Angelology

Oct 06, 2011 Kevin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Honestly, if I could give it 3.5 stars, I would. Since I can't, I'm rounding up, as a gesture towards giving the author the benefit of the doubt, expecting that the next book will be better.

Angelology is a mixed bag. Personally, I find angel lore, and other mythologies, fascinating, and I thoroughly enjoyed the mix of Judeo-Christian and Greek myth, Talmudic scholarship and discussion of the Book of Enoch (a personal favorite). The subject of the Nephilim has intrigued me since I first read Made...more Honestly, if I could give it 3.5 stars, I would. Since I can't, I'm rounding up, as a gesture towards giving the author the benefit of the doubt, expecting that the next book will be better.

Angelology is a mixed bag. Personally, I find angel lore, and other mythologies, fascinating, and I thoroughly enjoyed the mix of Judeo-Christian and Greek myth, Talmudic scholarship and discussion of the Book of Enoch (a personal favorite). The subject of the Nephilim has intrigued me since I first read Madeline L'Engle as a kid. So . . . A+ on an interesting new take on very intriguing subject matter.

I understand this is the Ms. Trussoni's first novel, her first book being a solidly non-fiction memoir. I believe that this is apparent in her writing style. Frankly, I found the narrative voice to be rather dry for a work of fiction, especially one of the fantastic variety, but perfectly in keeping, however, with the expected tone of a diarist. It is also quite telling that the most compelling part of the book was the section detailing the personal memories of a young woman's life and education in WWII-era France. It was written in the first person, and the character, Celestine, was by far the most well-developed, and most distinctive voice in the entire novel. Clearly Ms. Trussoni is more comfortable, at least at the moment, with this style of narration.

The other characters in the book suffered somewhat from a lack of differentiation of voice; they all ran together and "read" quite similarly, from evil Nephilim to nuns, to aged angelologists. This was something of an unfortunate impediment when trying to identify with the various characters, and I hope that further work in fiction will help Ms. Trussoni better develop individual character voice.

The author is, however, quite skilled in description and her world was very easy to visualize, often vividly so. Unfortunately, her adeptness in this area overbalanced her lesser abilities in characterization and resulted in large sections of the book feeling overly expository, which was surprising, because the book had some truly exciting action bits.

Despite the book's flaws, however, Ms. Trussoni really did succeed in drawing me in, particularly after the aforementioned very engaging second section of the book, and left me looking forward to the next novel in the series. She is clearly a skilled and talented author, and I expect that she will quickly develop better fictional narrative skills. While I don't believe the book is quite worth the hype, it is still well worth reading. (less)

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Jun 18, 2010 Ellen rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Over the years, I've received student papers so awful, I'm tempted to just write, "Nice font choice" and move on. For Trussoni's sad book, my comment is "Nice cover." Fetching, isn't it?

However, what a surprise.

Not one of my GR friends has any mention of this book - not a review, not a to-be-read, and definitely not a wishlist pick.

Gee. I wonder why.

Several reasons come to mind. Overall, the book is a half-witted concoction clearly written in the hopes that it would become a movie, or rather t...more cover_image

Over the years, I've received student papers so awful, I'm tempted to just write, "Nice font choice" and move on. For Trussoni's sad book, my comment is "Nice cover." Fetching, isn't it?

However, what a surprise.

Not one of my GR friends has any mention of this book - not a review, not a to-be-read, and definitely not a wishlist pick.

Gee. I wonder why.

Several reasons come to mind. Overall, the book is a half-witted concoction clearly written in the hopes that it would become a movie, or rather the first in a series of movies, given that the book's end signals a sequel.

The Nephilim or fallen angels, who live in the midst of a somewhat Victorian-feeling society, apparently elude the notice of most mortals, despite their immense power and influence. Just how this is possible is not explained nor is angelology, which could have been somewhat fascinating, if pursued in any depth.

