim, which was frowned upon, and he was already disillusioned by the Levanael thing, so he finished his initial training and then left. After he left, with no means of support and no real world experience, Zaniel joined the army, married a stripper, saw active duty combat, got divorced by the stripper (apparently in the middle of the active duty combat, because she was hoping he would die and she would get his benefits but he hadn't yet, which makes no sense as a motive because clearly you would wait until he was definitely safe before giving up on that plan and just keep stealing the paycheck until he got back at least? But whatever...), then he joined the police and married some other chick named Reggie and they have a 3 year old but they have been separated for 6 months at this point because Reggie...I don't even know. Reggie's character is all over the place, and half the time Zaniel is madly in love with her and wanting to get back together and half the time he's convinced it's all over and she kinda sucks and is flirting with every woman in sight (and then MAKES OUT with an LKH lookalike in a coffee line in the lead up to the final confrontation for no discernible reason). But he's also going to couple's therapy, so you get to sit in on a long, boring, pointless chapter or two of that, in the middle of demons trying to rape and kill everyone. (Incidentally, I apologize if all of this history makes it sound like Zaniel is in any way an interesting or compelling character. He is not. The whole book is in his monotone, detached voice, without an ounce of real feeling or heart in it.)
In the meantime, we learn that Levanael took back his birth name of Jamie and has been homeless and mentally ill this whole time, Suriel stayed with the COA and became a high ranking demon expert. Suriel gets sent over to the police to help a witch who was cursed by contact with some demon blood, and hints that maybe some stuff isn't right at the COA, and there's a bunch of pointless macho posturing with her COA body guards. Levanael/Jamie turns up out of the blue, better than he has been in years, and says it's all because of this pagan girl that some prophets sent him to see, and she has helped him shield from what the COA did to him all those years ago, and he's now going by Levi, and wants to introduce Zaniel to this world.
This is hard to piece together, not only because of all the random digression scenes that end up having nothing to do with the plot (there's a whole thing with a neurodivergent lab tech trying to get something from the police office that goes on FOREVER for literally no reason, and other examples too numerous and boring to get into), but because the writing is so sloppy and the timeline isn't consistent from page to page or even sentence to sentence. Granted that I am reviewing an ARC, and maybe they will catch some of this before it goes to final print, but the level of mess is WAY higher than in the average ARC from a major author, where you might find a single typo/wrong verb tense in the whole thing. For example, through most of the book Zaniel describes Levanael/Jamie/Levi as having been on the streets for a decade/10 years. When Levi shows up and they talk about what's going on, though, you get these two sentences together:
Levi: "Maybe, but everyone else wakes up. I've been trapped in a nightmare for over thirteen years."
Zaniel: "Do you think the last fifteen years has been just dreams and nightmares?"
Just...what? And then Levi talks about this girl he was led to by "prophets," and specifically says it happened 2 weeks ago, and then a couple of chapters later, Zaniel meets the girl, and she talks about something that clearly happened some amount of time ago as having happened "a few weeks" after she and Levi met, so it sounds more like they have been together for a month or more. There's also a weird sequence in which Zaniel is making tea for Levi, and specifically talking about the rapid-boil kettle he's using to heat the water, and then a couple of paragraphs later the timer on the microwave sounds and lets them know the tea is ready, and then they decide to make a whole pot and the rapid-boiler makes another appearance, so she can't even keep track of which appliance is in use for the space of a few pages. Also, Zaniel keeps mis-naming Levi OVER and OVER, in the same conversations, even after Levi has yelled at him for it repeatedly, and Zaniel seems not to be doing it out of spite or anything, and I get that it's hard to remember a new name for someone you knew under another name for a while, but it's so repetitive and insistent that it becomes weird.
There's also a whole long scene of Zaniel in the pagan girl's shop, talking to another witch, who keeps telling him that she can see someone else's "totem animal" (and let's not even get into all the appropriation there) attached to him because of earlier events, and she keeps stressing that he needs to call the real owner of the totem animal and return it "before work calls," and it is clear that this call is an imminent thing, and Zaniel...just wanders around the store, lost in thought about non-relevant things, and looking at crystals and pondering boring thoughts about how they chose to arrange the display shelves, all while this lady in the background who is CLEARLY psychic is frantically reminding him to MAKE THIS CALL AND RETURN THE ANIMAL BEFORE THE THING HAPPENS OR TERRIBLE THINGS WILL OCCUR AS A RESULT, and eventually he does, and arranges to meet up with the person the animal belongs to, but then the work call DOES come in, and it's time for the final showdown with the demon thing, and he doesn't get to return the animal after all...and NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENS as a result. He wakes up in the hospital after 2 days unconscious, spends time talking to various people there, goes home...and the totem animal is not mentioned at all, in terms of whether it got back where it belongs, or what any of the ramifications were or might have been. It's all utterly pointless and takes up SO MUCH TIME for nothing.
It's unclear whether this book takes place in the same universe as the Anita Blake and/or Merry Gentry books (I don't even know if those ones explicitly take place in the same universe), but there is a lot of carryover between them. Obviously, everyone is obsessed with exercising (and shaming those who don't exercise to a point of perfect buffness), and everyone's exact height and ethnic background, and pointless conversations where everyone repeats the same things to each other 46 times in a round, much of it about how "political correctness" has run amok. Amok, I say! More than that, though, this feels like the book/series where Hamilton is trying to address the spirituality plot holes that never really get explained in her other books. You know, like Edward/Ted being an atheist when spiritual belief, of any kind, has scientifically provable and obvious protective effects against various bad things.
Only this book also has a kind of "Jewish light" [self-described] doctor who is effectively atheist, and the question of "why" is never really answered or explored there either. More than anything (because every Hamilton story is a self-insert, even if she tries to at least disguise it a bit this time by having the main character be a tall man instead of a short, busty woman), this feels like Hamilton's attempt to grapple with her own evolving theology, which is, if this story is any indication, an illogical and irrational mess. Zaniel and his history seem like an obvious stand in for someone raised Catholic but who eventually decided they liked having sex in a manner the church didn't approve of, and so decided to jettison everything about their religion that stopped them from doing whatever it was they really wanted to do, while keeping some vague notion that angels are still real and helping you because you are Still A Good Person. And also some other religions are real, especially Goddess-powered ones, and are cool and shit, so you should pick and choose some parts of those to maybe incorporate because they are cool. Which...OK. It's not like I know the true secrets of the universe or how any of that really works, either. But I'm also not trying to write books that say stuff like:
"There are always angels around us; they wait to help, to heal, to share God's grace with us, but they can't help us unless we ask them to , give them permission to - so do it with me now, say, 'Angels around me, I give you permission to help me and help those around me.' There are more formal words, but simple ones will do. Angels only need to be freed to help us; Guardian Angels hover near everyone, and some people have more than one, but they are trapped watching us screw our lives up, unless we allow them to help us."
Which, at least on the surface, is coming from the perspective of this fictional character. Only the way it's written, it really does sound like Hamilton's voice and beliefs being parroted, especially the part where the reader is urged to say this inspiration-a-day-calendar stuff out loud, right then. The whole book comes across, to me, as a childish and underformed theology screed wrapped in a modicum of messy plotting and cardboard characterization. The whole thing both bored me and gave me contact embarrassment for the author, for putting something this poorly thought-out and executed into the world. Look, I don't know if I've made this clear enough yet over the course of this very long rant, but, uh...AVOID.
I'm going to kind of spoil some stuff about the book now, maybe? There's honestly so little plot and so much filler, it's really hard to tell. But if you don't want to know what happens for whatever reason, stop here.
Our hero is Detective Zaniel "Havoc" Havelock. We first meet him at a crime scene, which is covered in angel feathers...not because an angel was the perpetrator or the victim, but apparently to make sure someone who knew something about the supernatural would be called in right away, because otherwise the police might think it was just a regular old rape/murder, and not a demonic rape/murder. At the scene, an angel appears to Zaniel to explain all of this to him, because Zaniel is an Angel Speaker, who was trained and raised in the College of Angels, where they take kids with these particular types of magical talents. The angel says this was done by some weirdo kind of demon thing that doesn't follow typical rules, and tells Zaniel to deal with it. The actual sort of plot, if it were to go in a linear and rational fashion, basically goes (from here): Zaniel and fellow magic police figure out a college incel dude summoned the demon, he's merged with it in some kind of weird way that no one understands so that both he and the demon are sharing a malleable body that is neither fully demon or human, he's tracking down women he wanted but who didn't pay him enough attention to rape/murder them, he's hard to kill because he's not following the usual rules for demon-possessed humans, but then Zaniel kills him anyway by grabbing him and channeling holy fire, which, since this is apparently not that hard for Zaniel and causes no damage to anyone or anything else, seems like a relatively straight-forward solution to the issue, in no way necessitating any of the rest of the 90% of the material in the book, most of which is trying to set up some worldbuilding (kind of), or some recurring characters (maybe), but mostly is full of long expository plot diversions that go nowhere (of the sort familiar to any regular Hamilton reader) and end up having no bearing on the "plot," such as it is. (For example, Zaniel gets a couple of supernatural wounds that do weird things for reasons no one really understands, but seem like they might be relevant through the story, until he does the holy fire thing and apparently that cures them and we never really hear any more about what that was all about, and it didn't really affect anything along the way.)
There's also a side plot about Zaniel's history at the College of Angels, which apparently takes kids in really young (like 7) and cuts them off from their families entirely, and raises them to believe only in Christian theology and the power of angels, even though other theologies clearly have powers of their own, and these are visible to Zaniel and apparently other people trained at the COA. Piecing together the history from here and there, Zaniel was tight with a girl named Suriel and a boy named Levanael (all names assigned by the COA when they joined), until Levanael got kicked out of the COA because his powers drove him crazy, and then Zaniel kinda started an affair with a seraphim, which was frowned upon, and he was already disillusioned by the Levanael thing, so he finished his initial training and then left. After he left, with no means of support and no real world experience, Zaniel joined the army, married a stripper, saw active duty combat, got divorced by the stripper (apparently in the middle of the active duty combat, because she was hoping he would die and she would get his benefits but he hadn't yet, which makes no sense as a motive because clearly you would wait until he was definitely safe before giving up on that plan and just keep stealing the paycheck until he got back at least? But whatever...), then he joined the police and married some other chick named Reggie and they have a 3 year old but they have been separated for 6 months at this point because Reggie...I don't even know. Reggie's character is all over the place, and half the time Zaniel is madly in love with her and wanting to get back together and half the time he's convinced it's all over and she kinda sucks and is flirting with every woman in sight (and then MAKES OUT with an LKH lookalike in a coffee line in the lead up to the final confrontation for no discernible reason). But he's also going to couple's therapy, so you get to sit in on a long, boring, pointless chapter or two of that, in the middle of demons trying to rape and kill everyone. (Incidentally, I apologize if all of this history makes it sound like Zaniel is in any way an interesting or compelling character. He is not. The whole book is in his monotone, detached voice, without an ounce of real feeling or heart in it.)
In the meantime, we learn that Levanael took back his birth name of Jamie and has been homeless and mentally ill this whole time, Suriel stayed with the COA and became a high ranking demon expert. Suriel gets sent over to the police to help a witch who was cursed by contact with some demon blood, and hints that maybe some stuff isn't right at the COA, and there's a bunch of pointless macho posturing with her COA body guards. Levanael/Jamie turns up out of the blue, better than he has been in years, and says it's all because of this pagan girl that some prophets sent him to see, and she has helped him shield from what the COA did to him all those years ago, and he's now going by Levi, and wants to introduce Zaniel to this world.
