Monday, March 07, 2005

archangel

fantastic series by sharon shinn. She's incredibly addictive in her writing. I finished the first book in 5 hours, and the second in 6. And trying to keep myself away from the third, since I really have no time to read the books ^^;;;

But yes. Fantastic. The premise is definitely one of those that will intrigue people immediately - a colony set up by humans on a different planet, where angels sing to petition Jovah for boons like good weather and grain etc. And yes, the angels are real people with wings (obviously genetically modified). ^^ A little reminiscent of Anne Maccaffrey's Dragons Of Pern series, only with stronger female characters and more focus on personal development. Maccaffrey tends to concentrate on adventures, disasters etc. This one just looks at people. People believing, people loving, people learning. I picked them up cos Stejuste said they were good, and cos the premise sounded like a very cool sci-fi. And then the first book shocked me by turning out to be a very beautiful romance ^^;;; I'm not a sucker for romance, i mean, I like to read it in fanfiction, or see it in comics, or follow it on tv, but I sure as hell do not like to read romance novels. This one, however, is an exception.

Archangel speaks of the angel Gabriel (long black hair, alabaster skin, blue eyes... ^^) who is in search of his angelica or wife to complete the requirements before he can be the Archangel. And when he finally finds her, they start quarelling. Shinn does a wonderful job of portraying the tension, the love, how they grew to appreciate each other etc. Beautiful. Imagine two proud people, each refusing to bow to the other, refusing to admit their feelings. It makes for very good story, and Shinn's language is at once poetic, hypnotic and musical. It makes you want to read on, until the very end. (which, incidentally, was what i did ^^;) I'd put up an exerpt, only i'm thinking if i do, none will appreciate it cos you have to read the whole book to appreciate it. You can feel the push and pull of their emotions, how they struggle to free themselves yet at the same time yearn to come together. Very good stuff. And not sappy at all. Just beautiful. Read it.

Book two, Jovah's Angel, gets a little more technical. You finally see that Jovah is a ship (which wasn't all that surprising if you've read enough sci-fi). Again, there's a love story, there's a fallen archangel who can never fly again...and a scholarly angel who falls in love with an engineer..I figured at this point that Shinn likes love stories with LOTS of problems. *haha* But still good. I'm looking forward to reading the third when the entire thing about the ship and the technology is revealed ^^

And finally, something nice from Jovah's Angel:

"If love makes you sad, you acquire a little depth, a little compassion. If it makes you happy - you learn how to be joyous. Every relationship should colour your soul to a certain degree, don't you think? Every friendship, every love affair - each one should build up the chambers of your heart the way a sea creature builds the chambers of his shell."

"Until you build the largest one of all, and there you live the rest of your life."

-- Alleluia and Caleb

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