Reviews - Angels Before Man

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1.86k reviews for:

Angels Before Man

rafael nicolás

4.13 AVERAGE

spaceirony's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

imsaragarcia's review against another edition

2.5

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lawriealizea's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 30%

I stayed strong for 14 chapter but nothing is happening. Everything is so slow. I really wanted to love this book but I fear it's just not for me.

cogniartum's review against another edition

4.0

This book is full of many beautiful quotes, one of the many things I thoroughly enjoyed about it. Some of them have already been shared by other reviewers on here but I'll share a some of my favourites just for good measure.

"This , this here, could be worship. 'This---' Lucifer pressed an innocent kiss to the prince's sweet, divine mouth. This could be religion."

"I thought, that if all pain inside was so great, I needed to find a way to pull it out."

"I can't stop thinking about how it must feel to know nothing except that you can die."

This was my first read of 2023 and oh boy, what a way to start it. I feel like this book was very carefully crafted to appeal to my personal tastes. The premise was the first thing that caught my attention. Angels? Check. Mythology? Check. Lyrical prose and metaphors? Check.

Seeing as this appears to be not only a debut novel but self-published too I must commend the author, it's very clear that he put a lot of time, effort, care, and love into this.

There are many things I enjoyed about this book and a couple of things I didn't. As many have pointed out this book has very pretty, lyrical, almost flowery language. Although a little heavy-handed on the purple prose it wasn't something I minded. Very metaphor heavy and at times very introspective (something I really enjoyed about it).

Lucifer as a character was very sweet and the buildup to his fall and subsequent corruption didn't feel too rushed or drastic. I like how one of his most defining traits was his curiosity and how the author chose to build on that in order to lead us to his rebellion and eventual fall.

The relationship between not only Lucifer and Michael was very sweet and I think the author did a great job of depicting love in its various forms. I enjoyed reading about Lucifer's relationships with the others, although I wished we could have seen more with the other archangels apart from Michael (especially Uriel, but I'll get to him later). I would have loved to learn more about them and excepted them to play a bigger role in the story, especially Raphael since he's one of the first characters we get to meet.

I found the portrayal of God in his story very fascinating. He's portrayed as aloof and intimidating and overpowering and every time he appeared on page it filled me with a looming, foreboding sense of dread. At times he was downright frightening. I think the book did a very good job of conveying how absolutely terrifying and ruthless his wrath can be, especially in canon. I don't find myself sympathising much with him after all he did to lucifer (the scene in Eden comes to mind) but I also found myself pitying him, especially after reading the conversation between Gabriel and Uriel.

Now, for Uriel. I found myself very intrigued by his character and ultimately a little disappointed that we didn't get to see more of him. The story of his creation was very sad but beautifully written and possibly one of the best moments in terms of world-building in this book. I found his relationship with God and his brothers very bittersweet and I think one of the rare moments we get to see a different, almost sweet side of God (ironically).

I do have a couple of questions and other comments.
So spoiler warning for this section.
We see this beast inside of Lucifer which symbolises the parts of him that are evil and his innermost darkness. We also know that Lucifer is a cherubim and this beast seems to have many faces, one of them being an ox I believe. So if there were other cherubim, would they too have these beasts inside of them, or is that only Lucifer? Assuming Lucifer is the first Cherubim is he also the only one? Did God make him with the intention of planting a beast inside of him? Was the fall intended from the start? What were God's motivations for all of this?

I've seen a couple of people talk about the scene where God SA's Lucifer and to be perfectly honest I didn't pick up on that at all until I read the reviews mentioning it. Only then did it make sense and kind of put a damper on my enjoyment of the book, so I guess it's a good thing I finished it without realising it first. Having read over it a second time I still struggle a bit to make sense of it. Though I will say that the portrayal of the aftermath and trauma succeeded in showing the severity of such an act without sugarcoating or romanticising it.

I think this book shone in many places and unfortunately faltered in a couple but an overall interesting take on not only mythology but depictions of growing older, religion, faith, queer guilt, shame, morality, love, and humanity made for a very interesting read.