Tears of Heaven,
by RA McCandless, is a fantasy novel with a different and interesting approach.
While fantasy novels are common, most are based on Greco-Roman, Nordic, Asian,
or Western European mythology. True, you can find them based on almost any
mythic system, but the others are rare.
McCandless’ Tears of Heaven is one of the rare ones,
based on Judeo-Christian mythology. No, not the over-used end-of-days nonsense.
He takes specific passages from the Old Testament, targeting sections people
who’ve never read the Bible would be surprised at and many who’ve read it
prefer to pretend aren’t there.
Angels are shown
not as protectors of humankind, but as the Old Testament presented them,
heaven’s hit man. At times they’ve been presented in such a way in fiction, but
not often, not usually as well, and seldom in ways as carefully based on
Biblical passages. McCandless quotes some of the passages he bases his novel
on.
Tears
of Heaven
centers around one of the Nephilim, a child of a human woman fathered by an
angel. In this novel the Nephilim have life spans of thousands of years. Del, a
Nephilim, is employed by The Throne (call it heaven, God, a powerful angel,
whatever) to eliminate rogues, fallen angels trying to gain power on earth. It
isn’t the first time such a device has been used, but I’ve never seen it
handled better.
She isn’t happy
with the job, but The Throne has blackmailed her into doing it. The surface
plot is simple enough. She finds a rogue, has a vicious fight with it, and
banishes it. The concept could be boring, but McCandless doesn’t let it. Del’s
mental conflicts, her interactions with other major characters, and the
carefully-crafted personalities of those involved keep the reader interested
and make Del a sympathetic protagonist.
The action
scenes, and there are plenty of them, are exceptionally well done. It’s a
pleasure to find an author like McCandless who understands that the laws of
physics are real. Mass is mass, velocity is velocity, and a few pistol bullets
aren’t going to send a man-sized being flying backward or stop a charging
demon. Kill it, maybe, but not before it has time to reach you.
This is MY boomstock! |
Actually Tears of Heaven is two novels combined,
one dealing with Del in the ancient past, one set in modern times. Both are
excellent and well interwoven, showing ways her earlier life influences her
today. A few brief forays into ethics, philosophy, and theology, are somewhat
pedantic if taken by themselves, but ultimately help explain Del’s character
and behavior.
If you like a
well-constructed, fast-moving fantasy with interesting twists, I think you’ll
enjoy Tears of Heaven by RA
McCandless.
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