This is hard to piece together, not only because of all the random digression scenes that end up having nothing to do with the plot (there's a whole thing with a neurodivergent lab tech trying to get something from the police office that goes on FOREVER for literally no reason, and other examples too numerous and boring to get into), but because the writing is so sloppy and the timeline isn't consistent from page to page or even sentence to sentence. Granted that I am reviewing an ARC, and maybe they will catch some of this before it goes to final print, but the level of mess is WAY higher than in the average ARC from a major author, where you might find a single typo/wrong verb tense in the whole thing. For example, through most of the book Zaniel describes Levanael/Jamie/Levi as having been on the streets for a decade/10 years. When Levi shows up and they talk about what's going on, though, you get these two sentences together:
Levi: "Maybe, but everyone else wakes up. I've been trapped in a nightmare for over thirteen years."
Zaniel: "Do you think the last fifteen years has been just dreams and nightmares?"
Just...what? And then Levi talks about this girl he was led to by "prophets," and specifically says it happened 2 weeks ago, and then a couple of chapters later, Zaniel meets the girl, and she talks about something that clearly happened some amount of time ago as having happened "a few weeks" after she and Levi met, so it sounds more like they have been together for a month or more. There's also a weird sequence in which Zaniel is making tea for Levi, and specifically talking about the rapid-boil kettle he's using to heat the water, and then a couple of paragraphs later the timer on the microwave sounds and lets them know the tea is ready, and then they decide to make a whole pot and the rapid-boiler makes another appearance, so she can't even keep track of which appliance is in use for the space of a few pages. Also, Zaniel keeps mis-naming Levi OVER and OVER, in the same conversations, even after Levi has yelled at him for it repeatedly, and Zaniel seems not to be doing it out of spite or anything, and I get that it's hard to remember a new name for someone you knew under another name for a while, but it's so repetitive and insistent that it becomes weird.
There's also a whole long scene of Zaniel in the pagan girl's shop, talking to another witch, who keeps telling him that she can see someone else's "totem animal" (and let's not even get into all the appropriation there) attached to him because of earlier events, and she keeps stressing that he needs to call the real owner of the totem animal and return it "before work calls," and it is clear that this call is an imminent thing, and Zaniel...just wanders around the store, lost in thought about non-relevant things, and looking at crystals and pondering boring thoughts about how they chose to arrange the display shelves, all while this lady in the background who is CLEARLY psychic is frantically reminding him to MAKE THIS CALL AND RETURN THE ANIMAL BEFORE THE THING HAPPENS OR TERRIBLE THINGS WILL OCCUR AS A RESULT, and eventually he does, and arranges to meet up with the person the animal belongs to, but then the work call DOES come in, and it's time for the final showdown with the demon thing, and he doesn't get to return the animal after all...and NOTHING FUCKING HAPPENS as a result. He wakes up in the hospital after 2 days unconscious, spends time talking to various people there, goes home...and the totem animal is not mentioned at all, in terms of whether it got back where it belongs, or what any of the ramifications were or might have been. It's all utterly pointless and takes up SO MUCH TIME for nothing.
It's unclear whether this book takes place in the same universe as the Anita Blake and/or Merry Gentry books (I don't even know if those ones explicitly take place in the same universe), but there is a lot of carryover between them. Obviously, everyone is obsessed with exercising (and shaming those who don't exercise to a point of perfect buffness), and everyone's exact height and ethnic background, and pointless conversations where everyone repeats the same things to each other 46 times in a round, much of it about how "political correctness" has run amok. Amok, I say! More than that, though, this feels like the book/series where Hamilton is trying to address the spirituality plot holes that never really get explained in her other books. You know, like Edward/Ted being an atheist when spiritual belief, of any kind, has scientifically provable and obvious protective effects against various bad things.
Only this book also has a kind of "Jewish light" [self-described] doctor who is effectively atheist, and the question of "why" is never really answered or explored there either. More than anything (because every Hamilton story is a self-insert, even if she tries to at least disguise it a bit this time by having the main character be a tall man instead of a short, busty woman), this feels like Hamilton's attempt to grapple with her own evolving theology, which is, if this story is any indication, an illogical and irrational mess. Zaniel and his history seem like an obvious stand in for someone raised Catholic but who eventually decided they liked having sex in a manner the church didn't approve of, and so decided to jettison everything about their religion that stopped them from doing whatever it was they really wanted to do, while keeping some vague notion that angels are still real and helping you because you are Still A Good Person. And also some other religions are real, especially Goddess-powered ones, and are cool and shit, so you should pick and choose some parts of those to maybe incorporate because they are cool. Which...OK. It's not like I know the true secrets of the universe or how any of that really works, either. But I'm also not trying to write books that say stuff like:
"There are always angels around us; they wait to help, to heal, to share God's grace with us, but they can't help us unless we ask them to , give them permission to - so do it with me now, say, 'Angels around me, I give you permission to help me and help those around me.' There are more formal words, but simple ones will do. Angels only need to be freed to help us; Guardian Angels hover near everyone, and some people have more than one, but they are trapped watching us screw our lives up, unless we allow them to help us."
Which, at least on the surface, is coming from the perspective of this fictional character. Only the way it's written, it really does sound like Hamilton's voice and beliefs being parroted, especially the part where the reader is urged to say this inspiration-a-day-calendar stuff out loud, right then. The whole book comes across, to me, as a childish and underformed theology screed wrapped in a modicum of messy plotting and cardboard characterization. The whole thing both bored me and gave me contact embarrassment for the author, for putting something this poorly thought-out and executed into the world. Look, I don't know if I've made this clear enough yet over the course of this very long rant, but, uh...AVOID.
June 7, 2021
Um…LKH? This you, girl???
So I totally hesitated when deciding whether or not to read this.
I sort of think LKH readers come in a couple of different types. There are those of us who love the butt-kicking women and the enthralling supernaturals, but are a little tired of the insert this body part into this one and this one and this one squicky orgies. And then there those of us who also love the butt-kicking women and the enthralling supernaturals but also love all the squicky orgies.
I’m the please-not-another-squicky-orgy type. This book was for me!
So I’ll warn you from the start that if you’re after nothing but supernatural sexcapades, this one isn’t for you. We still have butt kicking characters, though our main character is a man. We have angels and demons and, yes, some people with various powers, LGBTQ characters, etc. And we have a gruesome mystery that needs to be solved, asap! I loved our mystery – it was creepy, edgy, and I was all in for it.
With the angels and demons, there’s a really heavy religious theme here (not necessarily Christian, just religion). At times it gets a little heavy-handed, but I think a lot of that is world building which should be a little lighter in the next books.
Do I believe that eventually we might go back to threesomes, foursomes and moresomes? I mean…this is LKH, so yeah. But with this start to a new series, I’m (so far) on board.
*ARC Provided via Net Galley
September 4, 2021
A Terrible Fall of Angels
by Laurell K. Hamilton is the first book in the Zaniel Havelock urban fantasy / supernatural suspense / paranormal police procedural series. She builds a new world for readers to marvel and explore. Detective Zaniel ‘Havoc’ Havelock has the ability to communicate directly with angels. He is now part of the Metaphysical Coordination Unit. From the age of seven, he was trained as an Angel speaker, but an event when he was around twenty caused him to leave the College of Angels. After spending time in to the military, he is now a police detective. Havoc is called to the scene of a murder. There’s no doubt that there’s evil, but is it the evil between human beings or is it the work of a demon, or is it something else?
We get insight into Havoc’s character during the course of the investigation. He is strong of faith, courageous, and kind, but past events affect how he views himself. There’s inner discourse that helps the reader understand what he’s thinking and feeling. Many other characters in this novel are woven into the story line in a way that makes it easy to keep track of them. They either provide support or conflict and I expect several of them to gain depth as the series continues.
This is the first series by Ms. Hamilton that features a male main character. Additionally, he is married, but has been separated for six months as they attend couples therapy. They have a three-year-old son. Will Zaniel and his wife reconcile and will romance be added to the genres that this series encompasses?
Between and during action scenes and investigations, this novel spends a significant amount of time world-building. Now that we have that understanding, I hope those descriptions aren’t covered in quite as much depth in future books in the series. It is very much a good versus evil world, but there are other important themes including marital issues, friendships, how events affect relationships, different religious and belief systems and how they can work together, and much more. One thing it didn’t have was the steamy scenes that are common in the Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series.
Overall, this book was an entertaining and thought-provoking paranormal police investigation with strong religious and belief overtones. It is definitely a departure from the previous series written by this author in many ways. However, she continues to bring great characters, entertaining and unique story lines, action, and suspense together in her novels. The book has a great first sentence and quickly pulled me into this new world. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
This is my honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and are not biased in any way. Publication date was August 17, 2021. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.
We get insight into Havoc’s character during the course of the investigation. He is strong of faith, courageous, and kind, but past events affect how he views himself. There’s inner discourse that helps the reader understand what he’s thinking and feeling. Many other characters in this novel are woven into the story line in a way that makes it easy to keep track of them. They either provide support or conflict and I expect several of them to gain depth as the series continues.
This is the first series by Ms. Hamilton that features a male main character. Additionally, he is married, but has been separated for six months as they attend couples therapy. They have a three-year-old son. Will Zaniel and his wife reconcile and will romance be added to the genres that this series encompasses?
Between and during action scenes and investigations, this novel spends a significant amount of time world-building. Now that we have that understanding, I hope those descriptions aren’t covered in quite as much depth in future books in the series. It is very much a good versus evil world, but there are other important themes including marital issues, friendships, how events affect relationships, different religious and belief systems and how they can work together, and much more. One thing it didn’t have was the steamy scenes that are common in the Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series.
Overall, this book was an entertaining and thought-provoking paranormal police investigation with strong religious and belief overtones. It is definitely a departure from the previous series written by this author in many ways. However, she continues to bring great characters, entertaining and unique story lines, action, and suspense together in her novels. The book has a great first sentence and quickly pulled me into this new world. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
This is my honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and are not biased in any way. Publication date was August 17, 2021. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.
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August 8, 2021DNF
If it takes me more than a week to make it to 20% it's a sign that the book isn't for me. This was a bit of a mess, I couldn't connect with Zaniel, the writing is all over the place and while I know that world building in PNR/UF is tough if you still want to keep the reader's interest at the same time. This was info dump galore with no real background from the start and so, so confusing. Pains me to wave the white flag because I found the premise fascinating.
If it takes me more than a week to make it to 20% it's a sign that the book isn't for me. This was a bit of a mess, I couldn't connect with Zaniel, the writing is all over the place and while I know that world building in PNR/UF is tough if you still want to keep the reader's interest at the same time. This was info dump galore with no real background from the start and so, so confusing. Pains me to wave the white flag because I found the premise fascinating.
October 28, 2021
If I was grading books based on how well they dragged, this would be a solid A+. I am actually sad that I didn’t like this because it started off really interesting. There was almost no plot and the unnecessary focus on people’s appearances and their characters was not the best. I honestly wouldn’t recommend this to anyone.
August 8, 2021
This pains me to write this review and give a rating of 2 stars, as I've read LKH's novels numerous times. One of her largest fans, seeing the author as an influence on my own writing. Anita Blake & Merry Gentry are constant comfort rereads of mine. Hardcover, paperback, duplicate paperback, Kindle, audiobook, a graphic novel or 3... to say I'm a fan would be an understatement.
I was beyond excited for new characters, a new world, and a male protagonist. Never thought I'd abandon an LKH book at 25% but I must. Perhaps after the world building, the second book would resonate more, but I found the MC to be an emotionless, loathsome creep. It's impossible to read a series if you can't stand the narrator.
Irony with how Zaniel is directly tied to the big man himself. G O D.
