Dancing on the Head of a Pin

I read the first of this series "A Kiss Before The Apocalypse" back in 2011. I loved the graphic novel feel of the plot: Remy Chandler, a Seraphim who walked away from Heaven after the war between the angels, has lived for millennia on Earth in human form but has only recently found and married the love of life, now has to risk everything to save the world from the apocalypse. It doesn't get better than that. Except, actually, it does because he has a labrador called Marlowe that he can communicate with.

At the end of the book, my only regret was that I didn't know more about Remy's backstory with his wife and that the cover art was appalling.

I came back to the series this year, with "Dancing On The Head Of A Pin", this time in audiobook show more format.

The good news is: there's a lot of back story on Remy's relationship with his wife, his dog and his best human friend and it's all well written (although very sad) and Luke Daniels does a great job of the narration.

The bad news is that the cover art is still awful.

This book retains the graphic novel feel and mostly does very well with it. The violence is graphic and frequent from the almost the first page onwards. If this was a graphic novel, there would be blood and gore and body-parts everywhere. I thought some of the fight scenes went on for too long and the angel on angel confrontations were hard to get engaged with.

I loved the parts with Marlowe and also with the Rottweilers guarding one of the buildings Remy visits.

I enjoyed the book enough to look for the next in the series. Then I found that none of the series are available in audiobook format in Europe anymore - including "Dancing On The Head Of A Pin". This mirrors what's happened with the Kitty Norville books. I can only get them in Europe as CDs. This is beginning to annoy me.

What is audible.com up to? It's time they joined the twenty-first century and found a way around nineteenth century copyright agreements. If that means paying a premium the way I used to on imported books and records in the last century, I could put up with the for a while, but Amazon have made audible the fastest growing audiobook platform in the world, so I don't understand why they aren't taking a more global view. show less

This book is the second book in the Remy Chandler series by Sniegoski. Last I heard four books were sold in this series. The third one "Where Angels Fear to Tread" was released Mar. 2 2010. I liked this book more than the first one; it was more witty and the action scenes seemed tighter and more well written.

In this book Remy gets a call from an antique collector whose antique weapons have gone missing. Remy struggles to work on the case because he has been struggling with keeping his humanity (and repressing his angelic side) since his wife Maddie passed away. When Remy goes to meet with the antique dealer he finds that the weapons missing were extremely powerful weapons called the Pitiless. At the same time Remy and Francis have found show more that someone is selling angel parts on the black market. Now Remy needs to find out how these weapons are tied in with the Nomad angels and how all of this ties in with the increased activity in Hell. Of course, if he can't figure it out the world as we know it will end.

I liked this book better than the first book. Remy has a bit more wit to him and is not so depressed. Sniegoski does an excellent job of keeping the plotline sleek and fast-moving. There isn't a whole lot extra in this book, all of it deals with the main plotline directly which I liked. I thought Sniegoski also did a better job with the fight scenes; they seemed more crisp than the first book and grabbed my attention more. If you are looking for a lot of romance in your story, then you should look elsewhere. Other than pining after his deceased wife, there really isn't any romance here...which suited the story just fine.

I love that Sniegoski deals with the angel and demons in a practical way and doesn't get too bogged down in religion. He also did a good job in bringing mythos from a variety of places into play in this book.

All the side characters are well developed. This book did a good job of wrapping up the main storyline it followed, but left another storyline open to continue into the next book. Reading the first book would be helpful but not absolutely necessary to enjoy this book.

Overall this was a great read. It is a quick, engaging, and fast-paced story that really grabs the reader. I think it was an improvement over the first book, and I am looking forward to reading the third book. show less

Remy Chandler is recovering from the death of his wife and wondering at his place in the world – if he even has a place in the world. Especially since the Thrones have offered him a place back in heaven.

But the world doesn’t stop for a grieving angel. Several weapons have gone missing – weapons from every stage in history, each the very epitome of their kind and craftsmanship. They are the pitiless and they have power far beyond being devastating tools of destruction.

