bloodygranuaile (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bloodygranuaile) wrote2021-11-28 03:47 pm
bloodygranuaile) wrote2021-11-28 03:47 pm
Icons and apocalypses
A few years ago I reread the first three books in Garth Nix’s Abhorsen series but quite frankly never updated my brain to remember that there are now actually more than three books in the Abhorsen series, let alone that Nix has an entire career of writing other books that I haven’t heard of. But Angel Mage came to my attention through the very straightforward mechanism of my housemate putting it directly in my face and saying they thought I’d like it.
As indicated by the title, this book is about angels, which is not quite as much fun as necromancy but still quite interesting. It takes place 137 years after the country of Ystara got apocalypse-ed by something called the Ash Blood Plague, which turns people’s blood to ash and then also turns some portion of them into horrible monsters. This all had something to do with the guardian archangel of Ystara, Pallaniel, and his high priestess, Liliath. In what is now our contemporary timeline, Liliath, who had magically put herself to sleep for a while, wakes up in order to continue to enact her plans, which had gone horrendously wrong the first time and started the apocalypse. By this point, the refugees from the Ystaran apocalypse form a despised undercaste in the neighboring countries, known as Refusers, and terrifying to the general populace because angelic magic cannot be used on them, and if it is, they also break out in a case of the Ash Blood Plague.
Our heroes here are a group of four young people, all around 18, who are in training for a variety of careers in a vaguely French-flavored society. They are all bound to each other and to Liliath, whomst is our villain (because she is a self-absorbed psycho stalker), for mysterious angel magic reasons that nobody quite understands, but which brings a certain degree of suspicion down upon them. Each individual character is sort of obnoxious but together they are a fun and interesting team. They have a lot of exciting adventures that involve things like finding ancient treasure and getting in a ton of fights.
Overall this just didn’t grab me quite as much as the Abhorsen series but it was a nice light fantasy adventure and basically the perfect thing to read on a lazy holiday weekend.
As indicated by the title, this book is about angels, which is not quite as much fun as necromancy but still quite interesting. It takes place 137 years after the country of Ystara got apocalypse-ed by something called the Ash Blood Plague, which turns people’s blood to ash and then also turns some portion of them into horrible monsters. This all had something to do with the guardian archangel of Ystara, Pallaniel, and his high priestess, Liliath. In what is now our contemporary timeline, Liliath, who had magically put herself to sleep for a while, wakes up in order to continue to enact her plans, which had gone horrendously wrong the first time and started the apocalypse. By this point, the refugees from the Ystaran apocalypse form a despised undercaste in the neighboring countries, known as Refusers, and terrifying to the general populace because angelic magic cannot be used on them, and if it is, they also break out in a case of the Ash Blood Plague.
Our heroes here are a group of four young people, all around 18, who are in training for a variety of careers in a vaguely French-flavored society. They are all bound to each other and to Liliath, whomst is our villain (because she is a self-absorbed psycho stalker), for mysterious angel magic reasons that nobody quite understands, but which brings a certain degree of suspicion down upon them. Each individual character is sort of obnoxious but together they are a fun and interesting team. They have a lot of exciting adventures that involve things like finding ancient treasure and getting in a ton of fights.
Overall this just didn’t grab me quite as much as the Abhorsen series but it was a nice light fantasy adventure and basically the perfect thing to read on a lazy holiday weekend.