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A review by liinukka
Angelopolis by Danielle Trussoni
3.0
Well, it was much better than the first book.
It kind of read like a Dan Brown book, in that they cover a lot of ground - literally (there's a nice section where they're traveling on the Trans Siberian rail) - all in pursuit of clues to some esoteric and ancient mystery involving the Watcher angels and Nephilim. I was pretty intrigued by it, even if much of the dialogue seemed very expository.
One of the reviewers noted that there was very little character development, and I have to agree with that. I also think that despite the epic scope of the backdrop, the plot actually came down to not a whole lot.
I was also very confused as to which angels and humans were on whose side. I suppose the author wanted to keep that purposefully ambiguous, but I must say that even after finishing the book, I remain terribly confused. This is because of the aforementioned lack of character development, which leads me to question why any of these people do anything at all. What are their motivations? What do they really want? And whatever happened to the Angelopolis? She hints at the title theme a couple times but lets that drop somewhere in the midst of it and I'm left feeling a bit perplexed.
If there's another book, I'll probably read it just to see what happens. If there isn't another book, then that was a very cheap way to end it. As it was, it felt very rushed in the end, like she just ran out of steam and wanted to cut it short as soon as possible.
It kind of read like a Dan Brown book, in that they cover a lot of ground - literally (there's a nice section where they're traveling on the Trans Siberian rail) - all in pursuit of clues to some esoteric and ancient mystery involving the Watcher angels and Nephilim. I was pretty intrigued by it, even if much of the dialogue seemed very expository.
One of the reviewers noted that there was very little character development, and I have to agree with that. I also think that despite the epic scope of the backdrop, the plot actually came down to not a whole lot.
Spoiler
We see in the beginning that Verlaine is in love with an angel. He has to decide whether to kill her or not. By the end of the story, nothing has changed. He's still in love with her, and has to decide whether to kill her or not. The final passage makes it sound like it's some terrible revelation but it's more like "Wow okay, I guess now I *really* have to kill her." We already knew this!I was also very confused as to which angels and humans were on whose side. I suppose the author wanted to keep that purposefully ambiguous, but I must say that even after finishing the book, I remain terribly confused. This is because of the aforementioned lack of character development, which leads me to question why any of these people do anything at all. What are their motivations? What do they really want? And whatever happened to the Angelopolis? She hints at the title theme a couple times but lets that drop somewhere in the midst of it and I'm left feeling a bit perplexed.
If there's another book, I'll probably read it just to see what happens. If there isn't another book, then that was a very cheap way to end it. As it was, it felt very rushed in the end, like she just ran out of steam and wanted to cut it short as soon as possible.