In 9 days, Lucifer’s co-opted Fall will reach Earth. And
when it does, the last 6,000 years of history will be erased, time can be
re-written according to his whims and his image. It is down to Daniel, Luce and
their friends to find the location of the Fall and get there before Lucifer to
stop the entirety of history being re-written.
The problem is, none of the Angels remember where the
Fall was. It takes a quest to find ancient relics where the Angels recorded
their memories and bringing them together to actually find the location of the
Fall – and all within 9 days. It’s a journey that takes them to Italy, to
France, to Austria and to Egypt to ultimately find the location.
Though they have new, surprising friends, they also have both old enemies and misguided fools ready to fight them to a stand still – with friends having to sacrifice themselves to ultimately make it to the end – where we finally learn the true nature of Luce’s curse and her full history.
Luce is, again, kept in the dark throughout the majority
of this book. Yes, there’s a very good story reason why she can’t be told
anything (and that story reason is finally explained) but even casual questions
“where are we going? Why? What are we doing?”, questions which would have taken
a second to answer, are routinely ignored. I mean that, literally ignored. Half
the time she’s barely even given a “I’m sorry Luce, I can’t tell you.” They
just pretend she hasn’t even spoken – and Luce? Accepts this. They also make a
lot of plans while she’s asleep, or unconscious or otherwise unable to
contribute – which just makes her more worthless and more as a poseable tool in
their hands – and emphasises just how little she adds to the story (as well as
keeping us – and her – in the dark).
When she does actually achieve anything (like swimming. Or remembering something) everyone flocks around her like she’s just won every gold medal in the Olympics while simultaneously winning all the Nobel Prizes at once. The fawning is so over the top I actually re-read it, wondering if it might be sarcastic – but no, apparently they are sincerely this impressed at even the most mediocre achievement on her part. They also comfort her immensely when there is any kind of grief – even when she probably has the least reason to be grieving. When immortal beings the Angels have known for centuries – millennia even, die it is Luce who they all comfort as she grieves, Luce who needs the angels to all be ready with a shoulder for her to cry on.
This book – the series in general - reads like Daniel and
his friends had an adventure –and they dragged Luce around to get in their way
and be annoying until the last 30% of the 4th book where she
actually become relevant. And that’s pretty much how they treat her – sure everyone
fawns over her and Daniel is constantly expressing his eternal love – but no-one
listens to her, no-one expects her to be capable of anything or her to have a
valid opinion or any kind of input. She’s a pet – a cherished, much loved, pet.
And it compounds the fact that we still have Daniel loving Luce for all the ages regardless of who she is, what her values are, what her personality is – all because of her super-special soul. Who she actually IS as a person is irrelevant.
Which especially stands out when the great big message of
the book is a wonderful statement on love – one what love is and isn’t. On how
love is based on mutual respect and seeing the real person – rather than
controlling them and moulding them into the person you want them to be. Which
is a wonderful message and it’s really well written – but then you look at her
relationship with Daniel and the gears start to clash.
The eternal balance was interesting but, ultimately, didn’t
work for a motivation for the sacrifices. If there is one angel; left to tip
the balance, it makes no sense for the person who did sacrifice themselves –
someone who tips the balance way more than any other angel – to do so. Why
sacrifice someone who is an even bigger hitter on your team, in favour of
someone who is undecided and a lower weight anyway?
Similarly, the Scale bemuses me – if it is supposed to be
fully devoted to God, then why is it, basically, evil? Its pettiness and
cruelty is ok because it adores God, while good and genuine angels are Fallen
because they don’t? It casts their God as an immoral egotist.
What did both surprise and impress me was the ending.
While I was beginning to guess it, Lucinda’s exact nature was still extremely
well portrayed. In particular I was deeply impressed how she managed to draw
upon all of what had occurred in the last books to actually give them purpose
and meaning – which was a major problem because reading those books felt
utterly devoid of either. All of her past lives, all of her experiences in the
past book, all of those elements that were so frustrating and pointless and
tempted me to skip forwards, finally made sense and had some kind of impact on
the actual ending and development.
And she finally found a shred of agency, she began to
pursue her story, she made plans, she acted she actually made a decision. She
was the agent that saved the day, it was her choice and her plan and her
action. She was the one who defined and chose the ending, she was the one who
decided the limits and conditions, she was the one who finally came into her
own and set the path both to victory and her life afterwards.
I actually re-read the ending because it shocked me – it was
such an utter turn around from what I have become used to reading 4 books of
this series – and showed really what a truly excellent series it could have
been, if this level of action, of power and of epic had been maintained.
And then we had the ultimate “ending” and reward which
was so utterly disappointing! Such a come down after this final surge of epic.
I suppose it was a happily ever after, but it was such a mundane happily ever
after.
The problem is that this is a severe case of too little
too late. This happened in the last 30% of the last book of a 4 book series.
That’s an awful lot of rambling, of irrelevancy and, sadly, dullness before
this story finally got its act together and pulled out the epic, the action and
the magic. Worse, because there’s been such a complete lack of meaningful world
building before this, when we reach this book it’s almost crammed. Is there a
reason why the Scale, the Outcasts, the Elders and so much more couldn’t have
been explained before time? Or had a greater introduction? It could have lifted
so much of the past 3 books.
Inclusion-wise, we have Roland, one of the fallen angels
as a POC, but he plays a very minor role, one of the support angels and not
even as close and important as Arianne or Cam or even Gabbe; I think even the
Outcasts played a more important role in this one. That’s the extent of the
diversity. I did like that God was a woman, though.
In the end, I was really happy with the ending and
extremely surprised at how it picked up. But it wasn’t enough to make me like
this book – too little, too late; but definitely enough to make me give the
author another look.