And, just as Maureen Dowd coined the term baldenfreude for men losing their locks, we could probably use the term wingenfreude to describe the loss of wing breadth, luster, and thickness that some of the angels are experiencing. And if the dilemma of Percival, the key male angel, sounds a bit phallic, it should. The description of Percival's former wings in contrast to his mother's flawless appendages is rife with envy and Freudian implications:

His mother's wings were gorgeous, shimmering, healthy, full-plumed. A gradation of soft color radiated from the tips, where the feathers were tiny and roseate, and moved to the center of her back, where the feathers grew large and glittering. Percival's wings, when he'd had them, had been even larger than his mother's, sharp and dramatic, the feathers precisely shaped daggers of brilliant, powdery gold."

Though a major character, Percival, our emasculated and evil angel, is not the main character. That spot is reserved for Sister Evangeline, a remarkably flat and undeveloped character, whose destiny is evident by perhaps page 10 or so of this 458-page book.

The only remotely compelling sections were those in Bulgaria, particularly concerning Celestine and Gabrielle. Just why in the hell I read this whole godawful mess can only be explained by major funkdom, when I read continuously (including some awful literature) and eat a lot of bubba-mycin (chicken soup).

Please view this review as a public service message. Save yourself from this book and its likely incarnation as a movie (imdb.com indicates that it's in development). aaargh.(less)

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Apr 23, 2010 Joel rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People I don't like

Recommended to Joel by: The stupid New York Times

Shelves: 2010, 52-in-2010, library-books, zzzz, sci-fi-fantasy, worst-reads, wwii

This one kept losing stars as it went. The broad concept was really interesting, excerpting one of those weird bits of the bible and making it the basis for an otherworldly, fantastical story. But the characters are flat and the writing is dull -- most of the first half of the book is scenes of people doing research, and we get to read right along with them as they examine ancient historical texts and first-hand accounts of angelic encounters. This is about as exciting as reading a musty old his...more

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Apr 25, 2010 Ronda Tutt rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, paranormal

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It is hard to rate this story because there were parts that were very interesting and exciting, yet there were parts that were very slow where I fell a sleep.

I loved the story line but I didn't like how it ended to much, I was looking for a happy ending with some romance involved. This book totally left you hanging in the end so that you will find out the rest of the story in the second book.

there are so many things that happen in the story but I liked all the characters especially the main ones...more

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Jan 12, 2013 PurplyCookie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, mythic-fiction, religious, 1st-in-a-series, book-series, angelology

"Angelology" is not a Biblical-based novel, it is an adventure in an imaginary world. It combines angels and ancient myths and interweaves them into a contemporary setting.

This novel is a struggle between good and evil, between Nephilim (angels of the earth) and Human beings. It is a story of magic, and struggle, and hope. We watch as Evangeline, who grew up in a convent, encounters a world and a life she never knew existed. We are introduced to that world with her, and find ourselves suspendin...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Kristen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: best-paranormal-fiction, weird-but-good, favorites

When you read as much as I do, it is rare to come across a totally unique story. Angelology is that rare gem.

This book has almost every element a great book should offer: multi-faceted, fascinating characters, an exciting, complex, layered plot, and really excellent writing. The story is a tapestry of interwoven storylines, that includes history, religion, philosophy, art, puzzles, and scavenger hunts.

The story revolves around Sister Evangeline, a young nun, who has been part of the Franciscan S...more When you read as much as I do, it is rare to come across a totally unique story. Angelology is that rare gem.

This book has almost every element a great book should offer: multi-faceted, fascinating characters, an exciting, complex, layered plot, and really excellent writing. The story is a tapestry of interwoven storylines, that includes history, religion, philosophy, art, puzzles, and scavenger hunts.

The story revolves around Sister Evangeline, a young nun, who has been part of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration convent since the age of twelve, left there by her father after the tragic, and mysterious death of her mother.

The Convent has a well-known archive and library with information on Angels. When an art-historian asks permission to visit and access the archives, Sister Evangeline as the nun responsible for correspondence, prepares the usual polite denial. And yet, she is intrigued by the request, which contends that Abigail Rockefellar corresponded with a previous Mother Superior of the convent.

Curious, Evangeline searches the archives and finds a letter from Mrs. Rockefellar.

