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A review by frasersimons
The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard
4.0
This has a cool world. Fallen angels who don’t remember The City (heaven) and why they fell end up as powerful players in this fallen Paris... or else killed, their bodies turned into a commodity with magical properties.
Ironically, in this world that leads people to believe in God but have no idea what what principles and morality exist in the city.
The main character is a PoC from an entirely different faith who is very interesting. They come from the east and had previously reached enlightenment and immortality through Buddhist practices, only to be used in a war. The Jade Emperor, God, exiled him so he occupies a liminal space. Neither immortal now or human or fallen. And is old enough to know that these fundamental structures, called ‘houses’ are filled with immoral people who try to amass as much power as possible at the expense of what they refer to as dependents.
There is an interesting mystery involving Morningstar that takes place while the narrative weaves a sort of indictment of faith, in general, which I really enjoyed. No one is ‘right’, most of the characters are fleshed out. Though, the newest Fallen and one of the main characters Isabelle, felt criminally underbaked compared to everyone else.
It was thoroughly enjoyable, though. Neat world with other faiths, which I particularly liked because with western Catholicism it tends to drown out everything else. In a story that appears to be about angels, it was surprising to me to have the main character automatically othered. It ended up being one of the most gripping parts of the story as it shone a light on elements that people of that faith would probably gloss over. But yeah. Fallen angels, dragons, curses, magic. Good stuff.
Ironically, in this world that leads people to believe in God but have no idea what what principles and morality exist in the city.
The main character is a PoC from an entirely different faith who is very interesting. They come from the east and had previously reached enlightenment and immortality through Buddhist practices, only to be used in a war. The Jade Emperor, God, exiled him so he occupies a liminal space. Neither immortal now or human or fallen. And is old enough to know that these fundamental structures, called ‘houses’ are filled with immoral people who try to amass as much power as possible at the expense of what they refer to as dependents.
There is an interesting mystery involving Morningstar that takes place while the narrative weaves a sort of indictment of faith, in general, which I really enjoyed. No one is ‘right’, most of the characters are fleshed out. Though, the newest Fallen and one of the main characters Isabelle, felt criminally underbaked compared to everyone else.
It was thoroughly enjoyable, though. Neat world with other faiths, which I particularly liked because with western Catholicism it tends to drown out everything else. In a story that appears to be about angels, it was surprising to me to have the main character automatically othered. It ended up being one of the most gripping parts of the story as it shone a light on elements that people of that faith would probably gloss over. But yeah. Fallen angels, dragons, curses, magic. Good stuff.