Hark, the herald angels sing
May. 18th, 2009 03:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bibliogrammaArchangel, Sharon Shinn
This was my first introduction to Sharon Shinn’s writing, and I was quite enraptured. The book itself is one of those “looks like fantasy but it’s really science fiction once you realise what’s going on” stories, which can be very interesting reading when you know that you are seeing in action highly developed technology that is, to the people in the story, indistinguishable from magic – or in the case of Shinn’s Samaria novels, of which this is the first, divine providence.
As the novel begins, Gabriel, leader of the angels’ hosts of the Eyrie – one of three angelic hosts whose responsibility it is to care for the people and the land of Samaria – is preparing to assume the position of Archangel, the most senior position among angels and the one who must – with his pre-ordained, human spouse, the Angelica – preside over the annual ceremony of worship that prevents the god Jovah from destroying all of Samaria. The only problem is that when Gabriel goes to the oracle of Bethel to find out who he is to marry, he discovers that the village she was born in was destroyed years ago, and no one knows where she is. And he has six months to find her, marry her, and make sure that she is trained and ready to sing the Gloria with him.
Archangel is on the one hand the story of Gabriel’s search for Rachel, his destined bride (but destined by whom?) and his attempts to build a relationship with her once he finds her. It is also a novel about abuse of power and the struggle for social justice in a corrupt regime – for in the process of learning who Rachel is and what is in her past, he learns that even the highest and mightiest of angels can fail in duty and compassion. falling from the heights to the depths.
Alternatively, it is the story of how a woman who refuses to follow custom blindly, who demands justice for all, can change the heart of a ruler and the course of a world.
It's also an interesting look at society under a theocracy (that may not actually be a theocracy at all, and in the absence of a god at the top, what is a theocracy but a dictatorship, no matter how well-meaning), and at the reality of politics and oppression in the nice little feudal fantasy lands that some SFF writers are so fond of setting novels in.
I’m looking forward to reading the remaining books in this series.
This was my first introduction to Sharon Shinn’s writing, and I was quite enraptured. The book itself is one of those “looks like fantasy but it’s really science fiction once you realise what’s going on” stories, which can be very interesting reading when you know that you are seeing in action highly developed technology that is, to the people in the story, indistinguishable from magic – or in the case of Shinn’s Samaria novels, of which this is the first, divine providence.
As the novel begins, Gabriel, leader of the angels’ hosts of the Eyrie – one of three angelic hosts whose responsibility it is to care for the people and the land of Samaria – is preparing to assume the position of Archangel, the most senior position among angels and the one who must – with his pre-ordained, human spouse, the Angelica – preside over the annual ceremony of worship that prevents the god Jovah from destroying all of Samaria. The only problem is that when Gabriel goes to the oracle of Bethel to find out who he is to marry, he discovers that the village she was born in was destroyed years ago, and no one knows where she is. And he has six months to find her, marry her, and make sure that she is trained and ready to sing the Gloria with him.
Archangel is on the one hand the story of Gabriel’s search for Rachel, his destined bride (but destined by whom?) and his attempts to build a relationship with her once he finds her. It is also a novel about abuse of power and the struggle for social justice in a corrupt regime – for in the process of learning who Rachel is and what is in her past, he learns that even the highest and mightiest of angels can fail in duty and compassion. falling from the heights to the depths.
Alternatively, it is the story of how a woman who refuses to follow custom blindly, who demands justice for all, can change the heart of a ruler and the course of a world.
It's also an interesting look at society under a theocracy (that may not actually be a theocracy at all, and in the absence of a god at the top, what is a theocracy but a dictatorship, no matter how well-meaning), and at the reality of politics and oppression in the nice little feudal fantasy lands that some SFF writers are so fond of setting novels in.
I’m looking forward to reading the remaining books in this series.