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Archangel
Stumbling upon a weird series of murders that resemble vampire attacks, Danny Constantine, a reporter from a plague-stricken alternate universe Minneapolis of the 1920s, finds that the glut of bad news prevents the release of his story. Reprint.
416 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
About the author
Mike Conner
17 booksMichael "Mike" Conner (1951) lives in Oakland, California. He is also a musician and a member of the Bay Area Band, the Naked Barbie Dolls.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 5, 2013
_Archangel_ by Mike Conner is a difficult novel to pigeonhole. It is a novel of alternate history. It is a period piece. It is a mystery novel. And it is a novel about the end of the world.
The time, the summer of 1930. The place, Milltown, Minnesota. Danny Constantine, a photographer for the local paper (forced to turn into a reporter as well thanks to increasing staff vacancies) accidentally uncovers a murder. The victim is a white man sucked dry of all his blood, left pale and drained on railroad tracks as if he was fed upon by a vampire. Constantine takes a homicide detective (Sergeant Dooley Willson) and his partner to the crime scene, the two police officers revealing to Constantine that this is the third body like this that they have found. Constantine also finds out that the editor of his paper does not want to run with this story, forbidding Constantine from writing about it and stating that the public does not want more bad news, particularly since people were starting to die again from disease.
During the closing days of the First World War, German scientists experimented on Ebola and created a deadly biological weapon. Released to deadly effect at the end of the war, it proved lethal enough, but the real horror began in the spring of 1919 when a mutated form of the virus dubbed the Hun emerged in Europe, quickly spreading worldwide and killing 90 million people. Spreading throughout the world and hitting the same communities again and again in waves, decimating people who had survived previous onslaughts, many millions died in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The United States went from a nation of 125 million people in 1912 to only 35 million in 1930.
Hun took two forms. Acute Hun was sudden and violent; once it hit its victims were beyond all help and died in a day or less, generally within hours, many times within minutes, perishing from massive spontaneous hemorrhaging (bleeding to death) and near complete organ failure. Chronic Hun was in many ways similar to hemophilia; the victim had little or no ability to form blood clots and could die from cuts or other wounds; the only way to save them in many cases when injured was a fresh blood transfer from an uninfected or immune donor. While men could live for years, even decades perhaps, if they took care and had access to medical care, women were doomed to die during their first menstruation once infected.
One group however was immune; those with black African blood. Though they might get a mild illness from the Hun, no black person died, whether they were black African from Africa, a Creole in the Caribbean, or African-American, as they were all basically immune. This fact produced a wide range of emotions, from fear on the part of many white people left alive, believing erroneously that either blacks created the virus and spread the disease and/or they were eagerly waiting in the wings to destroy "white man's civilization;" to hatred, some whites resenting blacks for not suffering from Hun, this feeling being exacerbated by existing racial tensions in a pre-desegregated America; to hope, with many other whites believing African-Americans could be induced to move into dying towns to fill vacant jobs, run railroads and factories, reopen stores and restaurants, grow crops, police the streets, and fill in for the all deceased plague victims.
This complex mélange of feelings - fear, hatred, hope - very much affected the protagonists in the novel, both black and white. Some were deeply conflicted, like my favorite character, Dooley Willson. An African-American, he had experienced racism firsthand growing up and had no use for white people much of his life, yet as Hun decimated the ranks of the Milltown police force, he steady rose in the ranks of what had once been an all white force. With a chance to oppress the whites of the town (who were becoming more and more a minority), tempted by the likes of Theo Rostek, a black gangster, a man who outwardly to whites was smooth, suave, debonair, and very helpful, privately could not wait for the whites to all die off, Rostek eager to get Willson on his payroll, urging him to stop enforcing "white man's law," Willson was still an honest cop. Perhaps clinging more and more to the law in an increasingly uncertain world, he found himself one of the few people actively preserving a world he once hated.
Unfortunately, the law was mattering less and less to various players in Milltown, ranging from Rostek to the Ku Klux Klan to the Greater Northwest Development Company, an organization of black and white businessmen and politicians who sought to manage the chaos, bring in African-American settlers, and get the town and region running again. Very few -such as Willson and Constantine - played by the old rules, as these new players were not above using murder to achieve their goals (or to look the other way if it occurred). Even Dr. Simon Gray, a doctor who moved to Milltown and set up a research facility to treat Hun victims and find a cure, was not above it seems using sinister methods or having shadowy goals.