This sets off a chain of events which show Evangeline that she is not the person she thought she was, and that her mother and grandmother were keepers of an exceptionally special calling - Angelologists, who have hunted and attempted to exterminate evil rogue angels, called Nephilim, who are living among us to this day.

But Evangeline soon realizes that her own life may be in danger because of events set in motion hundreds of years in the past, and that she must discover the truth of her heritage.

At the same time, Percival Grigori, son of one of the premier Nephilim families, is suffering from a debilitating crippling disease, that will kill him, unless he can unravel a mystery and obtain a cure, which he believes is being hidden by the Angelologists.

It isn't possible to do this book real justice in a review. It has so much to offer you have to read it to appreciate it, and I recommend you do if you like thoughtful, well-written, fascinating historical fiction with a number of psychological thriller twists and turns.

Definitely one of the best books I've ever read! This is the author's first book, and I really hope she has more stories like this one in her!!(less)

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May 25, 2010 Melissa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

When my friend Deb told me she was reading a book called Angelology, and that I had to read it, too, I was skeptical. I mean, it sounded like some funky new age treatise, and secretly, I was worried about what chemicals might be misfiring in her brain. Then she began to describe the plot, and even before she gave me the book, I was hooked.

Imagine a world where angels walk beside us, not as mystical guardians but as immortal (or as near to it as makes little difference) preter-natural beings with...more

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Jul 15, 2011 Lady Danielle aka The Book Huntress rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Angel fiction lovers

Shelves: angels, fantasy, audiobook, library-checkout, really-good-villain, epistolary-narrative, metafiction, multiple-narrators, ww2, nerd-prof-scientist-genius-geek, nun-monk-minister, the-lost-heir, the-chosen-one, french-heroine, set-in-france, set-in-new-york-city, 2011-reading

I am so glad I found this on audiobook at the library. It turned out to be a very good medium for this story. I have to say that for a slow starter, I really got drawn into this book, and when it ended, I had separation anxiety!

Two things kept me from giving this a five star rating:

1. The slow, meandering start. I was initially thinking, uh-oh, this might turn out to be a real snoozer. Boy was I wrong!
2. The ending was a cliffie that really got my blood pressure up! I didn't like the way this no...more

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Jun 02, 2010 Megan rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ajpl, fiction, magic-realism, thriller, adult

Ok, I got to page 100 last night before I gave up. I was reading it during the commercials during Glee, with Beck's "Loser" stuck in my head thanks to the episode, and I just gave up. I can't believe the author could take so little happening and stretch it out to 100 pages of tiny print. I don't need every thought that goes through the character's mind. There is so much telling in this book, so many infodumps. The dialogue was in paragraphs. This could've been so good, too. Ugh.

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Jul 29, 2011 Karen rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, specfic, ladywritten

All 452 pages of it. Yup.

I had issues with this book from the first page. The writing is...not good. I know Trussoni went to Iowa (which is usually a yardstick of some kind) and she wrote an acclaimed memoir before this, and this very book is a NY Times Notable Book of 2010. So you'd think she'd write a good sentence. But no. The book is full to bursting with things like:

"Verlaine stared at her, flabbergasted at what this otherwise rational woman had just said."

and:

"The chaos of people sloggin...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Lys rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, narrativa, fantasy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Angelology, delusione è il tuo secondo nome.
Già, devo dire di essere rimasta enormemente delusa da questo romanzo. Le premesse parevano interessanti: nel mondo che conosciamo si combatte da sempre una guerra tra i Nefilim (o Nephilim), i figli degli Angeli, da una parte e gli angelologi dall'altra. I primi vorrebbero la supremazia totale sugli uomini, i secondi vorrebbero cortesemente impedirglielo. Peccato che l'unica cosa interessante di questo libro rimanga proprio questo. La premessa.

La stor...more

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Sep 11, 2012 Ella rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Her imagination, concepts and overall gratuitous and in-depth descriptions of the world she has created as well as it's history and the origins of the Angels, Nephilim and Angelologists (could have learned a bit more about them though) compensate for Trussoni's flat, unimaginative and completely unrelatable characters.
All the characters are oddly bloodless with little to no fleshing out, acting as plot devices and space-fillers more than anything else and our "heroine" or at least one of our pr...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Jack rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fabulously trashy and yet strangely compelling.

