Saturday, June 9, 2012

Angelfall: Don't even think about falling asleep...

Angelfall
By Susan Ee
Digital Publication
Feral Dream, May 2011
Rated: a "Definite Read"

It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco where she’ll risk everything to rescue her sister and he’ll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.


Pricky's Review:
With Angels being the next big thing following the vampire/werewolf craze, it's been hard to find one that works. Most of the angel lore I've read are so convoluted that my head is often spinning right after and some, are just plain ridiculous...

So I took a chance and Angelfall falls right into my Kindle. Amazing little device by the way. And I'm a bit hesitant because all my GR friends have raved about it and what if I don't like it?

Angelfall starts out so different from all the other Angel books-with the aftermath of earth destroyed by otherworldly beings. The Bay Area is torn apart by Angels. Civilians are left to their own devices for survival. In the middle is just another teen and her family trying to live long enough to get to another meal...until they happen upon an angel's brawl.

What makes Angelfall unique:


Indie Author:
I admit; I was a bit (okay, really) skeptical about reading a self-published book. I don't have a lot any experience reading them (except for that time, a little boy tried to sell me his self-published picture book at a Book Festival); and I truly expected poor writing. But Ee delivered high quality material. And her reasons for becoming an indie author really clarified things for me and can be explained here: The Background of Angelfall.

The Angel Apocalypse:
Angelfall makes you wonder what would really happen if the word was destroyed tomorrow. What causes humanity to change? What would you do to survive? While I loved that Angelfall started out this way, I did want to know more background to the destruction. There are a few clues here and there, and maybe Penryn doesn't really understand it all, but it would have been nice to know a little more. I still don't understand much about the Angel lore either; there's a scattering of information about them, but i don't feel like I have a clear construct of who they are, who Raffe is to them, and other definitions of nephilim, archangel, etc...

But at least there was NO insta-love:
With fantasy-land being inundated with insta-love romance, Angelfall is an outlier. Penryn despises Angels but must save one in order to save her sister. I love the idea of two characters brought together under less than ideal circumstances who must determine how they feel about the other person. I did hope that there would be more hatred and anger from Penryn towards the Angel in the beginning. While there were several scenes that conveyed her disdain for him, I felt like it could have been more. And it's quite clear that Penryn is "attracted' to him even though she hates him. I think I would have liked it more if she didn't find him as attractive: would it have changed the story? Would she have eventually liked him? And the part where she decides to spoiler (kiss him) still confuses me.

Plenty of witty dialogue:
I love love a book with witty dialogue! Dialogue can either make or break a story and Angelfall definitely makes it. One of my personal favorites:

"My friends call me Wrath," Says Raffe. "My enemies call me Please Have Mercy.
What's your name, soldier boy?

A host of interesting characters:
Outwardly, the angel Raffe has the cockiness of a warrior but inside is a mixture of hidden emotions. I loved his character the most. Penryn is determined and loyal but whose fears are always just at the surface. I loved that she was strong and knew how to throw a punch! I loved that she cared about her family albeit her creepy mother. She makes you wonder how much is reality and how much is mental illness.

Overall:
If it means anything, I survived 3 days on 5 hours of sleep just to read the next chapter and the next. It's a definite page turner, but I do have to say that the first 3/4 of the story didn't pull at my heartstrings as much as the last 1/4. However, Ee must have been doing something right during the build up because I cried. CRIED! And my heart broke at that one part. And then everything about Raffe seemed to make sense. I really really liked this story, and I can't wait to read Ee's subsequent books! it's a definite read!

And for only $2.99 on Amazon, it's more than worth it! Unless you value your sleep, of course....

Click here to purchase Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, Book 1) on Amazon.

2 comments:

Perla said...

I totally just bought the Kindle version while I was reading your review.

Pricky Angel said...

Perla!!!! Yay! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!