Sister Evangeline was just a
girl when her care was entrusted to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual
Adoration. Now at twenty-three, she
discovers a 1943 correspondence between the convent’s late mother superior and
the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller that plunges her into a secret
history stretching back a millennium: an ancient conflict between the Society
of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and
humans, the Nephilim. Blending biblical
lore, the Miltonic fall of the Rebel Angels, the apocryphal book of Enoch, and
the myth of Orpheus, Angelology is a Luminous, riveting tale of ordinary people
caught up in a battle that will determine the fate of the world. (Back cover
synopsis)
I read this book about a month ago. So
a researcher named Verlaine wants to get into the library of the Franciscan
Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, which is famed for its collection of everything
related to angels. Why? Because he works for Percival Grigori, a
Nephilim who is dying and desperately looking for information leading to a cure
for the mysterious disease plaguing him and others of his kind. Verlaine then meets the lovely Sister
Evangeline, and the two begin a search into some pertinent letters of a strange
nature related to a certain “discovery” made in 1943. Thus begins the sometimes adventuresome,
sometimes mysterious, a little bit thrilling, and quite intriguing tale of
Evangeline’s family history, their relationship with the angelologists, and the
war that has been waged against the Nephilim since the time of Noah’s Ark.
I
quite liked this book – there were plenty of well-developed allusions to the
Bible, mythologies, world history, and at the same time it gave the possibility
of the presence of angels some credence however fantastical. Very interesting, I thought. The imagery was well-done; I could quite
easily imagine for myself what these Nephilim looked like, their power, their
mystique, and so on. The novel was nicely paced, too, in my
opinion. It’s not unlike reading The Da Vinci Code, that kind of feeling.
Not really the type that gets you
hanging at the edge of your seat, no, but enough to intrigue you and hold you
and keep you reading. The thing is, once
it was revealed that Evangeline’s grandmother had an affair with Grigori, well
it all got predictable from there.
Another thing, the Watchers (fallen angels held prisoner in some cave
somewhere in Europe) was a frustration for me.
They were just left there,
like abandoned puppies. I kind of wished
the author gave that particular aspect of the story some more development. One good thing, though, was the ending. It was kind of hanging but in a good way. I felt like I could be free to imagine my own
conclusion; quite nicely executed, and I’m glad it wasn’t given a candy-coated
fairy-tale happy ending. That would have
been really corny. I wouldn’t call this
book a favourite though it was a pretty good read; but if you’re interested in
something with an element of angelic fantasy, mystery, detective thrill,
history, and mythology, this story might prove worthwhile.
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