Looking For a Good Book

Prince Eleazar, an Angelus to the humans, is sent out of the Angelus haven known as Splendour by his fiendish brother. The fall to the humans in Below damages him and he finds he is lost, stuck among humans.

Broken after the fall, Eleazar is found by Diver, a young human male who has been fighting in a war on behalf of the Angelus. Diver drags the Angelus to his sister, Fury – perhaps the only atheist in many leagues.

It’s hard not to be attracted to an Angelus, and both Diver and Fury find themselves with feelings for the being. Eleazar, however, seems to have nothing but contempt for humans and finds his time, stuck in the Below a certain kind of hell that he wouldn’t wish on anyone (except for his lowly brother).

It will take some time for Eleazar to appreciate and trust the humans, but he and the humans will need to ally in order to take on and fight the treachery that exists in the ill-named Splendour.

I really appreciated this take on ‘heaven’ and ‘angels’ as beings. Eleazar’s fall definitely came across as a fall from grace, and I wondered if he was going to become a devil, having been outcast from heaven, but author Sarah J. Daley takes this to a more fantasy-oriented story.

I also appreciated the pan sexuality – that no one found it strange that both Fury and Diver were attracted to the Angelus. Perhaps there needed to be a different word for attraction to an angel? But I wasn’t sure why we needed it at all. It didn’t really add anything to the story, though it did create some character dynamic.

The difficulty with a story like this is that it’s fairly predictable. From the moment Eleazar is cast out of Splendour and shows his distaste for humans, we pretty much know that he’s going to change and he’s going to need the humans to be made whole again. Right?  So what has to keep us reading is strong, enviable characters (which is not going to be Eleazar) and a strong interest in what they do and how they over-come the Angelus’s  attitude. Author Daley established the characters nicely at the start, and the action at the end of the book, is definitely strong. But there’s a patch in the middle that gets a bit muddy – we know who the character are but the engagement to the conclusion hasn’t happened yet.

Is this the reason for some slight romantic interest? To help us get from one place to another?

I enjoyed a lot of moments here but it wasn’t quite as tightly bound as I would hope in a fantasy with such lofty characters.

Looking for a good book? Wings of Steel and Fury by Sarah J. Daley is fun fantasy of gods and mortals with a fresh approach, but falls a bit short in the middle of the book.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Wings of Steel and Fury

author: Sarah J. Daley

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN:  9781915998224

paperback, 416 pages