The struggle was real... especially in the beginning, during a tedious convo with an angel at a murder scene. The poor dude just wanted to relay a short message, but Zaniel (LKH) just had to be tedious and exhausting for the reader & the angel. I'm sure some of her fans will understand that statement better than a new reader. Imagine Anita arguing with the detective in charge at a murder scene, who obviously has biases against her, instead of letting it go, she has to be unbelievably difficult. Yeah, now you get Zaniel.
Out of everything I read in quarter of a novel, only that nameless angel made me curious. That was the hook for me, but I found Zaniel impossible to wade through in order to get to the angelic world-building.
LKH's voice shined through the voice of the character. As one of her biggest fans, this was an issue because I could "hear" Anita- Anita's less than easy to deal with qualities & none of her deeply flawed human ones that were so easy to relate to as a reader.
Zaniel was stiff, more overview narrator than a fully fleshed-out character who emotes feelings. I don't mean because he's a new character. Just that he has no inner monologue about his personal life outside of world building until it's the most inappropriate time. No feelings whatsoever, so me (the reader) had zero emotional investment in the story or characters. It was constant world-building, police procedural, and demonic action. Once a small slice of downtime came, Zaniel was beyond inappropriate with what little information about his personal life was given.
Just as Anita, every conversation was like pulling teeth. Just get to the point. Five pages later, Anita (Oops, I mean Zaniel) is still going back & forth with an angel, doctor, nurse, police officer. over the most mundane of things, none of which has anything to do with the plot. What is meant to be banter comes off as frustratingly tedious. Why does every conversation feel as if the MC is combative, having to justify or prove herself (excuse me, I mean himself)
Zaniel Havelock, aka Havoc (can you guess where Havoc came from?) In the first 25%, every character calls Zaniel "Havoc", or says something like, "Your parents didn't like you, did they? Naming you Havoc Havelock. Hahaha." Where the reader is subject to once again hearing how it's a nickname. Then he (we) has to hear how cool the name Zaniel is, because Zaniel is just that dang AWESOME!
Seriously, time & time again, I was pretty sure the characters heard him tell others seconds ago, then purposefully lined up so we could go through it again. How hard is it to figure out it was a play on his last name? These people are doctors/professionals. Then again, why would they care? When people in a professional/hazardous situation meet, they don't examine why you're named what you're named. EVER. They don't even care what your name is, they just need to know what to call you should you mess up so they can report you to your superiors or put your name on a medical chart. This was redundantly tedious, not cutesy in any fashion. I mean, there's a time & a place, & distraught and terrorized hospital staff could seriously give af about a nickname.
C'mon!
Then there is Kate, a patient in the middle of being sexually assaulted, physically tortured, and threatened with a gruesome murder via DEMON, after she witnessed a man's arm pulled from his body and a fellow nurse nearly murdered, and she has to stop everything to be insulted that the demon called her Katie instead of Kate. Seriously, why? Really? Is this the hill Kate wanted to die on, the indignity of being called Katie? Is this even remotely what would happen based on the human condition? Of all that, she's insulted he called her KATIE, not when he called her a bunch of ridiculously misogynistic derogatory names? Huh?
Oh, we even had to hear about Hazel's name too. WHY?!
I'm sorry, but Zaniel was a creep. Full stop. And the other characters were just as frickin' bizarre in their behaviors. Only being I could accept this from was the nameless angel in the beginning, as he's in no way subject to the human condition.
Irony on how the demon (rider & horse) was a "Nice Guy" incel who raped & murdered a coed, who was holding a hospital hostage, tore a guy's arm off, almost killed a male nurse, & just raped a female patient...
Hazel the nurse- old enough to be Zaniel's mother, because that's super important -they flirt while he BLEEDS from an injury just sustained, they do that "Havoc" routine, and suddenly Zaniel drops how he's married with a 3-year-old out of nowhere, all the while feeling super duper randy.
Suddenly, after LKH realizes she never properly introduced the character, at 25%, when it's the most inappropriate time, after nonstop world-building, battling, tediously combative conversations, & nickname explaining, Zaniel gets too personal, disgustingly so.
Seriously, 25% before the reader learns the MC is married with a kid, while he's actively flirting at the scene of a violent crime and rape. At that point, the only personal stuff we knew about him was his occupation & height and angelic background.
Inappropriate. Zaniel's a messenger for angels, who are messengers for God, but he's on multiple marriages, while flirting with a nurse, with a rape victim waiting to speak to him. Does God employ emotionless, unethical sociopaths now?
The victims & staff dgaf about your marital woes or frickin` nickname! Time & place, dude! Time & place! Even the reader needs the appropriate time & place to "hear" it.
Hazel the nurse, you suck too! Your colleagues were just terrorized & your patient needs your HELP. Get your hormones in check!
Then as Hazel the nurse leads Zaniel to see Kate "Don't call me Katie" who was just brutalized by a demon in all ways (after Hazel & Zaniel made her wait while they flirted) he brazenly stares at Hazel's rear like a total NICE GUY as she leads him to. See. A. Rape. Victim. Staring at Hazel's ass while thinking this has been a painfully long 6-month celibacy since he started banging like a stud at 15. He just quite literally listened as a demon attacked a woman in the most grievous of ways, and this is where his head is at.
This is where I need to point out, this was a make or break moment for me. LKH isn't known for treating female characters with dignity and respect, strong misogynistic vibes with the NLOG energy (Not Like Other Girls) Look at how dippy Kate and Hazel were written. First, Hazel the nurse insinuates that Kate will be needy with romantic and sexual desires for Zaniel since he saved her (saved her from a situation he directly placed her in, but why mince words, right?) so he better gently let the RAPE VICTIM down.
Make or break. Without Zaniel's misplaced lust, & perhaps an ounce of survivor's guilt, sympathy & compassion, empathy maybe, or 2 seconds to stop & think about what just happened so even the reader could catch their breath and digest how the world building and plot fits in with Zaniel's newly shown personality, I wouldn't have thought Zaniel a monster but no... he suddenly wants to bang both the nurse and the rape victim while currently married to a woman he loves, sharing a 3-year-old with her. But, ya know, she told him it was okay to see other people, so now is the PERFECT opportunity for the Nice Guy Opportunist.
C'mon!
Why LKH introduced Zaniel's marital history, need to get laid, seconds after a huge battle, while being injured himself, with people who lost their lives or were irreparably harmed all around them, then to worry the rape victim would "WANT" him (for "not" saving her, white knight that he is) as he mulled over the merits of her height & age as whether or not she was phuckable, while she was lying vulnerable in a hospital bed moments after being violated.
Irony with the "Nice Guy" demon when our hero was one himself...
All of that is NICE Guy in the extreme. The entitlement and ego and one track mind.
LKH turned Zaniel into a monster for me right then & there, & I was so done at that point. So done. So gross, so not the time nor place. Only monsters get hot & bothered after allowing a woman to be victimized (there was a hospital bed in front of the cracked door. How hard was it to have three guys shove hard, since the beds are literally on WHEELS!) while others were quite literally torn limb from limb, then honestly believe himself so irresistible that he'd have to let Kate down gently... as she healed in all ways from being violated! While he reduced her to her height & age & whether or not he thought her bangable. He expected undying love & for her legs to pop open because he was her "savior" & how uncomfortable it would be to tell her no. Instead of Kate going boy crazy for Zaniel, we (Zaniel and the reader) get some odd mythical creature world building from Russia that I'm pretty sure doesn't rear its head again.
That's on LKH. Full stop! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO MAKE HIM CREEPY & DISGUSTING. RIGHT. THEN?!? Book ruined for me because of it. Why?
After all that, while Kate is suffering the indignity of a rape kit (administered by Horny Hazel who warned Zaniel off the needy but not actually needy victim), right outside her door in the hallway, Zaniel & his cop buddies go on and on about his workout routine & how strong & amazing he is, while he inner monologues about how his "fat & out of shape" coworkers try to hook him up with their "hot and young" relatives, while he is currently married with a kid (idgaf if he's separated, the ink isn't dry on yet another divorce decree and he still wants to be married to her) because we need to understand how cops need to destress from the job... outside her door, as she was being re-violated... which is where I found no redeeming qualities in him. None.
Hot "Nice Guy" Zaniel, vapid & emotionless "we can't take our work home with us" excuse as to why he shrugs it all off (but you can at least wait to get out of the vicinity of the victims) with no empathy, yet beyond religious. Hmm... this character profile doesn't seem to add up. Doesn't need to be pious just not a full-fledged C R E E P.
And what's up with giving everyone's height as a descriptor? I knew nothing of these characters, but I know Kate is 5' 7" as if measured while lying prone in a hospital bed, not standing upright, with a blanket covering said legs. Did Zaniel get out a dang tape measure? Zero emotions but we must know their height in feet & inches. I miss the clothing descriptions LKH is infamous for, but we do still get weapons and ammo details... and height.
DNF. Put a fork in this series, I'm not trying the next. And this makes me very unhappy, makes me feel awful. I tried for a solid week to read past that point but the rage kept coming up every time Zaniel spoke or thought.
I was beyond excited for new characters, a new world, and a male protagonist. Never thought I'd abandon an LKH book at 25% but I must. Perhaps after the world building, the second book would resonate more, but I found the MC to be an emotionless, loathsome creep. It's impossible to read a series if you can't stand the narrator.
Irony with how Zaniel is directly tied to the big man himself. G O D.
The struggle was real... especially in the beginning, during a tedious convo with an angel at a murder scene. The poor dude just wanted to relay a short message, but Zaniel (LKH) just had to be tedious and exhausting for the reader & the angel. I'm sure some of her fans will understand that statement better than a new reader. Imagine Anita arguing with the detective in charge at a murder scene, who obviously has biases against her, instead of letting it go, she has to be unbelievably difficult. Yeah, now you get Zaniel.
Out of everything I read in quarter of a novel, only that nameless angel made me curious. That was the hook for me, but I found Zaniel impossible to wade through in order to get to the angelic world-building.
LKH's voice shined through the voice of the character. As one of her biggest fans, this was an issue because I could "hear" Anita- Anita's less than easy to deal with qualities & none of her deeply flawed human ones that were so easy to relate to as a reader.
Zaniel was stiff, more overview narrator than a fully fleshed-out character who emotes feelings. I don't mean because he's a new character. Just that he has no inner monologue about his personal life outside of world building until it's the most inappropriate time. No feelings whatsoever, so me (the reader) had zero emotional investment in the story or characters. It was constant world-building, police procedural, and demonic action. Once a small slice of downtime came, Zaniel was beyond inappropriate with what little information about his personal life was given.
Just as Anita, every conversation was like pulling teeth. Just get to the point. Five pages later, Anita (Oops, I mean Zaniel) is still going back & forth with an angel, doctor, nurse, police officer. over the most mundane of things, none of which has anything to do with the plot. What is meant to be banter comes off as frustratingly tedious. Why does every conversation feel as if the MC is combative, having to justify or prove herself (excuse me, I mean himself)
Zaniel Havelock, aka Havoc (can you guess where Havoc came from?) In the first 25%, every character calls Zaniel "Havoc", or says something like, "Your parents didn't like you, did they? Naming you Havoc Havelock. Hahaha." Where the reader is subject to once again hearing how it's a nickname. Then he (we) has to hear how cool the name Zaniel is, because Zaniel is just that dang AWESOME!
Seriously, time & time again, I was pretty sure the characters heard him tell others seconds ago, then purposefully lined up so we could go through it again. How hard is it to figure out it was a play on his last name? These people are doctors/professionals. Then again, why would they care? When people in a professional/hazardous situation meet, they don't examine why you're named what you're named. EVER. They don't even care what your name is, they just need to know what to call you should you mess up so they can report you to your superiors or put your name on a medical chart. This was redundantly tedious, not cutesy in any fashion. I mean, there's a time & a place, & distraught and terrorized hospital staff could seriously give af about a nickname.
