Angel Time

Anne Rice’s Angel Time is the first book in The Songs of the Seraphim series. Her latest series revolves around angels instead of vampires, but I’d advise Anne to stick to the blood suckers. After finishing Angel Time, I can’t say I’m eager to get to the second installment. The novel follows Toby O’Dare (aka Lucky the Fox), a twenty-something assassin who may or may not be working for the government, as he prepares for what will be his last kill. At the scene of the assassination he encounters Malchiah, an angel who offers Toby a chance for redemption. Malchiah transports our contract killer to 13th-century England where he is tasked with saving Meir and Fluria, a Jewish couple falsely accused of murdering their daughter by the local population looking to make a martyr of the young girl and villainize the Jewish population. Toby races from the small English town to France and back in the disguise of a Dominican friar in an effort to finish his assignment.

As much as it pains me to say as an Anne Rice fan, Angel Time was a waste of time to read. It’s a shadow of Rice’s earlier works and felt like a book written in a hurry. The novel was preachy to a fault, with a thin story and underdeveloped characters. We do get some back story on Toby’s childhood and what eventually led him to become an assassin, but even that seemed unbelievable. And don’t get me started on Toby spending ten years as a professional murderer, who says he kills without conscience, and then one day an angel shows up, and bam!, he suddenly realizes his need for redemption. Ridiculous. What I think is meant to be a serious novel with deep themes ends up being almost comical. Nothing to see here, move along.

Next Up: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (per Mrs.’ request – and to get her to shut up about it)