Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

Dare I say it? Yes, I dare say -
Angelology by Danielle Trussoni is the heir to Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian.

Angelology is a breathtaking story of ambitious scope: good vs. evil, man vs. fallen angels, Nazis, Greek mythology, the Bible, Milton (Angelology owes much to Paradise Lost). And the heroine is a nun - gotta love it!

Sister Evangeline is leading a quiet life of prayer in a convent situated in Milton, New York, when she receives a letter from Paul Verlaine asking for access to the convent's archives. With this one request, Evangeline and Verlaine set off a dangerous chain of events that are connected to the secret society of Angelologists, those who have made it their lives' work to study and defeat humankind's oldest enemy - the fallen angels.

The Society of Angelologists go back many generations, claiming as its members, Sir Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, Milton, of course. They are scholars of theology, scientists, men and women of the cloth who throughout the years have waged a secret war against the Nephilim, the evil offspring of the fallen angels who pass as humans. The darkest periods of human history, such as the Inquisition and the Nazis' rise to power, are attributed to the machinations of the half-human, half-angel Nephilim. However, some of the Nephilim are falling prey to a degenerative disease, and they have become desperate to find a cure.

For many years now, the Angelologists and Nephilim alike have been searching for a hidden, fabled treasure from the Archangel Michael himself, which, if the Nephilim were to obtain it would be their instrument to unlimited power on earth and also cure their mysterious wasting disease. Within the forgotten archives of Sister Evangeline's convent lies the key to its location. From Bulgaria, to Paris, to New York - the Angelologists race to find this precious artifact before the Nephilim.

Angelology started off slowly, as it opens with details of the uneventful, meditative life of a nun; however, once it hits the Angelology part, it just takes off and soars. Much like Lucifer in Paradise Lost, the Nephilim are mesmerizing figures, more so than the human characters in Angelology. The vivid passages describing them leap off the page.

The angelologists examined the body. It was intact, without decay, the skin as smooth and as white as parchment. The lifeless aquamarine eyes gazed heavenward. Pale curls fell against a high forehead and sculptural shoulders, forming a halo of golden hair... It should not have surprised them to find the angel in that preserved condition. The fingernails, nacreous as the inside of an oyster shell; the long, smooth, navel-less stomach; the eerie translucency of the skin---everything about the creature was as they knew it would be, even the positioning of the wings was correct. And yet it was too lovely, too vital for something they had studied only in airless libraries...

All their professional lives they had waited to see it. Although not one of them would have admitted so, they secretly suspected to find a monstrous corpse, all bones and fiber shreds, like something unearthed from an archeological dig. Instead there was this: a delicate tapering hand, an aquiline nose, pink lips in a frozen kiss. The angelologists hovered above the body, gazing down in anticipation, as if they expected the creature to blink its eyes and wake.

As diabolical and soulless as they are, the fallen angels are seductive; I would love to have majored in Angelology! I love that all the Angelologists have angelic names: Seraphina, Gabriella, Raphael, Celestine, Angela, Evangeline. To give Angelology a scholarly feel, Trussoni weaves Biblical passages, letters, journals, and historic-esque accounts within the fantastical plot (hence the comparison with The Historian).

I just could not stop reading this book and raced without break to the thrilling yet unexpected ending.

I'm further excited to find out that there's a planned sequel (the ending certainly begs for it) called Angelopolis. I hope Trussoni finishes that one soon!

My enthusiasm for Angelology has me wondering - Are angels are the new vampires???

Release date: March 9, 2010

Visit Danielle Trussoni's amazing website and learn more about the field of Angelology with photographs, extant texts, and drawings.

My great gratitude to Lindsay of Viking for providing a copy for me to review!