C'mon!
Then there is Kate, a patient in the middle of being sexually assaulted, physically tortured, and threatened with a gruesome murder via DEMON, after she witnessed a man's arm pulled from his body and a fellow nurse nearly murdered, and she has to stop everything to be insulted that the demon called her Katie instead of Kate. Seriously, why? Really? Is this the hill Kate wanted to die on, the indignity of being called Katie? Is this even remotely what would happen based on the human condition? Of all that, she's insulted he called her KATIE, not when he called her a bunch of ridiculously misogynistic derogatory names? Huh?
Oh, we even had to hear about Hazel's name too. WHY?!
I'm sorry, but Zaniel was a creep. Full stop. And the other characters were just as frickin' bizarre in their behaviors. Only being I could accept this from was the nameless angel in the beginning, as he's in no way subject to the human condition.
Irony on how the demon (rider & horse) was a "Nice Guy" incel who raped & murdered a coed, who was holding a hospital hostage, tore a guy's arm off, almost killed a male nurse, & just raped a female patient...
Hazel the nurse- old enough to be Zaniel's mother, because that's super important -they flirt while he BLEEDS from an injury just sustained, they do that "Havoc" routine, and suddenly Zaniel drops how he's married with a 3-year-old out of nowhere, all the while feeling super duper randy.
Suddenly, after LKH realizes she never properly introduced the character, at 25%, when it's the most inappropriate time, after nonstop world-building, battling, tediously combative conversations, & nickname explaining, Zaniel gets too personal, disgustingly so.
Seriously, 25% before the reader learns the MC is married with a kid, while he's actively flirting at the scene of a violent crime and rape. At that point, the only personal stuff we knew about him was his occupation & height and angelic background.
Inappropriate. Zaniel's a messenger for angels, who are messengers for God, but he's on multiple marriages, while flirting with a nurse, with a rape victim waiting to speak to him. Does God employ emotionless, unethical sociopaths now?
The victims & staff dgaf about your marital woes or frickin` nickname! Time & place, dude! Time & place! Even the reader needs the appropriate time & place to "hear" it.
Hazel the nurse, you suck too! Your colleagues were just terrorized & your patient needs your HELP. Get your hormones in check!
Then as Hazel the nurse leads Zaniel to see Kate "Don't call me Katie" who was just brutalized by a demon in all ways (after Hazel & Zaniel made her wait while they flirted) he brazenly stares at Hazel's rear like a total NICE GUY as she leads him to. See. A. Rape. Victim. Staring at Hazel's ass while thinking this has been a painfully long 6-month celibacy since he started banging like a stud at 15. He just quite literally listened as a demon attacked a woman in the most grievous of ways, and this is where his head is at.
This is where I need to point out, this was a make or break moment for me. LKH isn't known for treating female characters with dignity and respect, strong misogynistic vibes with the NLOG energy (Not Like Other Girls) Look at how dippy Kate and Hazel were written. First, Hazel the nurse insinuates that Kate will be needy with romantic and sexual desires for Zaniel since he saved her (saved her from a situation he directly placed her in, but why mince words, right?) so he better gently let the RAPE VICTIM down.
Make or break. Without Zaniel's misplaced lust, & perhaps an ounce of survivor's guilt, sympathy & compassion, empathy maybe, or 2 seconds to stop & think about what just happened so even the reader could catch their breath and digest how the world building and plot fits in with Zaniel's newly shown personality, I wouldn't have thought Zaniel a monster but no... he suddenly wants to bang both the nurse and the rape victim while currently married to a woman he loves, sharing a 3-year-old with her. But, ya know, she told him it was okay to see other people, so now is the PERFECT opportunity for the Nice Guy Opportunist.
C'mon!
Why LKH introduced Zaniel's marital history, need to get laid, seconds after a huge battle, while being injured himself, with people who lost their lives or were irreparably harmed all around them, then to worry the rape victim would "WANT" him (for "not" saving her, white knight that he is) as he mulled over the merits of her height & age as whether or not she was phuckable, while she was lying vulnerable in a hospital bed moments after being violated.
Irony with the "Nice Guy" demon when our hero was one himself...
All of that is NICE Guy in the extreme. The entitlement and ego and one track mind.
LKH turned Zaniel into a monster for me right then & there, & I was so done at that point. So done. So gross, so not the time nor place. Only monsters get hot & bothered after allowing a woman to be victimized (there was a hospital bed in front of the cracked door. How hard was it to have three guys shove hard, since the beds are literally on WHEELS!) while others were quite literally torn limb from limb, then honestly believe himself so irresistible that he'd have to let Kate down gently... as she healed in all ways from being violated! While he reduced her to her height & age & whether or not he thought her bangable. He expected undying love & for her legs to pop open because he was her "savior" & how uncomfortable it would be to tell her no. Instead of Kate going boy crazy for Zaniel, we (Zaniel and the reader) get some odd mythical creature world building from Russia that I'm pretty sure doesn't rear its head again.
That's on LKH. Full stop! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO MAKE HIM CREEPY & DISGUSTING. RIGHT. THEN?!? Book ruined for me because of it. Why?
After all that, while Kate is suffering the indignity of a rape kit (administered by Horny Hazel who warned Zaniel off the needy but not actually needy victim), right outside her door in the hallway, Zaniel & his cop buddies go on and on about his workout routine & how strong & amazing he is, while he inner monologues about how his "fat & out of shape" coworkers try to hook him up with their "hot and young" relatives, while he is currently married with a kid (idgaf if he's separated, the ink isn't dry on yet another divorce decree and he still wants to be married to her) because we need to understand how cops need to destress from the job... outside her door, as she was being re-violated... which is where I found no redeeming qualities in him. None.
Hot "Nice Guy" Zaniel, vapid & emotionless "we can't take our work home with us" excuse as to why he shrugs it all off (but you can at least wait to get out of the vicinity of the victims) with no empathy, yet beyond religious. Hmm... this character profile doesn't seem to add up. Doesn't need to be pious just not a full-fledged C R E E P.
And what's up with giving everyone's height as a descriptor? I knew nothing of these characters, but I know Kate is 5' 7" as if measured while lying prone in a hospital bed, not standing upright, with a blanket covering said legs. Did Zaniel get out a dang tape measure? Zero emotions but we must know their height in feet & inches. I miss the clothing descriptions LKH is infamous for, but we do still get weapons and ammo details... and height.
DNF. Put a fork in this series, I'm not trying the next. And this makes me very unhappy, makes me feel awful. I tried for a solid week to read past that point but the rage kept coming up every time Zaniel spoke or thought.
September 1, 2021
Content note: rape/sexual assault
Review contains spoilers.
Review contains spoilers.
January 31, 2022
A Terrible Fall of Angels
(Zaniel Havelock #1)
by Laurell K. Hamilton
A new series that has a guy with the nickname of Havoc as a Angel Speaker. He is part of a detective team that deals with the supernatural. He can see people's Guardian angels, totem animals, demons, and other supernatural things. Each team member is specialized at something.
It's a pretty good story with great characters! A fresh exciting start!
(Zaniel Havelock #1)
by Laurell K. Hamilton
A new series that has a guy with the nickname of Havoc as a Angel Speaker. He is part of a detective team that deals with the supernatural. He can see people's Guardian angels, totem animals, demons, and other supernatural things. Each team member is specialized at something.
It's a pretty good story with great characters! A fresh exciting start!
August 11, 2021
As intriguing as this premise is...it really missed the mark.
With any new series there will be world-building, any avid reader would expect this, however, there is usually backstory and a flow and reasoning. This book had none of that, it was truly all over the place with the information dump and at times very random and in the most awkward ways.
Our male protagonist, Zaniel (Havoc), is just plain exhausting. I felt no real draw to him, nor to any of the other characters, they really fell flat for me. There was one intriguing character and that was her, the nameless angel. Hopefully there will more of her in the follow up book.
The plot, if you can truly call it that, was weak at best and truly the timing of it all just felt rushed.
Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for allowing me to read a copy early.
With any new series there will be world-building, any avid reader would expect this, however, there is usually backstory and a flow and reasoning. This book had none of that, it was truly all over the place with the information dump and at times very random and in the most awkward ways.
Our male protagonist, Zaniel (Havoc), is just plain exhausting. I felt no real draw to him, nor to any of the other characters, they really fell flat for me. There was one intriguing character and that was her, the nameless angel. Hopefully there will more of her in the follow up book.
The plot, if you can truly call it that, was weak at best and truly the timing of it all just felt rushed.
Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for allowing me to read a copy early.
Want to read
April 6, 2021I am arguably too excited over this, but I don't care. BRING ON THE ANGELS!
August 19, 2021
Title: A Terrible Fall of Angels
Series: Zaniel Havelock #1
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Release date: August 19, 2021
Cliffhanger: no
Genre: PNR, UF
I just finished a four hundred page information dump on demons, angels, witches, spirit guides, animal guides, guardian angels, a baba yaga descendant, a voodoo priest, a "remote viewer," different specialties in the College of Angels, and abrupt, abstract descriptions of otherworldly interactions in the heavenly realm. As you would imagine, I'm feeling just little bit mentally exhausted after such a marathon of data. There was a slew of characters from Zaniel's past at the College of Angels, there was another huge set of police force characters-and if that wasn't enough, some of the characters had three different names. (Zaniel couldn't even get his best friend's name straight for the life of him.) So in other words, there was so much to compute that my brain is feeling a little numb right now. I'm going to try to sum things up as concisely and clearly as possible.
This was my first read by this author so I have nothing to compare this new series to. I've always been curious about Ms. Hamilton's work because of the popularity of her Anita Blake books. However, as a blogger I just didn't have the time to attempt an established 28 book series when I have so many ARC obligations on my plate. That's why I jumped at the chance to try out her new Zaniel Havelock series. My first impression here was that she's a big fan of detail. Normally that's a good thing to have intricate world building in urban fantasy. In this case, it was on the opposite side of the spectrum from "too little, too late." There were supernatural lessons like these littered through every chapter- even in the middle of character building, internal dialogue.
“Infernals take on the appearances of the human imagination nearest them,” Charleston said. “What?” Miller asked.
“What he said,” the female security guard said.
“It means they look like what the nearest human thinks they should look like, but they won’t appear in their true Hellish form, not here on Earth, except maybe for a second, then it changes,” I said. I didn’t add that a second could be enough for insanity or death for the human seeing it, but our minds protected us from so much, including demons. If a person could survive that second, then what they thought changed what they saw; demons used it to appear as our worst nightmares, but even that was usually less soul-destroying then the demon’s original form.
You take your time to get a good grasp on what is being explained, but the problem is that the infernal creature committing murders in the central mystery plot breaks all the rules in the rulebook. So this thing has abilities that contradict everything we've been told and by the end of the book, there was only the barest hint of why that could be. I understand that this is the introduction to a very long series and we should expect things to be drawn out far into the future, but I felt that the purpose of this book was to simply teach us who the characters were and begin to explain the world they live in. There were many different plot arcs such as Zaniel's marriage difficulties, his friend Levanael's mental illness recovery, his mysterious past affair with a Seraphim, the events that broke his faith in the college of angels, and attempting to piece together the mystery of the demon possessed/merged Cookson. The plot was so erratic, jumping from one point to another, that your attention never truly has time to engage with any one thing. To be frank, my favorite parts of the book were the action sequences where Zaniel was facing off with the demonic being. All of the other parts were often rambling, disjointed scenes stuck together.