While the setting and some the characters were wonderful, the weakest part of the novel was the mystery itself. I had the main part of it figured out pretty early on in the book, mainly because the author gave out too many clues I thought (though parts of it did remain a surprise until the end). Though Conner did cite some sources at the end of the book, I did wonder about the plausibility of some elements, namely whether or not medical knowledge should be that advanced in 1930 (though I imagine it possible that a worldwide plague would tend to focus the minds of researchers) and if the disease should operate the way it was depicted (but then I am no expert).
The time, the summer of 1930. The place, Milltown, Minnesota. Danny Constantine, a photographer for the local paper (forced to turn into a reporter as well thanks to increasing staff vacancies) accidentally uncovers a murder. The victim is a white man sucked dry of all his blood, left pale and drained on railroad tracks as if he was fed upon by a vampire. Constantine takes a homicide detective (Sergeant Dooley Willson) and his partner to the crime scene, the two police officers revealing to Constantine that this is the third body like this that they have found. Constantine also finds out that the editor of his paper does not want to run with this story, forbidding Constantine from writing about it and stating that the public does not want more bad news, particularly since people were starting to die again from disease.
During the closing days of the First World War, German scientists experimented on Ebola and created a deadly biological weapon. Released to deadly effect at the end of the war, it proved lethal enough, but the real horror began in the spring of 1919 when a mutated form of the virus dubbed the Hun emerged in Europe, quickly spreading worldwide and killing 90 million people. Spreading throughout the world and hitting the same communities again and again in waves, decimating people who had survived previous onslaughts, many millions died in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The United States went from a nation of 125 million people in 1912 to only 35 million in 1930.
Hun took two forms. Acute Hun was sudden and violent; once it hit its victims were beyond all help and died in a day or less, generally within hours, many times within minutes, perishing from massive spontaneous hemorrhaging (bleeding to death) and near complete organ failure. Chronic Hun was in many ways similar to hemophilia; the victim had little or no ability to form blood clots and could die from cuts or other wounds; the only way to save them in many cases when injured was a fresh blood transfer from an uninfected or immune donor. While men could live for years, even decades perhaps, if they took care and had access to medical care, women were doomed to die during their first menstruation once infected.
One group however was immune; those with black African blood. Though they might get a mild illness from the Hun, no black person died, whether they were black African from Africa, a Creole in the Caribbean, or African-American, as they were all basically immune. This fact produced a wide range of emotions, from fear on the part of many white people left alive, believing erroneously that either blacks created the virus and spread the disease and/or they were eagerly waiting in the wings to destroy "white man's civilization;" to hatred, some whites resenting blacks for not suffering from Hun, this feeling being exacerbated by existing racial tensions in a pre-desegregated America; to hope, with many other whites believing African-Americans could be induced to move into dying towns to fill vacant jobs, run railroads and factories, reopen stores and restaurants, grow crops, police the streets, and fill in for the all deceased plague victims.
This complex mélange of feelings - fear, hatred, hope - very much affected the protagonists in the novel, both black and white. Some were deeply conflicted, like my favorite character, Dooley Willson. An African-American, he had experienced racism firsthand growing up and had no use for white people much of his life, yet as Hun decimated the ranks of the Milltown police force, he steady rose in the ranks of what had once been an all white force. With a chance to oppress the whites of the town (who were becoming more and more a minority), tempted by the likes of Theo Rostek, a black gangster, a man who outwardly to whites was smooth, suave, debonair, and very helpful, privately could not wait for the whites to all die off, Rostek eager to get Willson on his payroll, urging him to stop enforcing "white man's law," Willson was still an honest cop. Perhaps clinging more and more to the law in an increasingly uncertain world, he found himself one of the few people actively preserving a world he once hated.
Unfortunately, the law was mattering less and less to various players in Milltown, ranging from Rostek to the Ku Klux Klan to the Greater Northwest Development Company, an organization of black and white businessmen and politicians who sought to manage the chaos, bring in African-American settlers, and get the town and region running again. Very few -such as Willson and Constantine - played by the old rules, as these new players were not above using murder to achieve their goals (or to look the other way if it occurred). Even Dr. Simon Gray, a doctor who moved to Milltown and set up a research facility to treat Hun victims and find a cure, was not above it seems using sinister methods or having shadowy goals.
