The Fallen

February 3, 2003
From an author of books based on TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer
and Angel
comes the first installment of a projected series full of warring angels and pseudo-apocryphal themes. Raised in foster homes, Aaron Corbet discovers on his 18th birthday that he is one of the "Nephilim," ("children of angels and mortal women"). Aaron initially resists the notion: "You're trying to tell me that... that my mother... slept with an angel? For Christ's sake!" But a fallen angel presses him into service in their battle against the Powers (angels who are "like God's storm troopers"), who make it their mission to destroy Nephilim and fallen angels. Eventually, the fallen angels try to protect Aaron because they believe he is the "One foretold of in a prophecy thousands of years old" who will reunite them with "their most holy Father." If the plot recalls anything of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, the comparison ends there: the writing here is at best workmanlike, and any underlying theology or philosophy seems well hidden. Ages 16-up.