I had truly enjoyed Trussoni's debut, a memoir about growing up the daughter of a war-damaged father, entitled FALLING THROUGH THE EARTH. Her voice was alternately plaintive and brutally honest, even when her story was at its most feverishly dramatic.

By contrast, this story is huge, ambitious, and wildly over-written. If you can get past her ornate sentences and endless exposition, the story of scientists and theologians who hunt the Nephilim is re...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Candace Burton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wanted this to be good. It started out so promisingly, taking the archetype of "angel" back to its rather ghastly, bloody roots--upending all the new-age, vision-having, aura-sensing "angel" memes that have been floating around--and re-imagining the history of the "fall" of the Nephilim in a really interesting and scholarly way. and then...not. the novel tried to tell the story of Evangeline Caccitore, a young nun whose path crosses that of the art history student Verlaine, whose mysterious em...more

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Dec 05, 2010 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

no ja teda na anjelov nie som. podľa mňa existujú 2 základné skupiny ľudí vo vzťahu k anjelom.1. sú tí, ktorí v nich neveria a tá druhá sú prekvapivo tí, ktorí v nich veria. Každá z týchto skupín sa ešte delí na menšie podskupiny. napr. tí, ktorí v anjelov síce neveria, ale dokážu o akceptovať diskusiu na túto tému, prípadne podskupina ľudí, ktorí v anjelov veria, ale tak troška s rezervou.
Ja som asi v tej 1. hlavnej skupine. Knihy o anjeloch bežne nečítam, nemám doma rôzne karty anjelov (len j...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Dorsi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-by-me, paranormal-witchy

I'd actually give this 4 1/2 stars. I really enjoyed this one & it kept my interest throughout. I am surprised this got such low ratings because it was really quite good! I guess everyone has different opinions. There are a few books out there that some people gave high ratings to that I didn't care for at all. A few examples are The Gunslinger, Sharp Objects, The Pagan Stone, & The Time Traveler's Wife. In my opinion, these were terrible! Okay, back to Angelology. I have had this book o...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Sarah Sammis rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed, exwishlist, audio, read-in-2012

Angelology by Danielle Trussoni is set in the last weeks of the Twentieth century and in the years up to and during World War Two. A war between the angels and the nephilim is brewing and humanity will be screwed in the process. In the tradition of the religious horror of the 1960s and 1970s, the heros here are religious scholars (angelologists) and nuns. In it's set up, it's most like The Sentinel by Jeffrey Konvitz — except it's about three times as long.

A mysterious and uninvited visitor to a...more

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Jun 01, 2010 Montanamarynotmartha rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, paranormal-fantasy, adult

I gave this two stars because that indicates "it was okay". I have mixed feelings about it. The writer is an "outside-the-box" thinker and has a brilliant vocabulary. She created an entire society in this book, fascinating journals and interesting ancient religious artifacts in the story. The story takes place over two days, with a side story of a past event taking up a good chunk of the book. The side story was interesting in and of itself and would have made a good book. The book depticts a wo...more

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Mar 26, 2010 Amy rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who like dan brown books

This book did not live up to the hype. It's Dan Brown with a slightly better editor. The book is split into three sections. The first section was ok. The author did a good job of introducing the families and the specific players. The second section set up the action and gave a history of what the characters were searching for. There were parts of this section that were interesting, specifically the trip to Bulgaria. The third section, was the most similar to a Dan Brown book. It was rushed: new...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Lori Schiele rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mythology, mystery-suspense, paranormal

