Book Review: Angelos
Angelos, Christian fantasy fiction written by Robina Williams, tells of a recently deceased friar named Jerome and his travels through the afterlife and through time. Jerome is accompanied by a pet cat that is much more than he seems. With the gentle naggings of the cat, Jerome comes to realize that even in the midst of great paganism and the worship of many "lesser gods", God - the God of the Bible - is still the one true God.
Jerome went on, "Our Lord is the Lord of all, Lord of all worlds."
The cat nodded.
"So He's Lord of the old world and Lord of the New World."
Quant shook his head wearily. "You don't really get it, do you?"
"Get what?"
"Precisely."
The friars in the book are somewhat comical in their lackadaisical approach to their friarly duties. The cat (called Leo, or Quant depending on where he's at), is both somewhat amusing in the way he puts up with the ways of the friars, and somewhat awe-inspiring in his methods in the afterlife.
Art plays a strong role in the story; art influences the head friar's religious life, art is made by another friar, and art leads Jerome to realize where it really was he was standing.
Some readers might find it odd that reincarnation and "lesser gods" play a role in the series. I don't think reincarnation has any place in Christianity; and "lesser gods" (the gods of the various "mythological" pantheons") aren't deserving of worship, but arguably may have existed in one form or another with the fallen angels pretending to the thrones of these pantheons to lead civilizations away from the one true God - which, in a veiled way - seems to be what the author to the reader, and Quant to Jerome, is hinting at.
Angelos is the second book in the Quantum Cat series. The ending of this book is somewhat bittersweet, but leaves the way open for the third book in the series, which the author says she is working on now.
The author's afterword tells of her living near a monastery in the Welsh mountains, where a cat would come to visit her during the summer. This, along with the Schroedinger's Cat paradox, were some of her inspirations for writing this series.
While this book is the second in the series, it reads more like a second chapter or a second part of a whole - like one book was spit into three short books. This book is only 171 pages long, including the afterword and author's notes. It's a short, quick read.
Quite enjoyable, but I feel I would have gotten more out it had I read the first book first.
That having been said, I'd still rate it a 7 out of 10.
1 comment:
My local library has the first one "Joseph and the Seraph" on order for me.
If I like it enough, I'll go buy it so it can sit next to Angelos on my bookshelf.
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