Archangel

Sharon Shinn 1996 Buy from Amazon.com

Archangel is a novel that could almost be considered fantasy, there are angels, who intercede with the god, Jovah, and guide the people. However there are many oblique references to technology. The interface between the Oracles and Jovah is screen with arcane symbols, and all humans are tracked by a device implanted in their arm after birth, known as Jovah’s Kiss.

Archangel is set on another world, where angels walk amongst men and intercede with Jovah, their god. The angels fly above the world, entreating for rain, wind, or dry weather. They pray for medicines and seeds fall from the sky to heal.

It is their duty to guide and govern men, ensuring justice and peace, and to prove to Jovah that all men live peacefully, representatives from all lands must gather every year on the Plain of Sharon and lift their voices in together, led by the Archangel and his human consort, the Angela.

The Archangel elect, Gabriel, must find his consort, the Angelica, identified by the Oracle as Jovah’s choice. When he goes to claim her, he finds the village destroyed and cannot find any trace of her.

Meanwhile Rachel is a slave in the house of a rich merchant in Semorrah, captured five years ago during a raid on her Edori tribe. She hates Semorrha, the greed and cruelty, and curses it, wishing that Jovah would strike it down.

This is world of dangerous politics, deep emotions, and human frailty. Social inequality is thrown into sharp relief by the joining of two people from either extreme of this society. Sharon Shinn has a gift for examining the complexity of human interactions and ensnaring the reader in both sides of a difficult relationship, and two strong willed individuals.

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