A very well-written, and researched, novel about a centuries old battle between angelologists (scientists, clergy and layman who study angels) and the Nephilim (offspring of human women and angels that "fell" in order to mate with them). Nephilim are found in the Christian Bible as early as Genesis (there are many notations in the novel where such passages can be found) although many theologists in the modern day do not believe in the existence of the Nephilim. It is even believed by some that t...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Spock rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Per correttezza devo precisare che il libro non rientra nei miei interessi. Essendo una edizione fuori commercio fornita a suo tempo dalla casa editrice (senza correzioni definitive) potrebbe essere appena diversa da quella distribuita.
Detto questo, il libro si legge agevolmente, non stanca e racconta i "dietro le quinte" dell'umanit��. Si scopre cos�� che la stessa si muove su un teatrino in cui i veri protagonisti occulti sono le gens angeliche (esseri assolutamente fisici). In particolare una...more

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Sep 22, 2012 Naima rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Che fetecchia! Mi sono sentita davvero presa in giro: forse l'autrice pensava ad un pubblico di infanti? In parte mi sono anche sentita in imbarazzo per l'autrice, in alcuni punti leggevo coprendomi gli occhi e sbirciando tra le dita.. pensavo 'no, ti prego, ti prego no!!!'.
Se vi dicessi che i protagonisti hanno tutti nomi come Angela, serafina, evangelina, Gabriella e che girano in "incognito" con un macchinone targato ANGEL.. Non vi sentireste presi in giro anche voi?
Ha la pretesa di essere u...more

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May 07, 2013 Filip Ängelsson rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I got the book from a friend that recommended it. She talked highly about it and since we have similar taste I said "what the heck" so I started reading it. It was... unbelievably boring.

I really was surprized by that book, but not in a good way. How can you have a "angels on earth" or "angels living among us" theme and you fail to deliver? I mean come ON!!! That's impossible for even non believers.

The book failed to impress me because of the slow or no action.
To me it was like reading a histo...more

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Apr 09, 2013 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Angelology begins in Milton, NY at St. Rose Convent. Sister Evangeline is 23; she has been living there since she was 12, and took her vows at age 18. She works in the library, handling the correspondence. Her days have been fairly routine until now, but on the day the book opens, December 23, 1999, she receives a letter from a V.A. Verlaine, inquiring about a possible connection between a prior abbess of the convent and Abigail Aldrich Rockefeller, the famous (real-life) philanthropist of the a...more Angelology begins in Milton, NY at St. Rose Convent. Sister Evangeline is 23; she has been living there since she was 12, and took her vows at age 18. She works in the library, handling the correspondence. Her days have been fairly routine until now, but on the day the book opens, December 23, 1999, she receives a letter from a V.A. Verlaine, inquiring about a possible connection between a prior abbess of the convent and Abigail Aldrich Rockefeller, the famous (real-life) philanthropist of the arts.

We quickly get enmeshed in a Dan Brown-sort of thriller, featuring theological mysteries that are derived from angelology, the study of angels and their presence on earth throughout history. We are reminded that the presence on earth of “Nephilim,” or half-angels, half-humans, was described at the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 6:

"The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose,” and when “they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”

As the story progresses we learn how the history of the Nephilim became interwoven with the myth of Orpheus, among other myths; all of these stories are purported in the book to have had a basis in fact. As one of the angelologists explains in a clever implied repost to positivists:

"Whereas angels were once the epitome of beauty and goodness, now, in our time, they are irrelevant. Materialism and science have banished them to nonexistence, a sphere as indeterminate as purgatory. It used to be that humanity believed in angels implicitly, intuitively, not with our minds but with our very souls. Now we need proof. We need material, scientific data that will verify without a doubt their reality. Yet what a crisis would occur if the proof existed! What would happen, do you suppose, if the material existence of angels could be verified?”

Since the publishers tell you on the blurbs and by virtue of the cover picture itself that the Nephilim exist, it won’t be spoilery to reveal that Evangeline and Vervaine get involved in a life-or-death struggle with these creatures, who are not interested in having their secrets uncovered. In fact, it is the Nephilim, so the angelologists contend, who promulgated atheism, so that people will not suspect the extent to which humans are not, in fact, free of the nefarious intervention of Nephilim into their affairs.

This trope works well enough for most of the book, since there is enough similarity to the real world to make the story seem clever and entertaining. Toward the end though, a few sharks get jumped, in part, one supposes, to spur the reader on to read the next installment.

