The Fallen 1: Fallen and Leviathan

This omnibus edition of the first two books in Sniegoski's series about fallen angels is both entertaining and thought-provoking. In The Fallen, we are introduced to Aaron, a lonely seventeen year old boy who doesn't feel like he belongs in the world, and in the sequel, Leviathan, we follow Aaron as he finds out more about his Nephilim heritage.

The Fallen

The first thing that stuck me about the book is Aaron: despite all the angst and woe-is-me stuff, he is a genuinely nice kid who is just trying to figure out his life. Unlike many of the other YA protagonists I read about, Aaron has his priorities straight and really doesn't want anything to do with the freaky-deaky angels that come into his life and disrupt its monotony. I felt for show more him, because in this aspect I would be exactly the same! It's also refreshing to read from a male perspective, especially one who has angelic powers.

Aaron's life is very realistic: he has loving parents and although he doesn't have many friends, it's clear that the people who take the time to get to know him really like him. I love that the author hasn't shied away from writing in Stevie, Aaron's foster-brother, as an autistic child, and I can tell that he will end up playing a vital role in the story. I also like Vilma, and although there was minimal romance between her and Aaron, I think there is a lot of potential between them that would be great to explore. It's obvious they both care for one another a lot.

My favourite aspect of the book has to be the angels. Some authors like to make their angels inaccessible and alien, and I think this is the way to go in reality, but authors who instil their angels with humanity usually don't succeed. Sniegoski's angels are imbued with human characteristics and are wonderfully flawed, but I think it makes perfect sense given their millennia away from heaven without guidance. This is the reason that Verchiel's disillusionment is one of the most realistic aspects of the novel - the line between his divine mission and his own beliefs is blurred and it becomes increasingly clear that he has no idea what he is doing and is acting on orders given thousands of years ago. This aspect has irked some readers, and I understand why, but I think the whole point of the novel is about how these soldiers act on Earth when their generals gave lost contact with God, and no one is clear on whether the war is still going on or not.

Leviathan

In Leviathan we take up with Aaron and the angel Camael as they try to reclaim Stevie from the vengeful angel Verchiel. The book is still gripping, but a little confused because it doesn't take long for the duo to become distracted from their mission. Although this aspect is explained later on in the novel, I was perplexed at the beginning.

This book is action packed and creepy, with strange mutated animals and zombie like people emerging in the sleepy town of Blithe, and the disappearance of Camael initiating a surprising sequence of events that leads to Aaron discovering a dark secret its inhabitants. I did like that even Aaron grasped how ridiculous his situation is - he comments that if he wasn't living it himself, he'd think it a plot from a bad science fiction movie. However, the elements of the story coalesce nicely and tell a brilliant story, and the ending was great!

The characters continue to be enjoyable in Leviathan, especially Gabriel, the talking dog, who brings humour to an otherwise dark book. The angel Camael is also great, for all his arrogance about being so much better than humans, it's nice that he's found out that he has more in common with them than he'd realised. We get to meet very few other angels in the book, which was disappointing, and Verchiel is off-screen for its entirety (although we get glimpses of what he is up to, and it's terrifying). This book is more about Aaron accepting his new powers and place in the prophesy than about getting revenge on Verchiel and the other Powers for destroying Aaron's life. I also liked the snippets we got of Vilma and Stevie: they provide grounding for Aaron's past and attest to how different he has become.

The Fallen and Leviathan are both enjoyable reads, and it's great to have them in this omnibus edition so I could transition between them easilty. I am looking forward to reading the rest of Sniegoski's The Fallen novels, and finding out how Aaron handles the prophesy. Readers who enjoy angel themed fiction but are tired of monotony will benefit from trying this series. show less

What feels like eons ago, The Fallen by Thomas E. Sniegoski was a VERY popular book among my classmates. Me, being the closer Avril Lavigne-esque bookaholic, decided I was not going to read what the popular kids like. Now that it's 2019, I decided that it was time to see what all the fuss was about... and I was right in my original decision.

I did not enjoy this book. It was well written and truly intriguing, but I just couldn't get into it. I was going to DNF this book, but I decided to finish it off and send it on it's merry way to a Christmas Adoption (some teenagers were looking for presents, and I'm sure that age group would like it more than me).

It felt like a stereotypical YA novel - angels, nephilim and magical powers with one show more guy being the most special - but it felt very, very slow. I'm a fast paced kinda girl, so this book made me feel bored.

My biggest positive for this book was that the descriptions and building plot was marvelous. It was truly awesome to read how Thomas was building up this series, but it felt like that - part of a series and not an initial stand alone. Books that build up for a bigger universe tend to fall flat for me - I need a good initial story to pull me in and hook me.

My biggest pet peeve was the dog incident. If you read the book, you know what I'm talking about. I just... nope. Big nope for me. No matter if it's a happy ending or not, that hurt wildly and I put the book down for DAYS because of it.

