Starred review from July 13, 2015
Nebula-winner de Bodard makes her big-house debut (following the Obsidian and Blood trilogy, published by Angry Robot) with a gripping tragedy of forlorn individuals caught up in an angelic version of the Cold War. In this rendition of history, Paris was devastated by a Great War that began in 1914—a war waged by its competing houses of Fallen angels and witches. Sixty years later, the city is still in ruins. Two Frenchwomen have very different relationships with the supernatural side of Paris: Selene, the leader of House Silverspires, struggles to step into the shoes of its founder, the mysteriously missing Morningstar (aka Lucifer), and House alchemist Madeleine must balance her addiction to angel essence against her fears of being sent back to her former master, Asmodeus. Philippe, a Vietnamese conscript and former Immortal, is caught sampling the blood of a newly Fallen angel, and his attempt to escape precipitates a long-hidden curse on Silverspires that sets the Furies and the other houses to seek its destruction. The story holds up well as a standalone, with clear possibilities but no pressing need for a sequel. De Bodard aptly mixes moral conflicts and the desperate need to survive in a fantastical spy thriller that reads like a hybrid of le Carré and Milton, all tinged with the melancholy of golden ages lost. Agent: John Berlyne, Zeno Agency.
Starred review from August 1, 2015
Fallen angels rule in Paris. Their wars nearly destroyed the city, but peace between the Houses has been maintained, although scheming for power never stops. Phillippe is a Vietnamese expat who had been dragged to the City of Light to fight in the House wars and now runs with a human gang in the slums. When he and his fellow cohort stumble upon a newly Fallen angel in a ruin, they begin to mutilate the weakened woman, as angel bones contain power. Caught in the act, Phillippe is taken to the House Silverspires, Lucifer's own house, although the first Fallen has been missing for years. Now Phillippe and his would-be victim, Isabelle, must each navigate the brutal politics of the Houses, a task that becomes more difficult when a member of a rival House is killed. VERDICT De Bodard (author of award-winning short fiction as well as the "Obsidian and Blood" novels) has spun a fascinating Paris of decay and cruelty. Phillippe is a marvel of a character, unreliable as a narrator but compelling in his flaws and his deep well of homesickness. [See Eric Norton's sf/fantasy genre spotlight feature, p. 22.--Ed.]--MM
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