While the setting and some the characters were wonderful, the weakest part of the novel was the mystery itself. I had the main part of it figured out pretty early on in the book, mainly because the author gave out too many clues I thought (though parts of it did remain a surprise until the end). Though Conner did cite some sources at the end of the book, I did wonder about the plausibility of some elements, namely whether or not medical knowledge should be that advanced in 1930 (though I imagine it possible that a worldwide plague would tend to focus the minds of researchers) and if the disease should operate the way it was depicted (but then I am no expert).
January 2, 2012
This book ranks very high in things that I have read. It is a good companion piece to "Lathe of Heaven" by Ursala K. LeGuin.
May 5, 2014
I'm not sure if most of you know that I'm originally from Minnesota or not, but it's a huge part of who I am, and the reason I read this book. I live in Kansas now, but there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of moving back home. I will be one of those odd people who actually retires back north. Minnesota is in my blood, and I never tire of reading books that are set in such a grand state. So when I saw this book at the library book store for less than two dollars, and was set in a version of Minneapolis very different from the reality, I knew I had to get it. Of course, it took a few years to read it, but the deed is finally done.
I will have to admit that I'm not normally charmed by alternate reality fiction, especially when it's about the past, but for some odd reason, I was hooked on this book from almost the beginning. I think it had to do with the characterization, both good and evil, and in the way the author was able to flesh them out in such a way, that I bought into the narrative.
Of course the plot, on it's face, is believable, but maybe not on such a global scale. I think it's perfectly rational, if stretching the science a bit, for a pandemic to kill off one race and the leave the others alone, we already have diseases that only afflict people with certain racial backgrounds. I'm just not sure setting in the 1920s, made the idea of a pandemic doing such a thing, plausible or not. I understand that it's during World War I, and that Spanish Influenza spread like wildfire, but in my head at least, the two diseases would have to spread differently. I'm probably over thinking it, but that's just who I am.
What really won me over was the idea of using such a global catastrophe to explore race relations in the 20s, given the backdrop of one race slowly dying out. Of course, I didn't live back then, but the way it was talked about, felt real to me, and sheer violence in thought, from both sides, made me sick at times, but it felt a little similar even today. I know we like to say race relations have improved over the years, and I think for the most part, that's correct. But there are still segments of all the communities that have resentment over one issue or another, and in many ways, they still rear their ugly heads. So it was interesting to see both white and black characters in the book say and do things, that while it would make me sad, wouldn't surprise me if I saw it happen today.
Even the mystery of who is doing the killing is cleverly worked into the overall narrative. It's what allows all the divergent characters to come into contact with each other, which allows for some explosive and dynamic relationships. I fell petty hard for most of the characters, including the main bad guy. I understood where he was coming from, in a rather twisted and egotistical way, he felt real. At times, I forgot I was reading a book that did not happen. I'm not sure how these characters would have been written had the Hun not happened, but I am sure that they couldn't have been written any better than this.
I will have to admit that I'm not normally charmed by alternate reality fiction, especially when it's about the past, but for some odd reason, I was hooked on this book from almost the beginning. I think it had to do with the characterization, both good and evil, and in the way the author was able to flesh them out in such a way, that I bought into the narrative.
Of course the plot, on it's face, is believable, but maybe not on such a global scale. I think it's perfectly rational, if stretching the science a bit, for a pandemic to kill off one race and the leave the others alone, we already have diseases that only afflict people with certain racial backgrounds. I'm just not sure setting in the 1920s, made the idea of a pandemic doing such a thing, plausible or not. I understand that it's during World War I, and that Spanish Influenza spread like wildfire, but in my head at least, the two diseases would have to spread differently. I'm probably over thinking it, but that's just who I am.
What really won me over was the idea of using such a global catastrophe to explore race relations in the 20s, given the backdrop of one race slowly dying out. Of course, I didn't live back then, but the way it was talked about, felt real to me, and sheer violence in thought, from both sides, made me sick at times, but it felt a little similar even today. I know we like to say race relations have improved over the years, and I think for the most part, that's correct. But there are still segments of all the communities that have resentment over one issue or another, and in many ways, they still rear their ugly heads. So it was interesting to see both white and black characters in the book say and do things, that while it would make me sad, wouldn't surprise me if I saw it happen today.