Overall, I'm glad I picked the book up to see what all the hype was about but it just wasn't for me!

One out of five stars. show less

THE FALLEN
THE FALLEN is a wildly entertaining, dark, yet hopeful read. Aaron is such a great character – he loves his foster family, does good in school, works at a local veterinary clinic…he’s normal. Except when he isn’t. I really connected with Aaron and the trials he has to face. The story really revolves around Aaron and his journey. Yes, there’s a potential love interest, but it’s realistic and not the overall point of the book.

The plot moves along wonderfully, and there’s some great action sprinkled throughout. The angel mythology is done really well, especially the reasons for the fallen angels. I absolutely disliked Verchiel, the angel in charge of hunting down Aaron. I just wanted to shake some sense into him, to show more make him stop and see reason, to listen to Aaron and the fallen angels. The plot for the first book was wrapped up nicely, with just enough problems left unresolved to make me glad I bought the two-in-one version of the book

LEVIATHAN
The story picked right up from where the first book left off and the plot continued at a great pace. I was swept along with Aaron as he grows into his power and discovers more ceatures than he could have ever guessed existed. Every once and a while an interlude is inserted between the chapters. These interludes give us a glimpse into other characters and their activities, all of which are adding to a bigger picture and most likely the climax of the series. As you’re reading you just get the sense that everything is clicking into place and there is going to be an epic confrontation between Aaron and the head of the Powers, Verchiel.

Aaron continues to grow as a character. He’s determined to save his brother, and is going to let nothing stop him. He knows he’ll need his angelic powers to do that, but he’s anxious and reluctant to use them. The power is overwhelming, and Aaron is clinging to his humanity. As the situation in Maine continues, though, he begins to understand that he has control over his power and can – and should – use it to help him while he searches for Stevie. We also get to see a bit more of Vilma, Aaron’s potential love interest. Presented in the first book as a normal girl, we’re slowly finding out that it might not be the case. She seems to have some sort of connection to the angels, and Aaron. This series is moving along great, and the plot remains fresh and interesting. show less

The Fallen:

Supernatural YA with angels, fallen and otherwise, as the supernaturals du jour. Starts out with a familiar premise: ordinary teenager starts noticing something's odd, gets told he's not so ordinary after all, doesn't believe it, and eventually does when something big makes him do so. I'm cool with that premise; I knew that was what I was getting when I picked up the book. But somehow I just never quite got hooked into the story. I like the set-up with the angels killing off the Nephilim as they reach maturity because they think that's what God wants and a prophecy saying that one of the Nephilim will bring the fallen angels back into the fold. But I dunno. I felt like this book, even though short, took too long to get things show more moving. And none of the characters do a super lot for me. Since I do like this kind of thing (and I've been wanting an angels story (instead of vampires or werewolves or sommat)) and it was written well and the set-up is promising (and since I already have book two because omnibus edition), I will probably read the next installment and see if things pick up for me.
~April 2015 show less

Aaron is 18 and his life changes forever. He begins to hear strange voices and thinks he is going to go insane but he finds out that he is in fact a Nephilim and he has been chosen to redeem the Fallen.

However some of the fallen don't want to be redeemed.

He has to learn to come to terms with his powers and his future and hopefully some day have a date with a cute Brazilian girl from his class.

The first story in this collection is The Fallen, where Aaron deals with the discovery and rescues his dog Gabriel from certain death (honestly I fell in love with Gabriel during the stories) and changes him. He also loses his foster family, that he loves, the parents to fire and his foster-brother to one of the angels. Aaron wants to rescue his show more foster-brother.

The second is Leviathan where during the road trip he finds a small town with a big secret that he has to deal with and in the course of that finds out things about himself and about the nature of the things he has to deal with. And incidentally addicting his companion, Camael to potato chips.

I like this series, the characters have an interesting depth and it feels realistic in the way they deal with emotions and issues. There are layers here and I'm looking forward to more of it. show less

First, let me explain that I found out ABC made a mini-series of this book - STARRING PAUL WESLEY (plays Steffan in the Vampire Diaries on CW), and I wanted to read the books before watching the series.

I loved part 1 (The Fallen), and the first half of part 2 (Leviathan) - but the ending of Leviathon SUCKED!!! The climax of the ending was a big blob of evil goo that wanted to rule the world and was hiding in an underground cave. Spider-like creatures crawled into peoples mouths and made them robots for the big blob. Oh, and the blob ate some of the people, keeping them hanging onto it's skin in a pack of puss so it could continue to "feed" from them.

This one got a big, fat, flaming turd rating from me - so much that I won't read the show more next book in the series - AND I'VE NEVER, EVER STOPPED A SERIES PART WAY. show less

Different covers would help this series appeal more to its target audience - guys. Lots of battles, gross descriptions of Leviathan's entrails, and no romance. Story was good, but girls picking it up because of its outward resemblance to Lauren Kate's books or the Twilight books will be disappointed.