A review by seykv
Angels Before Man by rafael nicolás

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 I remember when you were created, Lucifer. I saw how our Father sewed you from coppers, how He handled you when you were settings of gold. He embroidered a nose on you, a sweet mouth on you, then the outline for a pair of eyes before He placed suns there. He sculpted your face with wet clay; He opened you like a mandarin and planted a garden of budding flowers inside. He weaved your hair, I think, from the streaks of three bursting stars, and from your wings out of four wandering crescent moons. Your hips came from the tides of a sea, and then He carved your hands and feet from marble and pearls. I watched Him breathe life into you, then cradle you as if you were His first angel. He placed you into a fire cut into the air, and He let you simmer there.

Wow. Just wow. More people need to read this book.

Angels Before Man follows Lucifer's transformation from God's favorite, an angel too shy to glance at his reflection, to the Devil we all know (and love!). This novel is a masterfully crafted character study told through prose as ethereal as its setting. Highlighting the unsavory aspects of Christianity, Lucifer's tragic descent feels not just believable, but inevitable.

Lucifer seems like the perfect angel in the beginning: beautiful, humble, and--most importantly--obedient. He endeared me from his first stuttering words. The novel starts as a fluffy slice-of-life following Lucifer’s early years in paradise. He coos at flowers. He cuddles a colorful cast of characters. He finds a role serving his beloved God. Lucifer loves Heaven, and it loves him.
The entire universe sprawled before him but peppering his cheeks with enough warm kisses to make him laugh.

The sparse plot finds its tension in dramatic irony. Scattered throughout are indications of Lucifer's true nature.
God creates Lucifer as "the Beast," burdened with awareness and thus shame that separate him from other angels. One of my favorite scenes depicts a young Lucifer struggling with his latent sexuality in the bathhouse. He alone scrambles to cover himself. For a reason he does not know, he cannot stop staring at his naked brothers.


Then Lucifer meets Michael. In many ways, their bond is the story's catalyst. It is equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking.
Michael is everything Lucifer wishes he could be. Michael is God's all-important archangel. He is proud of his strength. He has no shame. And unlike other angels, he encourages Lucifer to adopt these same qualities. In Michael, Lucifer finds acceptance of himself and joy outside of God. Their relationship germinates the seeds of his rebellion. But Michael does not witness God's crimes; he cannot understand the movement he inspired or its leader, the angel he still loves. The novel describes his last act: "Michael, between them all, his tears morphing into crystals, slicing down his cheeks and making him bleed."


Lucifer's innocence seeps away one page, one conversation, one betrayal at a time. The angel Lucifer and the demon Lucifer are as different as could be. Yet there were no moments when I felt he suddenly broke character. There were, however, moments when I felt like a frog that saw the boiling of slowly heated water at last. Lucifer would commit some act that would horrify his younger self, and I would then realize that Lucifer had not blushed, bowed, or cried for a number of chapters--he had become so distant but taken such small steps that I took no notice.

The novel uses Lucifer's fall to explore themes of shame and freedom. These are placed within the context of organized religion, but anyone who has felt at odds with inane higher authority can relate to them.

The main conflict occurs because Lucifer cannot conform to his society's standards. God expects his angels to be humble and subservient, but Lucifer becomes unafraid to wield his beauty for himself. God says angels are complete beings born to worship Him, but Lucifer loves Michael as if they were two halves of one whole:"I don't want to be complete; I'd rather be split and become full with you."

Lucifer dares to question God for giving him life--then shaming him for loving it more than Him. For these sins, God punishes him.


Lucifer passes from disobedience into full-blown rebellion. He gains a hatred of the weakness in Heaven that gives God power and excuses His crimes. It applies to angels who serve God, angels who serve him, and even himself. In one memorable scene, he imagines defiling and murdering his innocent young self. He wants to shape Heaven to his libertine beliefs.

Lucifer does not, of course, succeed in that. God is all-powerful. Perhaps He even planned for Lucifer's rebellion. (Why else would He let Lucifer enact so much violence before stopping him? Why else would He encourage Lucifer to use his body by taking his voice?) But the novel makes clear that God does not win, and Lucifer does not lose. Lucifer does create a new order. While the angels who remain in Heaven now fear the lonely God, the demons who fall to Earth still love Lucifer--because they are the only ones free to love whoever they want.

All this is accentuated through beautiful and imaginative prose. The author paints the story through otherworldly metaphors that are right at home in Heaven.

One angel's eyes are described as such:
His irises were bustling rivers, housing a million fish circling abysses of pupils.
 This depicts the simple act of fixing hair:
He split the sea of golden threads, then crossed each river over one another, creating a pattern, weaving a braid.
 Even a bruised and bleeding face is made poetic: 
[The face] belonged to someone who'd been invaded by red cherries, blackberries, blueberries, a conglomerate of them bursting from his skin.

However, there are times when the prose is... experimental
(especially as Lucifer's mental state degrades)
. The point of view can switch back and forth then back again in the middle of a sentence. At times I had to read a conversation more than once to tell whose thoughts are whose. Certain passages are written without proper capitalization or punctuation to convey a character's frenzy--but more often than not, they are just difficult to read. These are my biggest, maybe only, problems with the novel.

The ending is satisfying enough that the novel can serve as a standalone. However, after seeing (stalking from top to bottom) the author's Tumblr, I have seen that two more entries are planned for this narrative. They will center Azazel and Dina and cover the Flood and Armageddon. I am sure they will be of similar quality to Angels Before Man, which has quickly become one of my favorite novels.
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