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songwind's review against another edition
1.0
AngelKiller is a book with an interesting premise that fails on multiple levels.
"Why do bad things happen to good people? Simple. In the ancient war between the Angels of Light and Darkness, the Dark won." Wow. That's a great set-up. Thinking about the balance of power in the world for the last 1000+ years, it has some seriously subversive implication. I was hooked by the idea.Sadly, the book fails to deliver pretty much every aspect of this promise.
Given that Christian powers have heavily dominated the world and its politics for a millennium, give or take, the implication is that they represent the victorious Dark. The reality of the book, however, it boringly predictable in its orthodoxy. It is clearly demonstrated (though never explicitly stated) that the side of Good is Jehovah and his angels and their mortal servants.
In addition to the dull adherence to standard roles of good and evil, the author gives some very problematic examples of the historical Army of Light. An attack on the child-rape apologist Vatican is clearly the work of the Enemy. The Conquistadors "still remembered who their Master was." There are predictable screeds against Middle Eastern terrorists, and no attempt to address the fact that they are also Jehovah worshiping monotheists.
The idea that the Army of Light lost and was now a bunch of freedom fighters also failed to surface beyond shallow appearances. The Army is divided into cells, and the like. But once the conflicts start,
The characters themselves were lackluster, with a few moments to shine.
Finally, a great deal of the book takes place in virtual reality, or deals with computers and data. The author is clearly ignorant in this field and did very little research. In addition there has been a couple of centuries of advancement from our time, but little indication of that in the technology.
I really wanted to like this book, but it just didn't live up to its potential.
"Why do bad things happen to good people? Simple. In the ancient war between the Angels of Light and Darkness, the Dark won." Wow. That's a great set-up. Thinking about the balance of power in the world for the last 1000+ years, it has some seriously subversive implication. I was hooked by the idea.Sadly, the book fails to deliver pretty much every aspect of this promise.
Given that Christian powers have heavily dominated the world and its politics for a millennium, give or take, the implication is that they represent the victorious Dark. The reality of the book, however, it boringly predictable in its orthodoxy. It is clearly demonstrated (though never explicitly stated) that the side of Good is Jehovah and his angels and their mortal servants.
In addition to the dull adherence to standard roles of good and evil, the author gives some very problematic examples of the historical Army of Light. An attack on the child-rape apologist Vatican is clearly the work of the Enemy. The Conquistadors "still remembered who their Master was." There are predictable screeds against Middle Eastern terrorists, and no attempt to address the fact that they are also Jehovah worshiping monotheists.
The idea that the Army of Light lost and was now a bunch of freedom fighters also failed to surface beyond shallow appearances. The Army is divided into cells, and the like. But once the conflicts start,
Spoiler
the Army walks rather easily through its opposition.The characters themselves were lackluster, with a few moments to shine.
Finally, a great deal of the book takes place in virtual reality, or deals with computers and data. The author is clearly ignorant in this field and did very little research. In addition there has been a couple of centuries of advancement from our time, but little indication of that in the technology.
I really wanted to like this book, but it just didn't live up to its potential.
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