Even the mystery of who is doing the killing is cleverly worked into the overall narrative. It's what allows all the divergent characters to come into contact with each other, which allows for some explosive and dynamic relationships. I fell petty hard for most of the characters, including the main bad guy. I understood where he was coming from, in a rather twisted and egotistical way, he felt real. At times, I forgot I was reading a book that did not happen. I'm not sure how these characters would have been written had the Hun not happened, but I am sure that they couldn't have been written any better than this.
August 5, 2014
"Weaponized Ebola" was the good news.
The bad news was that the most fiendish of all the Germans' weapons in this version of the First World War got out of hand, and by the time our story opens about 20 years later, the population of the United States has fallen to a fraction of its prewar size.
The population of the USA dropping to just 25 million is the good news -- that means it's larger than the entire population of any of the other advanced countries of the world. Europe and Asia are nearly vacant, with civilization vanished. Only people of substantially African descent are capable of developing an immunity to the mutated Ebola devised in German laboratories.
African Americans being immune to the disease called "Hun" is the good news. It means that there is at least a chance that the United States as a whole (and "Milltown", a slightly fictionalized version of Minneapolis, in particular) might survive after the plague has run its course. People who in our own history were abused and degraded by segregation are instead being trained to serve as scientists, doctors and administrators. They are billed, in an ingenious bit of alternate-history worldbuilding, as "New Negroes". And to think, all it required was the threat of extinction . . . .
The serial killer hunted by journalist Danny Constantine and "New Negro" police detective Dooley Wilson isn't really a vampire. That's the good news . . . .
The bad news was that the most fiendish of all the Germans' weapons in this version of the First World War got out of hand, and by the time our story opens about 20 years later, the population of the United States has fallen to a fraction of its prewar size.
The population of the USA dropping to just 25 million is the good news -- that means it's larger than the entire population of any of the other advanced countries of the world. Europe and Asia are nearly vacant, with civilization vanished. Only people of substantially African descent are capable of developing an immunity to the mutated Ebola devised in German laboratories.
African Americans being immune to the disease called "Hun" is the good news. It means that there is at least a chance that the United States as a whole (and "Milltown", a slightly fictionalized version of Minneapolis, in particular) might survive after the plague has run its course. People who in our own history were abused and degraded by segregation are instead being trained to serve as scientists, doctors and administrators. They are billed, in an ingenious bit of alternate-history worldbuilding, as "New Negroes". And to think, all it required was the threat of extinction . . . .
The serial killer hunted by journalist Danny Constantine and "New Negro" police detective Dooley Wilson isn't really a vampire. That's the good news . . . .
July 10, 2012
There were so many great ideas with this book. By all means I do admire when a book stirs in different aspects to make a savory word stew. But as the book moved along the different ideas started to trip over each other.
For me, the huge problem with this book was the author never committed to one character enough to make them real. In the end, the characters all seemed cliched and trite which came as a great disappointment. The author never really got into any character's psyche. He treated his characters as pieces to move along to further the story. When the author doesn't seem to care about his characters, the reader certainly doesn't.
There were also times when the story roamed too far away from the central core. Yes, fine, I understand about the KKK being involved, but there was one grimace-inducing KKK chapter which acted like a deadly storyline anchor.
Sections where one character tells a story for, no lie, two solid pages of just her talking while the main character says nothing or even blinks really threw off the reading. What, during those sections had she taped the usually impulsive main character's mouth shut?
A disappointment.
For me, the huge problem with this book was the author never committed to one character enough to make them real. In the end, the characters all seemed cliched and trite which came as a great disappointment. The author never really got into any character's psyche. He treated his characters as pieces to move along to further the story. When the author doesn't seem to care about his characters, the reader certainly doesn't.
There were also times when the story roamed too far away from the central core. Yes, fine, I understand about the KKK being involved, but there was one grimace-inducing KKK chapter which acted like a deadly storyline anchor.
