A Terrible Fall of Angels

As a child Zaniel Havelock was taken into the College of Angels and trained to become an Angel Speaker, someone who can talk with angels without going insane. A series of traumatic events convinced him to leave the college and build a new life for himself. He joined the army and then the police force and is now Detective Zaniel Havelock of the Metaphysical Coordination Unit which is better known as the Heaven and Hell Unit.

Zaniel, who gained the nickname of Havoc while in the army, is at the crime scene with lots of clues that an angel was somehow involved. But a visit from an angel messenger tells him that even the angels don't know what happened that led to the brutal murder and rape of Megan Borowski.

Zaniel has to find out and, show more apparently, he is the only one who can. But he is also in the middle of trying to save his marriage to Reggie who is having issues with him being a police officer. He loves her and he certainly doesn't want to lose his three-year-old son Connery, but this case and its dangers are crowding in on his time. There is a most unusual demon involved.

This is the first of a new series for the author so there is a lot of worldbuilding which is well-integrated into the story. This is a world with angels and demons, guardian angels and totem animals, and of faith. Zaniel is an intriguing character. He's a man of faith but his faith isn't the narrow one taught at the College of Angels. We meet two of his fellow students in this story. One is Surial who has stayed in the College of Angels and risen up the ranks to a powerful position. The other is Jamie who was kicked out of the College when he went insane after an angel encounter and who has lived as a street person for at least ten years but who has now regained some sanity. We meet some of Zaniel's fellow police officers including a man who gets blissed out when he sees an angel, Zaniel's lieutenant who is a voodoo priest, and a colleague who is a witch with totem animals.

The story was intriguing and I am looking forward to more stories set in this world. The main story plot is resolved here but there are still some dangling threads that I am eager to know more about. show less

Zaniel Havelock is a police detective who works in the magical crimes division. He's a former angel speaker. His current case takes him to the scene of a brutal rape/murder of a college coed. It is soon clear that the case is about a demon possession, but it is unclear at first whether the young man possessed was willing or unwilling.

As Zaniel, called Havoc by his colleagues, investigates, he is also dealing with a failing marriage that he really does not want to fail. He wants to fix things up with his schoolteacher wife so that he can return to his home and three-year-old son. He's trying to fit marriage counseling into a life that is already full of this current case.

I enjoyed meeting Zaniel and wandering in his world. His psychic show more gifts caused his parents to give him to the College of Angels at the age of seven for his education. He spent time there with his friends Levaniel and Siriel until Levaniel was thrown out of the organization when his mind broke from his interactions with angels. Then Zaniel left, joined the Army and then the police force.

The world is one in which angels and other beings also live. The College of Angels is very much a Christian organization with a close relationship with angels. It disdains other creeds. Zaniel's life experiences and work colleagues show him that witches and shamans and their guardian spirits are also valid ways of interacting with the supernatural.

The worldbuilding was intriguing. show less

A Terrible Fall of Angels intrigued me due to the focus on angels and demons, and I was interested to see what this author would make of the subject matter in a new, and different, series. And while I was intrigued by the world she is building, I did have mixed feelings about the characters and the story line as well as the way it was written.

Zaniel "Havoc" Havelock is an experienced detective who spent his formative years at the College of Angels; this gives him a unique perspective in his job as he battles both normal, and paranormal, foe. Having left the angelic life, he spent time in the military then became a police officer, using his unique skills to solve cases that involve paranormal beings. The current case in this novel show more actually forces him to finally confront his past as his former world and his current world are now colliding and he can no longer avoid the memories nor the people with whom he grew up. I like this exploration of the past, and the trauma that Zaniel has to confront as I think it is realistic; you can only avoid the past for so long before it catches up with you and I found this aspect of the novel interesting. However, I have always loved psychological stuff like this.