For instance, why was Kate introduced? She is supposed to be from the lineage of a russian folklore witch called Baba Yaga. Zaniel seems notably attracted to her (despite his conflicted feelings about putting his family back together). He has an odd wound from her that keeps strangely seeping blood which we're led to believe has some deeper meaning. Then it just heals at the end and nothing ever comes of it. She never enters the story again, and we don't know why the wound behaved that way. Then there's the conflict that occurred with the spirit animal raccoon. We were told that this was a very strange and worrisome thing that the raccoon had been separated from a witch named Ravensong. She and Emily were both so distressed over the matter and then after the climax of the story it was never addressed again. Lila and Adam got only a hint of a romantic connection before disappearing from the story. Then we have the tangled mess of the College of Angels. I can't seem to get a cohesive picture of that place at all.
Zaniel grew up in the College of Angels. For a long time, he believed that he was training for a higher purpose and putting his supernatural gifts with angels to good use. He and his best friends Surrie and Lev were like the three musketeers in the strict religious faction he lived in until he broke away and joined the military. Something happened to severely disillusion him and I sensed that it was caused by the leaders in particular. However, what they were being taught about angels and demons actually seemed valid. Zaniel himself truly has the ability to communicate with angels and yet he feels as if he has just been indoctrinated by the group.
She was still comfortable and secure in the College of Angels and everything they taught us there. No, not taught, indoctrinated. How do you know you’re in a cult? You usually don’t until something happens that is so terrible you can’t ignore it, or pretend it didn’t happen, and then you start questioning everything.
Zaniel is able to withstand holy fire and speak with the higher forms of Celestial beings without dying or going crazy. Surrie helps heal people who are demon touched-once again, a true ability. She's even called in as a consultant for one of Zaniel's jobs on the force. And yet, the college is classified as a cult by Zaniel and the rest of society. There was even a Netflix documentary about their cult-like practice of recruiting children and then permanently keeping them from their parents. Why would the police force recruit help from a cult? That would be like recruiting a Scientologist even though its been established that they are brainwashed at best and criminals at worst. The definition of a cult is a religious sect considered to be extremist or false. Most of the time led by one charismatic or deranged leader. Holding the kids captive fits, the extreme rules forced on the members, the disassociation from members who leave...they fit. So then why are they teaching them legitimate skills rooted in truth? Why did Zaniel feel loyalty towards the "masters" at the College when they very clearly failed his friend and ruined his mind for over a decade? I was baffled as to why he seemed to be defending them when Levanael confided in him that they played a large role in his tragic break from reality. It didn't begin to come together for me.
“So, you are no longer Christian,” she said. “I am still a follower of Christ.” “How is that different from being Christian?” she asked. “I find organized religion difficult to deal with.”
Again, I get that there will be many books to come in the series that will potentially shed some light on all of my questions and inconsistencies. I just don't know if I am suitably invested in our hero Zaniel enough to wade any deeper into these murky waters. I felt like he was a good guy for the most part, but I didn't get a full grasp of what shaped him to be who he is now. And by the time book two comes around, the characters and plot points will need to be refreshed in my mind all over again. If you love complex stories and paranormal series with very detailed world building this could very well be the book for you. Unfortunately, this one was just okay for me so I think I may have to throw in the towel here.
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August 18, 2021
18.08.21
This book is Ok but there is so much problems. First of all, it is like a didactic child book, we are always explaining the world always chatting. The person says call her before your phone rings and we are still talking shit and waiting. In real world half an hour passed man, alive is dead and young is old.
The topic is just so simple. What was the problem which made angels talk to Zaniel again? Yeah, it was not that big of a deal now was it.
Character is not original.
All of the female characters are problematic. First woman we see, dead and raped. Second one scared shitless, on the floor, nurses are blissed out, other one raped. We see police woman, she is bi/lez.
So repetitive. Two pages ago, Emma says these are like this, two pages later we are issued same thing, with the same sullen and serious context. It is like nobody reads these books before publication.
He is truly the male Anita. Always blushing, getting shy, getting compliments, everybody hits on him. But he has only eyes for oooone person.
However, this book needs an editor or more wilingly author to get the help of an editor.
LKH has a problem with women.
And I am totally done reading her.
Oh, no orgy or sex. That is a win I suppose.
----
Finally she decides that she needs to write something new. Welcome male Anita I suppose.
This book is Ok but there is so much problems. First of all, it is like a didactic child book, we are always explaining the world always chatting. The person says call her before your phone rings and we are still talking shit and waiting. In real world half an hour passed man, alive is dead and young is old.
The topic is just so simple. What was the problem which made angels talk to Zaniel again? Yeah, it was not that big of a deal now was it.
Character is not original.
All of the female characters are problematic. First woman we see, dead and raped. Second one scared shitless, on the floor, nurses are blissed out, other one raped. We see police woman, she is bi/lez.
So repetitive. Two pages ago, Emma says these are like this, two pages later we are issued same thing, with the same sullen and serious context. It is like nobody reads these books before publication.
He is truly the male Anita. Always blushing, getting shy, getting compliments, everybody hits on him. But he has only eyes for oooone person.
However, this book needs an editor or more wilingly author to get the help of an editor.
LKH has a problem with women.
And I am totally done reading her.
Oh, no orgy or sex. That is a win I suppose.
----
Finally she decides that she needs to write something new. Welcome male Anita I suppose.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 17, 2022
I'm of two minds on this. Let me break down this review into both A: I'm very familiar with everything LKH has written and I'm comparing this to that and B: let's just objectively rate this book based on nothing more than itself.
A: It's not a sexcapade! Yay! It's full of supernatural stuff, police procedural stuff, and some really cool nasties that fall in the category of both Angels and Demons. In my humble opinion, LKH has always done these things very well. The sexcapade stuff was often a take it or leave it kind of thing until it became almost everything and left all the wonderful supernatural, police procedural, and cool nasties to flounder in the dirt.
Does this stack up with the other delightful snark and cute plushy early Anita? No. It has a lot it has to introduce and isn't as sharply focused as that series. Indeed, there's a lot of worldbuilding and changes of pace going on here that may or may not annoy some people. I personally enjoyed the new, wide stage. A school of angel speakers, all other kinds of magic practitioners, all uneasily adapted to the modern world but fully integrated for all that. I like it. The only real kind of subtext here is not about free love or anything but about MENTAL HEALTH. To me, that's pretty damn refreshing and welcome. We're all a bunch of crazies or live with crazies and then there's also the people who really do suffer from honest tragedies and they are treated with RESPECT. I love that.
B: Taking the book on its own merits, or at least comparing it to the general UF field, I have to admit that it begins fairly strong, quickly becomes a muddled mess until we finally get some character building, history, and a sense of who Havlock is, but after that, I had no problem with his meeting up with his old schoolmates in odd circumstances. It made me invested in the book more than the first half which was just police procedural without us having been broken in.
That isn't to say it was a particularly bad UF. It could have been more streamlined, maybe a different better order of introduction, but I was perfectly happy to roll with the whole book because I still have faith in the author's ability to pull off some interesting things.
And the angels ARE interesting. Think actual bible descriptions and not these weirdos with wings except when they're forcing themselves into good behavior. And they really don't have much free will. It's an interesting dynamic.
Putting all of it together, I have to say I'm NOT as invested as I want to be but I AM invested enough to continue on with the series and write this one off as a solid introduction.
A: It's not a sexcapade! Yay! It's full of supernatural stuff, police procedural stuff, and some really cool nasties that fall in the category of both Angels and Demons. In my humble opinion, LKH has always done these things very well. The sexcapade stuff was often a take it or leave it kind of thing until it became almost everything and left all the wonderful supernatural, police procedural, and cool nasties to flounder in the dirt.
Does this stack up with the other delightful snark and cute plushy early Anita? No. It has a lot it has to introduce and isn't as sharply focused as that series. Indeed, there's a lot of worldbuilding and changes of pace going on here that may or may not annoy some people. I personally enjoyed the new, wide stage. A school of angel speakers, all other kinds of magic practitioners, all uneasily adapted to the modern world but fully integrated for all that. I like it. The only real kind of subtext here is not about free love or anything but about MENTAL HEALTH. To me, that's pretty damn refreshing and welcome. We're all a bunch of crazies or live with crazies and then there's also the people who really do suffer from honest tragedies and they are treated with RESPECT. I love that.
B: Taking the book on its own merits, or at least comparing it to the general UF field, I have to admit that it begins fairly strong, quickly becomes a muddled mess until we finally get some character building, history, and a sense of who Havlock is, but after that, I had no problem with his meeting up with his old schoolmates in odd circumstances. It made me invested in the book more than the first half which was just police procedural without us having been broken in.
That isn't to say it was a particularly bad UF. It could have been more streamlined, maybe a different better order of introduction, but I was perfectly happy to roll with the whole book because I still have faith in the author's ability to pull off some interesting things.
And the angels ARE interesting. Think actual bible descriptions and not these weirdos with wings except when they're forcing themselves into good behavior. And they really don't have much free will. It's an interesting dynamic.
Putting all of it together, I have to say I'm NOT as invested as I want to be but I AM invested enough to continue on with the series and write this one off as a solid introduction.
August 7, 2021
I love supernatural thrillers. The premise for this book fascinated me. And, so, I expected to at least like, if not love, the story.
It's a DNF (did not finish) for me.
The short and not so sweet of it:
The plot execution is a mess. The story is all over the place. Nothing made much sense. The characters are just sort of there. And I didn't care about any of it.
I gave up a little past the halfway point.
*I received a free eARC from the publisher, via NetGalley, which they're probably now regretting.*
It's a DNF (did not finish) for me.
The short and not so sweet of it:
The plot execution is a mess. The story is all over the place. Nothing made much sense. The characters are just sort of there. And I didn't care about any of it.
I gave up a little past the halfway point.
*I received a free eARC from the publisher, via NetGalley, which they're probably now regretting.*
September 3, 2021
A little to much "religion" at times but was needed for the world building. I was definitely glad about the lack of Hamilton’s known "sexcapades". Looking forward to the next, hoping she can keep up with her series'.
🔸 4 stars 🔸
🔸 4 stars 🔸
August 18, 2021
I am a huge fan of her Blake and merry books. But this book is a piece of junk. They added so many useless things. Apparently her new editor is awful. Seriously you couldn’t have made a book more boring. I was all excited at the beginning. It was a great start. Then the book just ran on and on. Seriously I started skipping pages. Something I’ve never done with her books.
LK goes from rape and sexual torture in beauty. To this no sex but boring book. I was happy with the no sex part. Being tired of the orgies. It’s wasn’t that I wanted that. I just want a story that keeps me interested. This book as great start and ok end. The middle drags on like nails on a chalkboard. I asked for a refund. That’s how terrible boring it was. Save your hard earned money.
LK goes from rape and sexual torture in beauty. To this no sex but boring book. I was happy with the no sex part. Being tired of the orgies. It’s wasn’t that I wanted that. I just want a story that keeps me interested. This book as great start and ok end. The middle drags on like nails on a chalkboard. I asked for a refund. That’s how terrible boring it was. Save your hard earned money.
April 29, 2022
Interesting new characters and world. As with the later Anita Blake books of that series, there is more dialog (especially about everyone's feelings) and not as much action. Still, I will continue to read Hamilton's stories and hope for her earlier writing.
August 19, 2021
Face palm
I'm not even finished with this book yet 😒 I've honestly been trudging through, and am at 70% of the book, and I'm honestly clueless right now.
Let me back up and say I was a huge Anita Blake fan until it became more orgy than story, so I wanted to give this one a shot.
The beginning seemed promising. Raped and murdered chick found in a bed with angel feathers. Mystery crime... cool. At 70% there has been zero sex, (I don't mind sex in books as long as it accompanies an actual plot) but I'm not really sure what the plot is?
