Review::Angeli:The Pirate, The Angel and the Irishman by Amy Vansant

Angeli by Amy Vansant

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Angeli: The Pirate, the Angel and the Irishman by Amy Vansant

This is yet again one of those paranormal, even a bit romance(y), novels. I've come to realize it's not that much of a reach for me to be reading these; as much of the science fiction I read ends up reading a lot like paranormal rather than hard science; and, though I have a respect for the Simon pure Science Fiction, it seems that the novels that tend to lean in the paranormal direction have more interesting characters. For me it's all about the characters so this book hooked me. Anne Bonny is nearly immortal. Let's think something along the line of Highlander; I use Highlander as an example because this novel has a lot of world-building that takes the shape of darting back and forth through time in her life to give us a bit of scope of that life and some of the rules in this world’s landscape.

In the beginning Anne is just an ordinary girl. Well, maybe not ordinary, but the simple type that gets involved in piracy and other exciting things; until she is chosen by the sentinels to carry on with their work after they save her from her own self destructive path.

This is a simple world where Angels dwell and are here to help and guide mankind. But something has happened and a number of the Guardian Angels have rebelled and have begun to prey on the human race. Normally Angels do not or cannot harm other Angel; so when the problem becomes unmanageable the decision to use the human race to create a means to solve the problem creates the sentinels, who are able to disrupt the Perfidia-bad angels-from their earthly form into a spirit form that theoretically will eventually come back cured from their temporary madness. The sentinels are not able to kill the angels, but they are able to drain enough power from them to cause them to be dispersed from their; earthly form and it is not all that pleasant for the angel.

Anne is trained for this by Guardian Angels who are in turn guided by the higher Arch Angels, in this case Michael. Michael finds Anne to be one of his most effective tools and Anne finds herself working with him more often than most Sentinels; and she is inexorable drawn to him, because Arch Angels are made that way. But there might be more to the relationship. Still Michael puts her in the maximum danger; and eventually because of this, another Sentinel, Con Carey someone whom Anne cares for, is lost to the world and ends up as a disembodied spirit: rather than dying. And Anne begins to have second thoughts about her fated life with the Angels. All of her life she has been led to believe that only Guardian Angels have fallen and that might not be as much a truth as professed; and it may prove to be a deadly omission in her training.

And as if that weren't enough problem; there might be a number of Guardian Angels and Arch Angels who are having second thoughts about creating a race of humans who have any amount of power over them. One thing is clear; the war in heaven is not yet over and the battleground has moved to earth.

Excellent writing and character development wrapped into a somewhat typical paranormal tale that is only tainted by the length and depth of world building and back-story that have bits and pieces that are integral to the main plot and are rendered necessary in the long run. Overall a good read.

J.L. Dobias



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