3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
War in Heaven is an epic mythological fantasy tale including all manner of supernatural beings. There are angels, demons, vampires, fairies, werewolves, and shapeshifters to mention just a few. This novel by Robert Wheeler is the first in the Scions of Azazyel series.
Angelica is mad at God for letting her parents get murdered. They were murdered in an attempt to get some information. With their deaths, Angelica and her twin brother, Jonah, are the only ones with the information that both sides want. The first Angelica finds out about this, is when a vampire corners her. An archangel comes to Angelica’s rescue and tells her that she and her brother are in danger.
Fearing the return of the vampire Angelica agrees to go with Gabriel to where Jonah is. Gabriel teleports them there and tells them that they are Nephilim and their father knew the location of Azazyel. Azazyel is the twelfth archangel, but he disobeyed God’s law and was buried alive as punishment. Satan, the leader of the bad guys, has sent his minions to locate Azazyel, and God has sent Gabriel to do the same thing. Both sides want him to join them in the upcoming war and Angelica and Jonah are the only ones who know where he is.
Robert has very cleverly woven together several different mythologies into a single myth. He does this by claiming that the archangels were known by several names. For example, the archangel Sandalphon is also known as Odin, Co-brother, and Together. This can lead to some confusion as there are far more names than there are characters. The author thoughtfully gives a list of all these names in the introduction, I found myself having to refer to it many times just to work out which archangel was present at the time.
The introduction was very hard to read, and I’m not sure even after reading it twice that I fully understand it. However, the style of the rest of the book is much easier to follow. Most of the book is made up of reminiscences as Gabriel explains to his party what really happened in the past. So it reads more like a collection of short stories, with the traveling of the party filling up the spaces in-between. This does give the reader a full understanding of the myth that Robert developed. What happens to the party during their travels is very exciting and well written, and gives me great expectations for the continuation of the series. I did find that the ending was very abrupt, it appeared out of nowhere, but Robert does include the first chapter of the next book to whet the appetite so that helps a bit with the abruptness of the ending.
Despite the confusion with the character names I really enjoyed this book and would like to give it a 4-star rating. However, there are many grammar mistakes throughout the book so I’m forced to give this a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. I think this book would appeal to anyone who enjoys fantasy books. I’m not sure how religious people would react to it. Would they say well that explains why there were so many Gods in the past, or would they just call it blasphemy?
******
Scions of Azazyel
View: on Bookshelves
Like Emie Cuevas's review? Post a comment saying so!