Spoiler?
So again, at the beginning, there was a murder that Zaniel/Havoc/detective Havelock was investigating that had to do with a weird demon. Ok cool. They had a fight in the hospital... I'm pretty sure he killed the human that was working with the demon... no clue what happened to the demon itself.... fast forward like 45% of the book because I really don't remember what happened.... Surriel is helping Havoc with something with some other chick... and there's a lot of talk about the College of Angels and his history with them and then it's almost like they're foreshadowing some nefarious tidbits about the college??
I dont know.... there are SO MANY characters to keep up with and SO much filler... like... Connery his 3 year old son... should be a close secondary character, because he's talked about a lot, but he hasn't been in the first scene yet. Reggie, his always angry wife who he isn't sure he loves... has been in 1 scene... I can't even name all the characters.
Surriel, Jamie, Havoc, Charleston, MacGregor, the other MacGregor, the one guy he may or may not be friends with that he punched in the kidneys at one point in the book? The other dude that was with them, the medical examiners assistant that had a LONG scene about getting Havocs shirt as evidence... he was literally fighting with him over whether he should take his shirt off in front of his colleagues or wait for him to go into the locker room... and then there was a scene with the medical examiners assistant maybe getting a date with one of the other chick characters?? Not sure if that ever happened or not....
I'm just not even really sure what this book is even about and I'm 3/4 through it already.
*Edited to add the last 30% I struggled through was no better*
Definitely disappointed in this book
I'm not even finished with this book yet 😒 I've honestly been trudging through, and am at 70% of the book, and I'm honestly clueless right now.
Let me back up and say I was a huge Anita Blake fan until it became more orgy than story, so I wanted to give this one a shot.
The beginning seemed promising. Raped and murdered chick found in a bed with angel feathers. Mystery crime... cool. At 70% there has been zero sex, (I don't mind sex in books as long as it accompanies an actual plot) but I'm not really sure what the plot is?
Spoiler?
So again, at the beginning, there was a murder that Zaniel/Havoc/detective Havelock was investigating that had to do with a weird demon. Ok cool. They had a fight in the hospital... I'm pretty sure he killed the human that was working with the demon... no clue what happened to the demon itself.... fast forward like 45% of the book because I really don't remember what happened.... Surriel is helping Havoc with something with some other chick... and there's a lot of talk about the College of Angels and his history with them and then it's almost like they're foreshadowing some nefarious tidbits about the college??
I dont know.... there are SO MANY characters to keep up with and SO much filler... like... Connery his 3 year old son... should be a close secondary character, because he's talked about a lot, but he hasn't been in the first scene yet. Reggie, his always angry wife who he isn't sure he loves... has been in 1 scene... I can't even name all the characters.
Surriel, Jamie, Havoc, Charleston, MacGregor, the other MacGregor, the one guy he may or may not be friends with that he punched in the kidneys at one point in the book? The other dude that was with them, the medical examiners assistant that had a LONG scene about getting Havocs shirt as evidence... he was literally fighting with him over whether he should take his shirt off in front of his colleagues or wait for him to go into the locker room... and then there was a scene with the medical examiners assistant maybe getting a date with one of the other chick characters?? Not sure if that ever happened or not....
I'm just not even really sure what this book is even about and I'm 3/4 through it already.
*Edited to add the last 30% I struggled through was no better*
Definitely disappointed in this book
June 12, 2021
I really wish I read slower or authors wrote faster. The only thing I don’t like about getting books early is having to wait so long for the next one. This is absolutely fantastic. I need to absorb before writing a real review.
September 1, 2021
I cannot stress enough how badly this book is edited. The conversations are *all* stilted, needlessly combative, and repetitive as hell. Chapter length is inconsistent, with several consecutive chapters in an early fight scene averaging 1 page. The story itself is weirdly paced, with the conclusion coming from seemingly nowhere and wrapping up approximately none of the plot points introduced. The portrayal of women is pretty gross, with a huge focus on the fact that all women the protagonist meets will definitely fall at his feet.
September 1, 2021
I expected more from a seasoned author like Hamilton. My two biggest issues were pacing and lack of a cohesive plot. I didn’t have an issue with the characters, but none of them was particularly compelling, either. Frankly, I’ve read better books by self-published authors who have a lot less experience.
Read
September 24, 20215 things I really liked about this book:
1-There were some really cool demon fighting scenes
2-I liked hearing about the different powers that people had, that was really interesting and I'm hoping to learn more about them in the next book.
3-The angel speaker school. I like hearing about their different classes and the controversy about them.
4- The magic bottle. I was truly intrigued. What kind of being could craft such a powerful device and what is the sentient stuff inside?
5- The super unique demon who is the bad guy in this story.
Things that I absolutely hated about this book:
1- The constant misogyny. At this point I'm starting to wonder if LKH realizes that women are people. Women in the book are either makeup wearing whores or they're men with boobs. The "cool" women are bisexual, they don't wear make-up, they act like men, and they talk down to the makeup wearing whores. All of the women in the book hit on the protagonist (Z) regardless of sexual orientation. Even the female angel's only defining feature is that she's in love with the Z. She literally designed her body based on what he thought was sexy and is willing to throw away her relationship with god to stalk him.
2- The protagonist (Z) is Anita Blake with a penis. Everyone is super attracted to him, he has infinite powers but never remembers to use them, he's super confrontational all of the time, and he spends all of his energy on interpersonal drama and feeling sorry for himself instead of solving crimes.
3- The wife and kid storyline, including a chapter dedicated to their couple's therapy. Just fucking why. Like 1/4 of this book is Z thinking about his shitty relationship with his screaming harpy off a wife. Every time he thinks about her it's about her being a total bitch about something. He's attracted to every woman that he sees, and he barely ever thinks about his kid, who he doesn't even try to see once in the whole book.
4: The forced morality talks. I'm not talking about the religious stuff, I'm talking about where the creepy effeminate autistic man is screaming at Z to take his shirt off in front of everyone and then the characters have to explain to him that even hot people need privacy and then maybe LKH feels like she's too hard on her random annoying autistic character so we find out he's super powerful and the bisexual chick might even fuck him so look, autistic people can be valuable after all! Like, just don't. Or how the new black guy keeps getting mistaken for a basketball player by white women even though they don't actually look the same. Z explains to us that is racism. Z doesn't really trust the black guy and we never find out why.
5- The main storyline is quickly wrapped up with a typical LKH flair. The protagonist uses a new power that immediately kills the bad guy and the mystery is never really solved. Who is the powerful and unique demon? How does he become half human? Why did the human suddenly stop developing mentally at age 13? What does it have to do with the bottle? Why do the angels leave feathers on the bed when Z can literally just talk to them? Doesn't matter, he's dead, move on. Go home to your toxic relationship which is now miraculously better because your wife saw you unconscious in the hospital.
6- There's so much time devoted to dead end characters and arguing in circles about shit that nobody cares about. Please just get an editor with a backbone.
Overall I think that LKH has developed so many bad habits in her writing that even a new series can't save her. It's kind of like a toxic relationship. I can see the good parts of her writing and world building, and I know she would be an amazing author if she could just get past her own bullshit. I keep coming back because she has potential, but then here internalized misogyny and constant arguing and virtue signaling drive me away.
1-There were some really cool demon fighting scenes
2-I liked hearing about the different powers that people had, that was really interesting and I'm hoping to learn more about them in the next book.
3-The angel speaker school. I like hearing about their different classes and the controversy about them.
4- The magic bottle. I was truly intrigued. What kind of being could craft such a powerful device and what is the sentient stuff inside?
5- The super unique demon who is the bad guy in this story.
Things that I absolutely hated about this book:
1- The constant misogyny. At this point I'm starting to wonder if LKH realizes that women are people. Women in the book are either makeup wearing whores or they're men with boobs. The "cool" women are bisexual, they don't wear make-up, they act like men, and they talk down to the makeup wearing whores. All of the women in the book hit on the protagonist (Z) regardless of sexual orientation. Even the female angel's only defining feature is that she's in love with the Z. She literally designed her body based on what he thought was sexy and is willing to throw away her relationship with god to stalk him.
2- The protagonist (Z) is Anita Blake with a penis. Everyone is super attracted to him, he has infinite powers but never remembers to use them, he's super confrontational all of the time, and he spends all of his energy on interpersonal drama and feeling sorry for himself instead of solving crimes.
3- The wife and kid storyline, including a chapter dedicated to their couple's therapy. Just fucking why. Like 1/4 of this book is Z thinking about his shitty relationship with his screaming harpy off a wife. Every time he thinks about her it's about her being a total bitch about something. He's attracted to every woman that he sees, and he barely ever thinks about his kid, who he doesn't even try to see once in the whole book.
4: The forced morality talks. I'm not talking about the religious stuff, I'm talking about where the creepy effeminate autistic man is screaming at Z to take his shirt off in front of everyone and then the characters have to explain to him that even hot people need privacy and then maybe LKH feels like she's too hard on her random annoying autistic character so we find out he's super powerful and the bisexual chick might even fuck him so look, autistic people can be valuable after all! Like, just don't. Or how the new black guy keeps getting mistaken for a basketball player by white women even though they don't actually look the same. Z explains to us that is racism. Z doesn't really trust the black guy and we never find out why.
5- The main storyline is quickly wrapped up with a typical LKH flair. The protagonist uses a new power that immediately kills the bad guy and the mystery is never really solved. Who is the powerful and unique demon? How does he become half human? Why did the human suddenly stop developing mentally at age 13? What does it have to do with the bottle? Why do the angels leave feathers on the bed when Z can literally just talk to them? Doesn't matter, he's dead, move on. Go home to your toxic relationship which is now miraculously better because your wife saw you unconscious in the hospital.
6- There's so much time devoted to dead end characters and arguing in circles about shit that nobody cares about. Please just get an editor with a backbone.
Overall I think that LKH has developed so many bad habits in her writing that even a new series can't save her. It's kind of like a toxic relationship. I can see the good parts of her writing and world building, and I know she would be an amazing author if she could just get past her own bullshit. I keep coming back because she has potential, but then here internalized misogyny and constant arguing and virtue signaling drive me away.
August 22, 2021
I had an immense love for L.K.Hamilton and I continued to read Anita's stories well beyond the limit imposed by the fact that the author had begun to edit her books on her own and .... the havoc! The lack of plot was known to me and eventually I used to read the novels in the two series to go back and "say hello to old friends in between their orgy". So when I was sent the ARC of a new series by what was an author I had enjoyed, I was so ready to give it another chance, in fact, I was looking forward to it.
Unfortunately at 22% I stopped reading what seemed to me to be an even verbose and repetitive jumble of uninteresting characters, chaotic worldbuilding and some kind of poly-theology. I can only close this review of mine with a warm suggestion to the author to start real psychotherapy and stop using books as self-therapy and get back to having an editor other than herself.
Io avevo un amore smisurato per L.K.Hamilton e ho continuato a leggere le storie di Anita ben oltre il limite imposto dal fatto che l'autrice aveva cominciato ad editare i suoi libri da sola e.... lo scempio! La mancanza di trama mi era nota e alla fine ero solita leggere i romanzi delle due serie per tornare a "salutare i vecchi amici tra un orgia e l'altra" come dire. Quindi quando mi hanno mandato l'ARC di una nuova serie di quella che era un'autrice che avevo apprezzato, ero prontissima a darle una nuova chance, anzi, non aspettavo altro.
Purtroppo al 22% ho smesso di leggere quello che mi sembrava un'accozzaglia anche prolissa e ripetitiva di personaggi poco interessanti, worldbuilding caotico e qualche tipo di poli-teologia. Non posso che chiudere questa mia recensione con un caldo suggerimento all'autrice di iniziare una vera psicoterapia e smettere di usare i libri come auto-terapia e di tornare ad avere un editor diverso da lei stessa.
