Book: Where Angels Fear to Tread
ISBN-13: 978-0451463142
Author: Thomas E. Sniegoski
Series: A Remy Chandler Novel (No. 3)
Publisher: Roc Trade
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release: March 2, 2010
Length: 304 pages (Paperback)
Rating: D- (55 / 100)
Verdict
Though it’s the best entry in the series to date, Where Angels Fear to Tread still falls flat.
It’s just difficult to get caught up in a book where the deus ex machina plot device built right into the protagonist. It rather distinctly removes the element of suspense, especially when, as in this series, the protagonist’s loved ones remain so far removed from the main thread of the plot.
-
Pros: Very imaginative. The dog character is extremely amusing.
Cons: Short on action. Short on suspense. Short on humor. Long on self-pity. Overly saccharine ending.
Synopsis
In Brief: Still reeling from the loss of his wife and a friend that occurred in the last two books of the series, angel-turned-PI Remy Chandler takes a missing child case, only to be once again drawn into matters of Biblical significance.
Official: Six year-old Zoe York has been taken and her mother has come to Remy for help. She shows him crude, childlike drawings that she claims are Zoe’s visions of the future, everything leading up to her abduction, and some beyond. Like the picture of a man with wings who would come and save her-a man who is an angel.
Zoe’s preternatural gifts have made her a target for those who wish to exploit her power to their own destructive ends. The search will take Remy to dark places he would rather avoid. But to save an innocent, Remy will ally himself with a variety of lesser evils-and his soul may pay the price…
Review
Thomas E. Sniegoski has tapped into one of the most promising premises in the urban fantasy genre, but he hasn’t yet found a way to draw readers into his protagonist’s internal struggles or to build suspense into a plot in which deus ex machina forever lurks just out of sight.
The Remy Chandler series follows the adventure of a somewhat melancholy (sometimes just whiny) seraphim angel who has left heaven to live out life as a hard boiled private eye, wearing mortality like clothing and actively suppressing his angelic nature to maintain his disguise and remain in touch with his human emotions. But not all of his angelic powers are completely suppressed. Though he may strive to be human, being an angel still comes with a nifty bag of tricks. He’s stronger than most humans with more acute senses, which has become fairly standard fair in the urban fantasy genre, but he can also speak with animals, which is where this series really shines.
What little humor there is in the series arises from Chandler’s conversation with his dog Marlow and his friend’s cat (which is especially hilarious), and it does more to make Sniegoski’s protagonist interesting than anything else. In fact, the dog is almost enough to recommend the book in and of itself.
Meanwhile, the book’s drama is the result of the struggle between Chandler’s desire to remain human and his inner-angel’s struggle to express itself. The twist is that, in Sniegoski’s series, angels, far removed from human emotion, often come across as villains. Though Chandler’s angelic powers often come in handy, the deeper he draws upon them, the more difficult it is to suppress the part of him that wants to smite the sinners he lives among. As the series progresses, the further into the foreground that struggle is drawn.
The difficulty with this series is, that while a protagonist struggling with a powerful aspect of its nature is an extremely common and often potent plot device in urban fantasy, the potential of spending eternity as an angel in heaven just doesn’t spell dire consequences quite as well as other convincingly as in other instances of the genre. As a result, the Chandler’s internal struggle fails to pull readers into the story as effectively as other urban fantasy series’ protagonists. It’s difficult to worry about a character loosing out on a struggle when the only consequence of loosing is immortality.
At the same time, knowing that Remy is going to release some portion of his angelic aspect somewhere down the line completely kills any suspense regarding whether or not he’ll emerge victorious from the climactic struggle.
Thus, the series lacks suspense.
Where Remy Chandler series does excel is in his imaginative use of Biblical pseudo-mythology. Here, Sniegoski takes a cues from Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, drawing upon colorful myths and legends and giving them a modern-day aesthetic that completely re-invigorates them. Where Angels Fear to Tread, for instance, puts a new twist on the story of Samson and Dellilah. It’s almost interesting enough to make this book worth the read, but not quite. The book is just too pedestrian a read in a genre that currently on fire with burgeoning talent to recommend with a clear conscience.
If you’re looking for a good read, look elsewhere.
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Further Information
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