Discussion: It was interesting to see how Trussoni based the plot on an extremely literal and anthropomorphic interpretation of the Bible. Of course, there are probably more competing interpretations of the Bible than there are actual people in the world. Nevertheless, when you opt for the Vengeful God and Evil Angels version of the Bible, it seems to me that you need to have your characters also account for divergence from metaphysical doctrines such as omnipotence (clearly not a Divine attribute in this series), forgiveness, redemption, and maybe the whole Sermon on the Mount. (Jesus and associated ethics of love and morality generally do not play a role in these two books. The author supplements mostly Old Testament passages with some from the Apocrypha and other non-canonical works, such as the Book of Enoch.)

I do think Trussoni does a nice job with the theological arguments she does tackle, and the thriller aspect of the book is well-done. (less)

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Feb 12, 2013 Justine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My amazon shopping cart that is "saved for later" is pretty much my personal repository of books that I may one day read. Last Friday I trolled through the cart looking for the ideal book to scratch a wintery malaise of restlessness, laziness, and a desire to be entertained. Enter Angelology, one of the few recent thrillers to be written up in the NYT (despite its lurid cover) - and scratch my itch it did. Oh baby.

The premise of the book is fairly simple - god is real, angels are real, original...more

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Jan 27, 2013 Shawn Spjut rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ne of my favorite things, as a both a reader and aspiring writer, is to come across someone who tweaks my theology, my need for order, and turns them both arse -end - to - tea - kettle. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, you can bet your next latte, whoever the author is that managed to do it, will earn a place forever on the shelves of books I will read over and over again.

The folded spine of "Angelology" now rests second shelf, third from the left.

*****

Danielle Trussoni, author of Fall...more ne of my favorite things, as a both a reader and aspiring writer, is to come across someone who tweaks my theology, my need for order, and turns them both arse -end - to - tea - kettle. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, you can bet your next latte, whoever the author is that managed to do it, will earn a place forever on the shelves of books I will read over and over again.

The folded spine of "Angelology" now rests second shelf, third from the left.

*****

Danielle Trussoni, author of Falling Through the Earth: A Memoir, (Picador) has written her first fictional work, and almost from the outset, manages to set the pages on fire.

Everything from subject matter, to story, to character development, to mystery and suspense, to literally pulling the reader into the minds and hearts of angel and angelologist's alike; Danielle Trussoni grabs you by the soul and doesn't let go. Even as a Christian, my interest in angels can be counted on one hand, but after reading this novel, I feel compelled to read more, search more, and of course, ask a lots of questions.

Throughout her book, Trussoni explores not just mankind's fascination with Nephillium, sons of God, and the whole angel-God-man issue, but makes the reader take a long look at what it means to be - other than human. To be infused with more than mere flesh and bone, blood and marrow. And if your anything like me, one question will always lead to the next, and the next, and the next ...

I've a sense much of her research has come from Catholicism - of which I have less than minimal knowledge of - but the novel raises so many new questions in my own mind, that I refuse to be confined to such a narrow conclusion.

I personally know individuals who claim to have not only seen angels, but to have deployed them in spiritual battle; and from everyone of their accounts, angels are not warm and fuzzy dudes. They are powerful, dazzling, and seldom have regard for humans outside the will and purpose of God.

Doesn't sound like "Angelology" falls far from the mark.

On my reader scale of 1-5, I'm giving Angelology a 4.5.(less)

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Jan 12, 2013 PurplyCookie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, 1st-in-a-series, book-series, angelology, fantasy, mythic-fiction, religious

"Angelology" is not a Biblical-based novel, it is an adventure in an imaginary world. It combines angels and ancient myths and interweaves them into a contemporary setting.