I was not a fan of some of the characters however, and was indifferent to their plights. Is this due to poor character development, or does the author just not see how some of these characters are seen by her readers, I just don't know. But I was not a fan of Zaniel's wife. Zaniel's job as a detective puts him in danger and she could not deal with that fact, so the two of them are separated. Zaniel spends a lot of time ruminating on his marriage, and the conversations between him and his wife were my least favourite parts of this book. Sorry, but she was just a poorly written character, and I didn't like her. When Zaniel didn't look at her, she was mad. When Zaniel looked at her, she was mad. And it went on and on. She controls everything, and he has to be so careful around her. Sorry, that is not marriage. When you can't be yourself around the person you love, then maybe it's time to move on. Luckily, he tends to stick to who he is and is not necessarily willing to compromise what he has worked so hard for, and his own job, just for her. But there is a child involved, and Zaniel dearly misses his son. I honestly hope this situation resolves soon so we don't have to read about it for books on end.

The early sections of the book were full of action, and I had high hopes the book would continue like that. Nope. The book got bogged down by overly long explanations and dialogues between characters that lasted for entire chapters and, to be honest, I got bored, and needed to read something else in between. I don't need overly long explanations, just give me the story. I had no issues with the religious elements in the story, in fact I found them quite interesting, and I am definitely looking forward to learning more about that world and some of the angels. And there were a lot of little side stories that I think will set up future novels if you paid attention, some of which I was disappointed over as they weren't explained or developed, so I do really hope they are in future books. And while I have nothing against political correctedness, there was an overabundance of it in this story. I like it when an author goes out of their way to be inclusive, but it has to flow within the novel not sound as if it thrown in to say, Look at me! I am being inclusive! And if the author was so worried about that, she wouldn't have mentioned Zaniel's abs on every other page and the way he stared at other women, but gosh, he was married so he shouldn't be doing that, and how he needed to slouch as women were just drawn to him like bees to honey!! Yes, I got it. He's good-looking.

Verdict
A Terrible Fall of Angels does have a lot of things going for it. There are a lot of mysterious elements that were introduced, but not fully explained; characters and their relationships that were not fully fleshed out; and, a new setting that is just being explored in terms of political structure, angels and demons, and humans, and how they are interconnect. The actions scenes were interesting and definitely got my interest, but there were a lot of times when things got bogged down through pages and pages of dialogue, and nothing really happened. There was enough in this book to make me interested in reading the next one when it is released. show less

Overall not a bad book. I've read a ton of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series so I was expecting the same level of spiciness in this new series. There was literally none.
The story is about a detective nicknamed Havoc who was a former "Angel Speaker" at the university. Meaning he can speak with angels. He left the college after a moral dilemma he feels he failed. He is part of a special division of the police department that deals with angels and demons and magical things that go along with them.
He is on a case of a college student who appears to have willingly been possessed by a demon and is on a rampage of raping and killing women that have wronged him.
The storyline seems interesting enough, the thing that bogged it down to show more me was the idle chit chat that just seemed to drag on for much longer than necessary in several parts of the book. It did nothing for the story, it just felt forced, like the writer was trying to meet a word count requirement.
I'd probably try the next book in the series. show less

New series, with angels and demons and psychics and witches. I dig the new universe; lots of themes to explore here. I think the main character needs to divorce the hell out of his wife; she's bad news. Yes, there is a young child, but their relationship is not healthy. I am probably going to hate this relationship even more as time passes. :(

I'd give this 3.25 stars, so rounding down.

Daniel has led an interesting life — first the College of Angels, then the Army, now he is in the preternatural branch of the police. The balance between Good and Evil is kept by treaty but a demon has found a loophole. Nice new take on Angels, demons, guardians, totems, magic. It’s just disconcerting to hear Havoc sounding so much like Anita. Worth checking out the next one, though.

This is an intriguing first new novel for a series by Laurell K. Hamilton, who famously wrote the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series. This is quite a departure, however, as the protagonist hunts demons for the police department and studied angel-speak at the “College of Angels.” A significant portion of the book is admittingly dedicated to world-building for this unique place where angels and demons are a common occurrence. In conjunction with this, we also see how Wicca and Voodoo interact with such spiritual beings like angels, demons, and other mythological beings.

An intriguing read for people who like police procedural and spiritual warfare.