I'm well aware that I should have read book 1 of this series first, but this was the freebie I got, and honestly, I enjoyed the heck out of it. I've debated reading any books in this series for years, but this one, at least, was quite awesome.
This takes place on the tech-low world of Samaria, where there are humans with wings and good voices known as angels, who fly in order to make prayers to their god, Jovah, to stop the crazy-ass storms that rage across the planet.
At the beginning of the book, the head angel (archangel) Delilah's been out drinking and having a few laughs with her friends, and they decide to fly home in a storm. Unfortunately the storm throw them all out of the sky, killing Delilah's husband and permanently damaging the nerves in one wing. Not being able to fly means she can't do her job, so she summarily gets the boot and the oracle finds out that the next appointed archangel is a scholarly, nerdy chick named Alleluia. Alleluia doesn't enjoy the job at all (she's smart, but not the crafty politician Delilah was), but does the best she can.
Mostly, she is very concerned with how the world seems to be falling apart. It's not just her favorite music-playing machines that are slowly dying--Jovah doesn't seem to be able to hear the prayers of too many people any more, and the storms are getting crazy destructive. Naturally, various factions on the planet are shitting bricks about it. Jovah can still hear her voice for now, but Alleluia suspects this won't always be the case. And indeed, it isn't. Alleluia doesn't know if it's a case of Jovah turning his back on his people or not, though visiting the oracles seems to indicate that Jovah's just having a hard time hearing the music. This is all the more awkward considering that every year the planet has to hold a giant sing-along (the gloria) proving that they still live in harmony, and if that goes wrong, Jovah starts shooting down mountains. So one way or another, Alleluia has a clock ticking on getting this taken care of. She also has to find a Jovah-appointed husband before the gloria, but Jovah's instructions on who exactly can be her husband and help her solve her problems is glaringly unspecific. How on earth is she supposed to know who "the son of Jeremiah" is?
Who Alleluia eventually does get help from is Caleb Augustus, an engineer who isn't terribly into religion, but does love to solve problems such as "how do you build your own wings?" His best pal Noah is an inventor who'se fallen madly in love with Lilah, an angel who's singing at a club of late. It's not too hard to figure out that she's Delilah, still reeling and hurting from losing the life she loved. Delilah is a fascinating, charming, twisted character, and while Caleb isn't in love with her, he's interested in trying to figure out a way to solve her flying problem. Delilah, however, is too hurt to deal with that concept, and is plotting a way to die instead. Noah isn't okay with that...
Caleb and Alleluia hit it off and fall in love upon meeting, and he craftily solves some of her problems such as the broken music machines. But Alleluia's husband-hunting (which at first seems futile) may interfere with their relationship. Okay, you know what, this is obvious where it's gonna go from the getgo. But I do give the author credit for not dragging that out too bad for drama's sake, and making the logic puzzle of "Why can't Jovah be more specific in this case?" intriguing enough for me to stick with this plotline without getting annoyed at it.
And then Alleluia figures out how to speak the ancient language of the oracles from studying old texts, and tries operating the vacant oracle station herself...and DUM DUM DUM, finds out something completely mind-blowing and awesome.
I loved this. I kind of wish I could have seen a bit more of Noah and Delilah (not really something that could be done in this book though, I think), but I just liked how it was done, even if the "now we've told what Person A was doing, we're gonna backtrack and tell you what Person B was doing and lead you back to where they met again" constant repetition got a wee bit much. But the major plot twist is cool, and I liked the characters, and things work out satisfactorily in the end.
Four stars.
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