I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.
Unfortunately at 22% I stopped reading what seemed to me to be an even verbose and repetitive jumble of uninteresting characters, chaotic worldbuilding and some kind of poly-theology. I can only close this review of mine with a warm suggestion to the author to start real psychotherapy and stop using books as self-therapy and get back to having an editor other than herself.
Io avevo un amore smisurato per L.K.Hamilton e ho continuato a leggere le storie di Anita ben oltre il limite imposto dal fatto che l'autrice aveva cominciato ad editare i suoi libri da sola e.... lo scempio! La mancanza di trama mi era nota e alla fine ero solita leggere i romanzi delle due serie per tornare a "salutare i vecchi amici tra un orgia e l'altra" come dire. Quindi quando mi hanno mandato l'ARC di una nuova serie di quella che era un'autrice che avevo apprezzato, ero prontissima a darle una nuova chance, anzi, non aspettavo altro.
Purtroppo al 22% ho smesso di leggere quello che mi sembrava un'accozzaglia anche prolissa e ripetitiva di personaggi poco interessanti, worldbuilding caotico e qualche tipo di poli-teologia. Non posso che chiudere questa mia recensione con un caldo suggerimento all'autrice di iniziare una vera psicoterapia e smettere di usare i libri come auto-terapia e di tornare ad avere un editor diverso da lei stessa.
I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.
did-not-finish
October 28, 2021All of the problems with later Anita Blake novels, wrapped up in a new package. Thanks to all the people who powered through - reading your reviews let me know I can put this down after 25 pages with no regrets. Yikes.
August 15, 2021
DNF at 16%, review to come
November 9, 2021
It was nice to have a new series that was refocused on cops who solve horrific paranormal crimes, but overall this book was just ok for me. I didn’t really like or connect to the main character (although I imagine being indoctrinated into what sounded cult like at 7 would hurt your social skills as an adult). Part of it was probably that I don’t have a lot of interest in angels (although I did like the demonic villain quite a bit. In this world all religious groups have true mystical power. The main character Zaniel was taken at age 7 and brought to the college where children who can see angels are brought up believing angels and God are the only power despite ample evidence they are wrong. Zaniel left after finishing training went to the army and later became a cop. When a case involving a demon crosses his path he will have to be tested on if he is still able to call on angels.
May 6, 2022
"The fact that it had to listen to hear God's voice meant it wasn't pure spirit anymore, or it wasn't going to be for long."
A Terrible Fall of Angels - more like a terrible fall of an author. Laurell K Hamilton was one of my favourite authors for over 10 years, until she decided the Anita Blake series no longer required a plot. I even enjoyed Merry Gentry because it was fun and lighthearted.
But this? This was a stale piece of bread.
Not only did this book suffer from the 'no plot' situation, it suffered from exposition overload.
We open on a scene that got me excited for the old Anita Blake series. There's a crime, a detective set to solve the crime, and a new world to learn about. In this world, we have angels! And not in the generic way most authors are using them now, but as terrifying non-human creatures.
I was thrilled! Excited! Eager! And then... there's no mystery. We already know who did it, where he is, and then ensues a fight over it.
Cool.
For the rest of the book there's nothing but the main character sexualising every woman (and the occasional man) he meets even in life or death situations, characters who fall into his lap when he so much as thinks about them, and his constant whining about his wife who doesn't love him anymore.
Let's start with the constant sexualisation of every woman he comes across. At first it was obvious and I noticed it, but I wasn't fully bothered as I assumed his attraction to every woman in the room wouldn't last.
I was wrong.
This dude was like a bunny in heat and EVERY woman would do it for him.
I bet you I could flip to a random page and it would be him appraising some woman's looks or body.
Here's some of the quotes I'm plucking out just from looking through it now at random where he thinks sexually about the women in the book (reminder he is married and each quote is about a NEW character, not him thinking sexually about the same one):
Context: Kate. This woman was just about to be sexually assaulted by a demon and was trying not to look at the demon assaulting her:
"...her lips were full, the kind that that always seemed to be half pouting, the real deal that all the duckfaces on the internet imitate... she shook her head and gave me some of the best eye contact I'd gotten from a woman in a while. If it had been a date, I'd have been thrilled."
Context: The Nurse. After a violent assault on a woman and others killed, he's checking out a nurse in a... strange way. Not only comparing her to his interests as a child, but he had constantly been making comments about her body and looks because she was 'older' than him and we heard about that about ten thousand times:
"She turned back, the brown ponytail bouncing as she moved. She'd made it high up on her head today, which had always been one of my favorite looks on a girl going back to elementary school... I followed Hazel down the hallway and tried not to notice the way her uniform fit from the back. I tried to think of what I'd say to Kate and was happy I'd been all covered in angel magic when I held her naked in my arms."
Excuse me, what?
Context: Reggie. They were at couples therapy together and apparently the context of her boobs mattered:
"She crossed her arms beneath the fuller breasts that cutting back on the exercise and having a baby has given her... I hadn't been staring at them, not really...."
Context: Officer Minis. No context here. Just a random cop he works with.
"I fought not to return the look, because I'd noticed the first week that her uniform fit her well."
Context: Adam. Adam is asking for his shirt for evidence. The main character constantly reminds us he finds Adam 'effeminate' or potentially 'bisexual'. This was where Adam simply wanted to check his wounds and the protagonist not only sexualises the situation, but decides the other man mustn't be straight for it.
"...I didn't want him touching my bare stomach. Maybe I'd been too fast to say he wasn't bisexual, because he tried to touch my stomach again." It was a wound bro, it's not that deep!
Context: An Angel. It looks like Hamilton was trying to weave in a tragic story from his past about falling in love with an angel or something. It fell pretty blandly in the story and just felt like another attempt to have YET ANOTHER woman for him to be weird about.
"Her body was perfect, because she'd been created for me, the fantasies of a teenage boy and her own preferences from human media, thoughts and wishes."
Context: Emma. A woman helping Jamie meeting him for a coffee.
"...she laughed, the kind of laugh that a certain kind of beautiful woman seems to practice: throaty, sensual..."
Context: Shelby. All she did was... smile at him. And this is his response which is super gross:
"I did the one thing that beautiful women who are very sure of themselves hate most of all: I ignored her and turned to give all my attention to Jamie and Emma."
Context: Random woman in the coffee shop where he apparently becomes a makeup artist.
"They looked small and full and kissable, but she needed darker eye shadow to balance it..."
Times the character thought of himself as the most attractive man in the room and every woman and man was desperate for him:
"...if I smiled too much some people thought I was flirting. Two women and one man in line smiled back wide enough that I knew I needed to tone it down."
"The man turned back to his boyfriend with a smile and a kiss to let him know I wasn't important, just eye candy."
"I wanted to compliment her on it, but she's think I was flirting."
"I raised my left hand up to touch my face, so my wedding band showed more clearly."
"...I might have been too successful at the flirting. That was my downfall when I did undercover; sometimes I was too good at it."
"I did what she expected and flexed for her."
"I smiled at her and put everything I had into the smile, so that she put her hand to her throat and her breathing changed."
Let me tell you how I nearly yelled and laughed on the train I was on when I read that last line. His smile makes women unable to breathe? What in the Twilight is this bullshit? At least in Twilight that was meant to be a romance. This was just a douche thinking that every move he makes means everyone else is moister than an oyster.
Like, this dude totally thinks he's hot shit.
I'm going to say, one of the best moments was when the killer called him 'Chad' to make fun of him and the protagonist is all "lmao what a loser" but the killer was right. He's a Chad. A dudebro. No one likes him.
Sometimes quotes didn't even fully make sense. For example, Shelby mentions she saw Havoc with a woman in the coffee shop and he's like "uwu wahmen notice me all the time and she saw me with Miranda cause she was always looking at me." No, dude, she saw you talking to Emma. That's literally the moment she looked at you, when you were with Emma. He's so self-centred to the point it's incredible.
Now, for characters that randomly appear for the sake of the protagonists story to get pushed along (and I say 'story' politely as this novel doesn't really have one), we have characters appearing from seemingly no where that he just happens to have a long history with. Suriel appears to help with a situation that he used to go to 'Angel School' with, and when he thinks about Jamie guess who literally appears on his doorstep. He goes walking after flirting with a woman in a coffee shop, guess who appears in the florist shop he stops at. The boring coincidences keep piling up and it just gets more and more ridiculous. And the raccoon! I almost forgot! He thought about the raccoon totem, and guess who pops up at his feet?
So Reggie, his wife, is brought up constantly to the point where I want to bash my head against the wall. They've 'broken up' in a way, but are in couples therapy. But every page has him like 'Reggie would do this' or 'Reggie wouldn't wear this much lipstick' etc. It's so annoying. So I decided, at a point where I was getting annoyed with this, to take note from that point how many pages it took to finally get a page free from mentioning Reggie, a character I don't know and don't bloody care about. Just random comments EVERY PAGE about things that were so irrelevant to the plot. Here are my findings starting at the page I was with:
"I started to put on a plain dark blue polo shirt that Reggie had grown to hate, she said it was my I'm-not-a-cop cop shirt." p. 296
"If Reggie had been here, she would have thought it was sexist at minimum." p. 297
"Lots of things made me think about Reggie, but they didn't make me smile." p. 298
"Reggie used to think it was funny that I didn't know how to modify the smile, until she got too jealous of any woman who flirted with me." p. 299
"I didn't know hoe to date women like this, but something they hunted me even when I ignored them, something again about being tall and in shape, or so Reggie had tried to explain to me." p. 300
"It was a cop thing that Reggie hates, but she knew that if she wanted me to eat out in a restaurant in peace, I had to sit where I could see around me and feel as secure as possible in a crowded restaurant." p. 301
Finally! A page break with no random Reggie whining! FREEDOM!
There's no learning in this world. The fun part of reading is the discovery. We all want to explore and discover with the main character. However, in this book there's nothing new to learn. The main character knows everything and we end up reading long, boring scenes of him explaining something or having a conversation where he's explaining something. There's no... newness. Simply regurgitating information at the reader. I want to be shown and feel like I've seen something new, rather than boringly told about a situation.
At first, I thought that Hamilton had issues writing a male character and had made him over sexualise most situations because that's her assumption of the male mind. However, she had issues in the Anita Blake series as well. I typically overlooked these issues in the start of the series when it was actually enjoyable, but it became a whole "I'm a woman and other women are competition to me". And this was shown in this book. When he says he's married, women just saw that as competition for... him. What a prize. When he looks at some woman's boobs for too long and she flirts, he's like "wow, the arrogance on this woman thinking I like her".
It was honestly just a confusing mess of words and arrogance from the author's perspective. I personally don't think that Laurell K. Hamilton has written a good story in the last 5+ years (and that's being generous with the time frame). Merry Gentry was a lot of fun but let's be honest, when you market your book series as, "Merry realises that she is pregnant with twins. Each twin has three fathers," you're not exactly looking at the next Shakespeare. However, the Anita Blake series was incredible when it started! I loved the plot, the characters, and the romance. Then it just became the main character having 9823y498 boyfriends where I actually began to get confused with all the characters she was banging every book and ended up having to stop reading because it devolved into nothing more than bonetown.
This book didn't even do the Anita Blake descent, it's simply started from the bottom and I don't think it's going to wade to the top and become a great series.
There's not enough plot, no progress has been made in this book, and any future readers won't move onto the sequels even if they do get better because the first book is such a hard block against reading further.
