Angelfall by Susan Ee
Review by James Lamb (July 27, 2014)
I tried to give Angelfall a fair shake, but I ended up giving up. I had just finished Dreams of Gods and Monsters which is also about angels/seraphim but the contrast may have helped to underscore the difficulties I had with Angelfall. Angels have come to earth and been responsible for destruction and mayhem.
Penryn, her wheelchair-bound sister and her insane mother have decided that it's time to try to flee the city. They're the only ones left in their apartment complex and the gangs are getting more ruthless in their attempts to control territory. They wait until dark and then set out. No one in their right mind is outside at night because that's when the angels attack. They figure, however, that they might have a better shot than in the daytime when the gangs are more active.
Before too long, they encounter angels - who are busy attacking one angel. This is when it went south for me - the angels have different wing colors and are described as "snowy angel" (and "Snow"), "Burnt Angel" (and "Burnt"), "Night Giant" (and "Night") and "Stripes." I realize this is an attempt to describe a brutal fight scene and differentiate between characters from the point of view of a character who's trying to describe characters she doesn't know of a race of beings new to the planet, but it was just really distracting.
I did like that after things go horribly awry that the heroine makes a beeline for an industrial park, figuring there will be few people (or angels) there to contend with and there will be plenty of offices and kitchenettes where food may have been overlooked by looters. I love this, I must keep this in mind in the event of an apocalypse.
I really tried to give this a go, but after about 72 pages, it was too much and I had to set it aside - there were other books I could be reading and so it was time to move on.
I tried to give Angelfall a fair shake, but I ended up giving up. I had just finished Dreams of Gods and Monsters which is also about angels/seraphim but the contrast may have helped to underscore the difficulties I had with Angelfall. Angels have come to earth and been responsible for destruction and mayhem.
Penryn, her wheelchair-bound sister and her insane mother have decided that it's time to try to flee the city. They're the only ones left in their apartment complex and the gangs are getting more ruthless in their attempts to control territory. They wait until dark and then set out. No one in their right mind is outside at night because that's when the angels attack. They figure, however, that they might have a better shot than in the daytime when the gangs are more active.
Before too long, they encounter angels - who are busy attacking one angel. This is when it went south for me - the angels have different wing colors and are described as "snowy angel" (and "Snow"), "Burnt Angel" (and "Burnt"), "Night Giant" (and "Night") and "Stripes." I realize this is an attempt to describe a brutal fight scene and differentiate between characters from the point of view of a character who's trying to describe characters she doesn't know of a race of beings new to the planet, but it was just really distracting.
I did like that after things go horribly awry that the heroine makes a beeline for an industrial park, figuring there will be few people (or angels) there to contend with and there will be plenty of offices and kitchenettes where food may have been overlooked by looters. I love this, I must keep this in mind in the event of an apocalypse.
I really tried to give this a go, but after about 72 pages, it was too much and I had to set it aside - there were other books I could be reading and so it was time to move on.
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