And other people certainly want them - not least of which the Denizens, fallen angels who have returned to Earth from Hell to live out the rest of their penance and seek redemption. They’ve absorbed the forces of Hell and aren’t seeking a path back to Heaven – show more but revel in the corruption of mortals around them.

But the Pitiless contain power even they don’t know – and are part of a scheme that can rock Heaven itself to its core.

I do have an issue with the pacing of the book. It takes a long time for the book to get going and a long time to set the actual plot and premise up. We spend a lot of time with Remy’s emotions and dealing with his wife’s death and considering his place in the world – and whether he truly wants to remain with humanity or re-ascend to heaven. There follows a series of side-characters he deals with to find the pitiless who serve no real purpose at all. I’m not sure why the Denizens were there or what purpose they served or the semi-human purveyors of stolen goods. They seemed almost place holders that could have been equally filled by anyone else. They felt like fillers, interactions with them felt unnecessary and all it really did was mean Remy didn’t have to do any real investigating.

The contrast is that once he does get his hands on the actual Pitiless, it’s run and keep up, no sprint and keep up with action left right and centre, passing into hell, fighting through Tartarus against hellions, against the fallen and we’re up to our eyeballs in gore, scary feelings and big rebellious falling angels.

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Once again, Thomas E. Sniegoski has produced a twisty adventure for Remy Chandler, who's mourning Madeline's recent death and drawing further and further away from his human life. Then he's recruited to find ancient weaponry that tends up being from Heaven, forged by the Morningstar (yes, that Morningstar). So what could have been a simple investigation ends up leading Remy all over town and into different realms as he tries to stop the folks who want the weapons from using them. Yes, this is vague but saying the who and the why would really spoil the reading of the story since the surprises are part of what make Dancing on the Head of a Pin so good. The cover actually does a great job of explaining some of the main plot points, for show more those who care to try to outwit their novels.

The author actually takes the story to places (literally and metaphorically) that I did not suspect, and these choices add a lot of gravitas to the novel. There are major ramifications for what goes on and there's definitely a cost for what goes on. Again, I'm cryptic but I really don't want to spoil this for anyone. I will say that Remy is forced to use his Seraphim powers again and it causes him to doubt his place on Earth and with the humans, and that we get to see more of the his world unfold before us.

I really like the way Thomas E. Sniegoski writes. There are game-changing moments fairly regularly and he puts Remy through the ringer, physically and emotionally. He also does some fantastic world building in this novel and it makes me so excited for Where Angels Fear to Tread. Dancing on the Head of a Pin ends in a way that leaves with a sense of satisfaction, since the main points of the plot are answered, but also eager for more since the author's done a fantastic job of setting up what's sure to be an interesting future for our hero.

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3.5 stars rounded up. This was a good follow up to the first book. This time around he has to deal with the death of his wife from the precious book. His grief is shown well and is believable. The passion and love that he feels for her is one of the most beautiful and tragic romances I've read in Urban Fantasy.

Again the mythos feels real to me. I often felt that what Sniegoski was portraying was closer to what was written in the old Testament than what I learned in Sunday school. I don't know how much is true and how much isn't (my degree focused on world religious thought and philosophy rather than Christianity) but so much felt right. I think that's impressive in world building in this genre.

The situation this go round is even more show more dire then last time and I began to wonder how the next book could top this one. The final battle in this one is spectacular.

Of course on of my favorite parts is the interaction between Remy and his dog as well as the dogs and other creatures in the storyline. Marlowe is a little smarter than your average dog but his feelings and motivations are quite realistic. Remy's love and respect for the animal as well as the seriousness with which he takes his role as the digs caretaker is refreshing. He even stops to make sure his dog will be cared for when he goes into a situation where he could die. I think a detail like that is what makes Sniegoski do good at characterization as he showed the angel's humanity and loyalty with this act.

