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shona_reads_in_devon 's review for:
Angeions
by Inspirus Mwanake
adventurous
medium-paced
Firstly, thank you to Booktasters and Inspirus for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for my honest thoughts.
Argh. I really wanted to like this, and there were things about it that I really liked but overall it didn't quite hit the mark for me.
The biggest barrier I had was the style of writing. I can't tell if the language was possibly due to a translation issue. At times, the choice of language, the descriptions of things were beautiful. And fighting and battle scenes were described really brilliantly. But there was a real disconnect between the characters language when they were narrating the story and their dialogue and banter with other characters. Nick talks to others like a 17 yo boy but narrates the story like a 16th century poet. This created a strange detachment for me and consequently I found it tricky to connect to any of the characters.
I really enjoy a theological and religious perspective to my reading, and so this Angel based fantasy was right up my street. I enjoyed the Greek and Hebrew language references a lot and thought this was well used (though it is a little overwhelming at the start and maybe a glossary would help!). And the Rhema, and dotting little passages from it throughout worked well. But I do like my theology a little more tortured. Maybe this develops in the next book - but I prefer more exploration of the concept of good Vs evil and this story felt quite cut and dry. I thought Aquarius ' backstory and the idea that Aella et al not being all they said they were would have been an interesting avenue.
Nick. He's basically being led around by his genitals, which is at least accurate for a 17 year old boy. But lots of the panegyrics and odes to Aella's beauty could have been cut so that we spent more time developing their relationship. The pacing of this felt a little lopsided and sometimes characters didn't react consistently to situations which again made it tricky to connect to them. Nick's journey to the dark side was sudden and poorly explored and explained.
This isn't a 2★ read, I didn't dislike this book. There are the bones of a really great story here. But for me, I struggled to get into the language and the theological aspects need to be more complex for my enjoyment levels.
*Also, as a history buff - there were barely any deaths during the Great Fire of London. Like 3 people died in it, so as a plot device for the dramaticus, it doesn't work.
Argh. I really wanted to like this, and there were things about it that I really liked but overall it didn't quite hit the mark for me.
The biggest barrier I had was the style of writing. I can't tell if the language was possibly due to a translation issue. At times, the choice of language, the descriptions of things were beautiful. And fighting and battle scenes were described really brilliantly. But there was a real disconnect between the characters language when they were narrating the story and their dialogue and banter with other characters. Nick talks to others like a 17 yo boy but narrates the story like a 16th century poet. This created a strange detachment for me and consequently I found it tricky to connect to any of the characters.
I really enjoy a theological and religious perspective to my reading, and so this Angel based fantasy was right up my street. I enjoyed the Greek and Hebrew language references a lot and thought this was well used (though it is a little overwhelming at the start and maybe a glossary would help!). And the Rhema, and dotting little passages from it throughout worked well. But I do like my theology a little more tortured. Maybe this develops in the next book - but I prefer more exploration of the concept of good Vs evil and this story felt quite cut and dry. I thought Aquarius ' backstory and the idea that Aella et al not being all they said they were would have been an interesting avenue.
Nick. He's basically being led around by his genitals, which is at least accurate for a 17 year old boy. But lots of the panegyrics and odes to Aella's beauty could have been cut so that we spent more time developing their relationship. The pacing of this felt a little lopsided and sometimes characters didn't react consistently to situations which again made it tricky to connect to them. Nick's journey to the dark side was sudden and poorly explored and explained.
This isn't a 2★ read, I didn't dislike this book. There are the bones of a really great story here. But for me, I struggled to get into the language and the theological aspects need to be more complex for my enjoyment levels.
*Also, as a history buff - there were barely any deaths during the Great Fire of London. Like 3 people died in it, so as a plot device for the dramaticus, it doesn't work.