This novel is a struggle between good and evil, between Nephilim (angels of the earth) and Human beings. It is a story of magic, and struggle, and hope. We watch as Evangeline, who grew up in a convent, encounters a world and a life she never knew existed. We are introduced to that world with her, and find ourselves suspendin...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Katie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is different then most books I have chosen to read, and at first glimpse seems like a book that I would take extreme interest in. The first page had me captivated in the idea of the findings of a dead angel. However, as the pages turned it became increasingly difficult to capture the complexity of the story. MY first descriptions of the book were poorly put together and lacking any real suspense. I just really hoped they wouldn't make this book into a movie. It was hard for me to maint...more

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Aug 10, 2012 Jade rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Angelology is Danielle Trussoni’s fiction debut, and to be quite frank, it shows. This contemporary thriller is built around the premise that angels exist (or have existed), and have mingled with us humans. In doing this, they’ve created a human-angel offspring called the Nephilim, who are basically looking to rule the human world through sneaky plotting and conspiracies. A secret society of Angelologists are the only ones aware of this, and desperately try to prevent the dangerous Nephilim from...more Angelology is Danielle Trussoni’s fiction debut, and to be quite frank, it shows. This contemporary thriller is built around the premise that angels exist (or have existed), and have mingled with us humans. In doing this, they’ve created a human-angel offspring called the Nephilim, who are basically looking to rule the human world through sneaky plotting and conspiracies. A secret society of Angelologists are the only ones aware of this, and desperately try to prevent the dangerous Nephilim from overpowering human society by fighting (and plotting) against them.

Our protagonist, the nun Evangeline, gets caught up in this battle as she discovers things about her past, her parents, and something that a certain Nephilim is currently after.

Let me first start with what I liked about this book: its premise. I really, honestly enjoyed the concept of having human-angel offspring wandering about on earth, trying to gain more power over the world from the shadows. It’s an interesting concept, and one that I hadn’t encountered in my readings yet. Even though I’m not a religious person myself, I always enjoy a tale that’s able to build upon well-known religious concepts and/or stories, and make something entirely new of it. And in a way, Trussoni succeeds in this, giving us the gorgeously dangerous Nephilim against whom the human Angelologists almost don’t stand a chance. I wanted to know more about them; more of their history, the way they’d hidden their activities during all those centuries, etc. In short, they sparked my interest.

Secondly, Trussoni succeeded in capturing me as a reader with the story of the Nephilim pitted against the Angelologists. I wanted to know what would happen next, and felt compelled to read on. In a way, this novel of hers was exciting to me, and played up its thriller category. Unfortunately, she’s no good at physical action scenes, like chasing and fighting, and those often felt forced and unnatural to me in terms of Trussoni’s descriptions of them. I highly preferred the excitable ‘discovery’ scenes (i.e. when the characters uncovered new facts or material) over the actual action.

But other than that, this book is a mess. Its characters are horrendously flat, and none of them managed to truly capture my interest or affect my emotions save for the protagonist’s grandmother, Gabrielle (in her flashback scenes, mostly). Though the protagonist’s search into her past was vaguely interesting, merely for the sake of picking up more angelology facts, her character was dull, with no honest motivation behind her life choices. And the supposed romantic interest, art student Verlaine, struck me as completely and utterly useless, and seemed even flatter than the rest of them. (Also, nobody even seems to have heard of character development.)

Next to that, the ending is set up for a sequel so obviously that it almost hurts to read it, and we discover by the end of the book that we’re not even close to gaining all the information we could’ve gained about the Nephilim and the Angelologists. (And I, for one, would’ve liked more information since it was this premise that I was originally interested in.) The book is also terribly edited, with mistakes that were so obvious that even I pulled many ‘Huh?’-faces while reading.

In conclusion, nothing special, and nothing I would necessarily recommend unless the concept seems interesting to you (and if you’re also looking for a quick, easy, badly edited, and not so wonderfully written thriller).
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Jul 28, 2012 Adrienne rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As I read this book I kept hoping for more. More depth in character, more background, more action, more romance, more something. I felt that I was reading an outline and while the outline had some fantastic ideas and a hinted at larger back story the hints were never fulfilled.
I read this book and kept hoping for something to happen. Half way through it I was unimpressed and would have abandon it had it not been the only book I had with me on an eight hour bus trip. Even the climax where we fina...more

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Anđeologija na srpskom	11	56	16 hours, 1 min ago
Who's Your Author?: BOM: Angelology	6	20	May 16, 2013 11:36pm

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Angelology (Angelology #1)

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