However there were a number of things that detracted from the great aspects of the book such as the author over explaining things. For example, Remy is told to stay hidden when entering a crime scene the. The author spends a paragraph explaining why. Characters also repeat themselves without the description acknowledging that they are doing so and I such a way that it feels like it was a mistake that they did.

There are a couple of areas where something in the plot contradicts something that happened earlier. For example, at one point one of the characters has some critical objects. A few scenes later it is revealed he doesn't have them anymore but there is no part of the text that explains that he lost them let alone how. I reread the intervening chapters again and the scene where it must have happened and at no point does it mention that he put them down or anything like that.

Although Remy's a detective, he's not a very good one. Most of what he finds out is through things happening to him. When he is hired for the initial job, he doesn't ask any pertinent questions like specifics about how the incident happened, key questions that would have saved some time and effort.

There are other incongruities like something was created by an angel at one part and then attributed to a human later or a powerful weapon used only once that could have made a real difference, or the all to common to this genre that in one scene someone is really injured but a couple of scenes later is fine.

But Remy's humanity is beautifully obvious even as he struggles to fight his inner warrior of god and his love for his wife and dog are the things that make the story for me. I just wish that the editor would have caught the inconsistencies which would have moved the book up at least half a star for me. show less

3.5 stars rounded up. This was a good follow up to the first book. This time around he has to deal with the death of his wife from the precious book. His grief is shown well and is believable. The passion and love that he feels for her is one of the most beautiful and tragic romances I've read in Urban Fantasy.

Again the mythos feels real to me. I often felt that what Sniegoski was portraying was closer to what was written in the old Testament than what I learned in Sunday school. I don't know how much is true and how much isn't (my degree focused on world religious thought and philosophy rather than Christianity) but so much felt right. I think that's impressive in world building in this genre.

The situation this go round is even more show more dire then last time and I began to wonder how the next book could top this one. The final battle in this one is spectacular.

Of course on of my favorite parts is the interaction between Remy and his dog as well as the dogs and other creatures in the storyline. Marlowe is a little smarter than your average dog but his feelings and motivations are quite realistic. Remy's love and respect for the animal as well as the seriousness with which he takes his role as the digs caretaker is refreshing. He even stops to make sure his dog will be cared for when he goes into a situation where he could die. I think a detail like that is what makes Sniegoski do good at characterization as he showed the angel's humanity and loyalty with this act.

However there were a number of things that detracted from the great aspects of the book such as the author over explaining things. For example, Remy is told to stay hidden when entering a crime scene the. The author spends a paragraph explaining why. Characters also repeat themselves without the description acknowledging that they are doing so and I such a way that it feels like it was a mistake that they did.

There are a couple of areas where something in the plot contradicts something that happened earlier. For example, at one point one of the characters has some critical objects. A few scenes later it is revealed he doesn't have them anymore but there is no part of the text that explains that he lost them let alone how. I reread the intervening chapters again and the scene where it must have happened and at no point does it mention that he put them down or anything like that.

Although Remy's a detective, he's not a very good one. Most of what he finds out is through things happening to him. When he is hired for the initial job, he doesn't ask any pertinent questions like specifics about how the incident happened, key questions that would have saved some time and effort.

There are other incongruities like something was created by an angel at one part and then attributed to a human later or a powerful weapon used only once that could have made a real difference, or the all to common to this genre that in one scene someone is really injured but a couple of scenes later is fine.

But Remy's humanity is beautifully obvious even as he struggles to fight his inner warrior of god and his love for his wife and dog are the things that make the story for me. I just wish that the editor would have caught the inconsistencies which would have moved the book up at least half a star for me. show less

This was both less and more than what I anticipated. Less mystery, less interaction between Remy and his dog, less of characters I liked and remembered from previous stories in this series. More apocalyptic, if that's even possible considering what happened in the previous novel. More religion and traditional Biblical figures.

I think I really enjoyed the first book more; there was less reliance on making things fit into a war between heaven and earth, and more on the emotional impact of things happening in the world. I'll pick up the next one (if there is a next one), but why does it always have to be about the world ending?