However, I always wish all authors the best of luck with their work and I honestly hope it will improve for any readers who will continue reading. I won't be, but if it works for others, that's fantastic.
A Terrible Fall of Angels - more like a terrible fall of an author. Laurell K Hamilton was one of my favourite authors for over 10 years, until she decided the Anita Blake series no longer required a plot. I even enjoyed Merry Gentry because it was fun and lighthearted.
But this? This was a stale piece of bread.
Not only did this book suffer from the 'no plot' situation, it suffered from exposition overload.
We open on a scene that got me excited for the old Anita Blake series. There's a crime, a detective set to solve the crime, and a new world to learn about. In this world, we have angels! And not in the generic way most authors are using them now, but as terrifying non-human creatures.
I was thrilled! Excited! Eager! And then... there's no mystery. We already know who did it, where he is, and then ensues a fight over it.
Cool.
For the rest of the book there's nothing but the main character sexualising every woman (and the occasional man) he meets even in life or death situations, characters who fall into his lap when he so much as thinks about them, and his constant whining about his wife who doesn't love him anymore.
Let's start with the constant sexualisation of every woman he comes across. At first it was obvious and I noticed it, but I wasn't fully bothered as I assumed his attraction to every woman in the room wouldn't last.
I was wrong.
This dude was like a bunny in heat and EVERY woman would do it for him.
I bet you I could flip to a random page and it would be him appraising some woman's looks or body.
Here's some of the quotes I'm plucking out just from looking through it now at random where he thinks sexually about the women in the book (reminder he is married and each quote is about a NEW character, not him thinking sexually about the same one):
Context: Kate. This woman was just about to be sexually assaulted by a demon and was trying not to look at the demon assaulting her:
"...her lips were full, the kind that that always seemed to be half pouting, the real deal that all the duckfaces on the internet imitate... she shook her head and gave me some of the best eye contact I'd gotten from a woman in a while. If it had been a date, I'd have been thrilled."
Context: The Nurse. After a violent assault on a woman and others killed, he's checking out a nurse in a... strange way. Not only comparing her to his interests as a child, but he had constantly been making comments about her body and looks because she was 'older' than him and we heard about that about ten thousand times:
"She turned back, the brown ponytail bouncing as she moved. She'd made it high up on her head today, which had always been one of my favorite looks on a girl going back to elementary school... I followed Hazel down the hallway and tried not to notice the way her uniform fit from the back. I tried to think of what I'd say to Kate and was happy I'd been all covered in angel magic when I held her naked in my arms."
Excuse me, what?
Context: Reggie. They were at couples therapy together and apparently the context of her boobs mattered:
"She crossed her arms beneath the fuller breasts that cutting back on the exercise and having a baby has given her... I hadn't been staring at them, not really...."
Context: Officer Minis. No context here. Just a random cop he works with.
"I fought not to return the look, because I'd noticed the first week that her uniform fit her well."
Context: Adam. Adam is asking for his shirt for evidence. The main character constantly reminds us he finds Adam 'effeminate' or potentially 'bisexual'. This was where Adam simply wanted to check his wounds and the protagonist not only sexualises the situation, but decides the other man mustn't be straight for it.
"...I didn't want him touching my bare stomach. Maybe I'd been too fast to say he wasn't bisexual, because he tried to touch my stomach again." It was a wound bro, it's not that deep!
Context: An Angel. It looks like Hamilton was trying to weave in a tragic story from his past about falling in love with an angel or something. It fell pretty blandly in the story and just felt like another attempt to have YET ANOTHER woman for him to be weird about.
"Her body was perfect, because she'd been created for me, the fantasies of a teenage boy and her own preferences from human media, thoughts and wishes."
Context: Emma. A woman helping Jamie meeting him for a coffee.
"...she laughed, the kind of laugh that a certain kind of beautiful woman seems to practice: throaty, sensual..."
Context: Shelby. All she did was... smile at him. And this is his response which is super gross:
"I did the one thing that beautiful women who are very sure of themselves hate most of all: I ignored her and turned to give all my attention to Jamie and Emma."
Context: Random woman in the coffee shop where he apparently becomes a makeup artist.
"They looked small and full and kissable, but she needed darker eye shadow to balance it..."
Times the character thought of himself as the most attractive man in the room and every woman and man was desperate for him:
"...if I smiled too much some people thought I was flirting. Two women and one man in line smiled back wide enough that I knew I needed to tone it down."
"The man turned back to his boyfriend with a smile and a kiss to let him know I wasn't important, just eye candy."
"I wanted to compliment her on it, but she's think I was flirting."
"I raised my left hand up to touch my face, so my wedding band showed more clearly."
"...I might have been too successful at the flirting. That was my downfall when I did undercover; sometimes I was too good at it."
"I did what she expected and flexed for her."
"I smiled at her and put everything I had into the smile, so that she put her hand to her throat and her breathing changed."
Let me tell you how I nearly yelled and laughed on the train I was on when I read that last line. His smile makes women unable to breathe? What in the Twilight is this bullshit? At least in Twilight that was meant to be a romance. This was just a douche thinking that every move he makes means everyone else is moister than an oyster.
Like, this dude totally thinks he's hot shit.
I'm going to say, one of the best moments was when the killer called him 'Chad' to make fun of him and the protagonist is all "lmao what a loser" but the killer was right. He's a Chad. A dudebro. No one likes him.
Sometimes quotes didn't even fully make sense. For example, Shelby mentions she saw Havoc with a woman in the coffee shop and he's like "uwu wahmen notice me all the time and she saw me with Miranda cause she was always looking at me." No, dude, she saw you talking to Emma. That's literally the moment she looked at you, when you were with Emma. He's so self-centred to the point it's incredible.
Now, for characters that randomly appear for the sake of the protagonists story to get pushed along (and I say 'story' politely as this novel doesn't really have one), we have characters appearing from seemingly no where that he just happens to have a long history with. Suriel appears to help with a situation that he used to go to 'Angel School' with, and when he thinks about Jamie guess who literally appears on his doorstep. He goes walking after flirting with a woman in a coffee shop, guess who appears in the florist shop he stops at. The boring coincidences keep piling up and it just gets more and more ridiculous. And the raccoon! I almost forgot! He thought about the raccoon totem, and guess who pops up at his feet?
So Reggie, his wife, is brought up constantly to the point where I want to bash my head against the wall. They've 'broken up' in a way, but are in couples therapy. But every page has him like 'Reggie would do this' or 'Reggie wouldn't wear this much lipstick' etc. It's so annoying. So I decided, at a point where I was getting annoyed with this, to take note from that point how many pages it took to finally get a page free from mentioning Reggie, a character I don't know and don't bloody care about. Just random comments EVERY PAGE about things that were so irrelevant to the plot. Here are my findings starting at the page I was with:
"I started to put on a plain dark blue polo shirt that Reggie had grown to hate, she said it was my I'm-not-a-cop cop shirt." p. 296
"If Reggie had been here, she would have thought it was sexist at minimum." p. 297
"Lots of things made me think about Reggie, but they didn't make me smile." p. 298
"Reggie used to think it was funny that I didn't know how to modify the smile, until she got too jealous of any woman who flirted with me." p. 299
"I didn't know hoe to date women like this, but something they hunted me even when I ignored them, something again about being tall and in shape, or so Reggie had tried to explain to me." p. 300
"It was a cop thing that Reggie hates, but she knew that if she wanted me to eat out in a restaurant in peace, I had to sit where I could see around me and feel as secure as possible in a crowded restaurant." p. 301
Finally! A page break with no random Reggie whining! FREEDOM!
There's no learning in this world. The fun part of reading is the discovery. We all want to explore and discover with the main character. However, in this book there's nothing new to learn. The main character knows everything and we end up reading long, boring scenes of him explaining something or having a conversation where he's explaining something. There's no... newness. Simply regurgitating information at the reader. I want to be shown and feel like I've seen something new, rather than boringly told about a situation.
At first, I thought that Hamilton had issues writing a male character and had made him over sexualise most situations because that's her assumption of the male mind. However, she had issues in the Anita Blake series as well. I typically overlooked these issues in the start of the series when it was actually enjoyable, but it became a whole "I'm a woman and other women are competition to me". And this was shown in this book. When he says he's married, women just saw that as competition for... him. What a prize. When he looks at some woman's boobs for too long and she flirts, he's like "wow, the arrogance on this woman thinking I like her".
It was honestly just a confusing mess of words and arrogance from the author's perspective. I personally don't think that Laurell K. Hamilton has written a good story in the last 5+ years (and that's being generous with the time frame). Merry Gentry was a lot of fun but let's be honest, when you market your book series as, "Merry realises that she is pregnant with twins. Each twin has three fathers," you're not exactly looking at the next Shakespeare. However, the Anita Blake series was incredible when it started! I loved the plot, the characters, and the romance. Then it just became the main character having 9823y498 boyfriends where I actually began to get confused with all the characters she was banging every book and ended up having to stop reading because it devolved into nothing more than bonetown.
This book didn't even do the Anita Blake descent, it's simply started from the bottom and I don't think it's going to wade to the top and become a great series.
There's not enough plot, no progress has been made in this book, and any future readers won't move onto the sequels even if they do get better because the first book is such a hard block against reading further.
However, I always wish all authors the best of luck with their work and I honestly hope it will improve for any readers who will continue reading. I won't be, but if it works for others, that's fantastic.
September 6, 2021
No comment
August 13, 2021
I received the book in a Goodreads giveaway.
I'm really torn about continuing to read in this series. On the one hand, few authors are as good at world building as LKH, and this is a new world that might be interesting to explore. On the other hand, this book was not much more than an explanation of how politics work between people and angels and demons, I am used to some discussion of vampire politics, or fae or werewolf politics, etc, from LKH, but frankly I think she has been taking that much too far lately, and I got bored with this book's angel politics, to a great extent. I guess I will decide about a next book when we get there.
This first book was all introduction, and the series shows a little promise. As an introduction, it introduces, but this book is not action packed and not dramatic and not very fun. As a standalone book, I don't recommend it. As an introduction, it is going to depend a lot on the rest of the series.
I'm really torn about continuing to read in this series. On the one hand, few authors are as good at world building as LKH, and this is a new world that might be interesting to explore. On the other hand, this book was not much more than an explanation of how politics work between people and angels and demons, I am used to some discussion of vampire politics, or fae or werewolf politics, etc, from LKH, but frankly I think she has been taking that much too far lately, and I got bored with this book's angel politics, to a great extent. I guess I will decide about a next book when we get there.
This first book was all introduction, and the series shows a little promise. As an introduction, it introduces, but this book is not action packed and not dramatic and not very fun. As a standalone book, I don't recommend it. As an introduction, it is going to depend a lot on the rest of the series.
November 9, 2021
For about the first half of this I figured it wasn't really going to be my thing due to the amount of Judeo-Christian/ Abrahamic mythos and dogma. A bit past half way the previously only dusted across non-Christian religions started getting some representation and the story got more interesting. Satanists are still the bad guys, though. We couldn't actually get a non-Christian perspective about Satanism from someone who has struggled with religious belief for as long as LKH has done so. It left a bad taste in my mouth and has definitely impacted my perspective of this work. It's left me feeling like the premise is trite, albeit executed with the amount of attention to detail, similarly likable characters, and a deeply considered magic system that you would expect from LKH.
For the first half of the book I thought it probably wasn't for me, but by the end I was thinking I could probably do another and see if the other-than-Christian-dogma aspects of the story gain traction, and the emerging power drama at the school doesn't take too long to unfold.
For the first half of the book I thought it probably wasn't for me, but by the end I was thinking I could probably do another and see if the other-than-Christian-dogma aspects of the story gain traction, and the emerging power drama at the school doesn't take too long to unfold.
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