Sections where one character tells a story for, no lie, two solid pages of just her talking while the main character says nothing or even blinks really threw off the reading. What, during those sections had she taped the usually impulsive main character's mouth shut?
A disappointment.
September 27, 2010
An alternate history detective story set in a 1930's Minneapolis devastated by ten years of plague. The plague has killed off almost everyone -- except black people, who are immune. It's the end of the world, only no one will talk about it, and newspaperman Danny Constantine's story of strange murders that appear to be the work of a vampire will never be printed by an editor who doesn't want to "upset" his readers. Grimly fascinating, ARCHANGEL paints a vivid picture of a world that might have been. Even though I remained an observer (it never pulled me in), it did keep me interested.
August 19, 2020
I picked this up off my shelf (no idea how it got there) because it claimed that I'd like it if I liked Caleb Carr's [i]Alienist[/i] series. Making that comparison was a mistake of marketing. Caleb Carr's books were much more atmospheric and engaging. The best part of [i]Archangel[/i] was where it veered away from Carr's books: its imaginative semi-apocalyptic setting.
The book felt poorly balanced for about the first half or so, with the vampire element seemingly bodged in. By the end it all made sense, but you don't get a second chance at a first impression.
The book felt poorly balanced for about the first half or so, with the vampire element seemingly bodged in. By the end it all made sense, but you don't get a second chance at a first impression.
August 1, 2008
It has been many years since I've read this book. I'm a bit surprised that a nebula-award winning book of this calibre has no reviews here!
It was an awesome book - the atmosphere was great, and it is well-written and very worth a read. I can't review it in detail, other than to just recommend it, because it has been so long since I read it. It looks to be well-overlooked.
It was an awesome book - the atmosphere was great, and it is well-written and very worth a read. I can't review it in detail, other than to just recommend it, because it has been so long since I read it. It looks to be well-overlooked.
November 21, 2010
Really good book. One of those that questions moral. Human limits-saying, just how far people are ready to go if need be. Makes you think about it a lot after you've read it.
June 22, 2020
A strange book that I received after ordering five random books online during the quarantine. I enjoyed it but it was definitely strange. More hard-boiled crime fiction than anything else.
July 1, 2023
This book takes place in late 1920s’s Minneapolis in an alternate universe which has been ravaged by 10 years of plague. Although there are doctors working on a cure, hope is running out and racial tensions are higher than usual as Blacks seem to be exempt from the disease which is called Hun. Daniel, a photographer and newspaper writer becomes involved with the sheriff’s search for the person who has been killing blacks and draining all of their blood. As he searches for the “vampire murderer” , Daniel discovers many things that he might be better off not knowing. This book has an interesting story, lots of good characterizations and is a reminder not only of our history, although in an alternate form, but also a reflection of problems that still challenge our society today.
November 25, 2021
Took this out for a re-read - and in pandemic-wake, deserves to be rediscovered. It hits so many things that are now a regular part of contemporary life, I'd be surprised if one of the streaming networks doesn't pick it up to turn it into a show within the next 8 years.
Worth looking for (plenty of cheap paperbacks available on Amazon - yeah, I know... - but would be nice if maybe one of the small presses would reprint this.
Worth looking for (plenty of cheap paperbacks available on Amazon - yeah, I know... - but would be nice if maybe one of the small presses would reprint this.
December 12, 2009
An Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever, supposedly a failed military experiment, wipes out most of the world's population - with the exception of people of African descent, who are immune. The story takes place in rural Illinois, where some lament the loss of baseball and movie stars, miles from the desolate emptiness of dead Chicago. Radio is mostly gone as well, but one woman (the Archangel of the title) keeps a pirate station going, playing old tunes, and telling it like it is.
In the middle of all this you have a murder mystery, too. Doesn't it all sound great? Conner had a lot of great ideas. Unfortunately, the story was mediocre and the plot pretty predictable. The book did not live up to the fabulousness of the setting and the premise.
In the middle of all this you have a murder mystery, too. Doesn't it all sound great? Conner had a lot of great ideas. Unfortunately, the story was mediocre and the plot pretty predictable. The book did not live up to the fabulousness of the setting and the premise.
January 19, 2009
Archangel by Mike Conner (1999)
August 18, 2012
Nancy - 0 stars
August 7, 2014
alternative history murder mystery. fun fun
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews