OVER THE BROAD EARTH

In Feuerstack’s debut fantasy series-starter, angels and demons wage war for millennia to win dominance over Earth.

Brothers God and Satan, after conquering the Titans together, now fight each other for control of the overlapping Celestial and Mortal Realms. This epic novel tells a story of thousands of years on Earth, primarily through the lives of angel Zinc and demon Schizophrenia, or “Schitz.” They’re entirely different types of students at their respective celestial schools: Schitz struggles to do well, unlike Zinc, who’s the teacher’s pet. However, in combat, the two are equally formidable. Per God and Satan’s signed agreement, angels and demons can only battle where mortals are also at war—or immersed in “war-like violence.” The celestial beings possess humans’ bodies when they fight; as such, Zinc and Schitz join others of their kind in conflicts throughout the world and its history. Not all enemies, however, are on opposing sides; Zinc and Schitz also suffer treachery and betrayals from within their own ranks. Despite this novel’s massive scope, Feuerstack wisely simplifies the plot; throughout, celestial beings are either fighting or preparing to do so. At the same time, he makes sure that Zinc and Schitz are fully developed characters, who experience love and grief. They do atrocious things, as well, and not just when they’re at war. Although the author takes his subject matter seriously, the cast boasts gleefully flashy character names; most angels are named for chemical elements, such as Uranium, and demons are named after a signature disease or disorder, which they’re each responsible for cultivating among humans, such as Mumps or Vertigo. This richly historical narrative takes readers from the land of the Babylonians to the New World, but it’s nowhere near completion in this volume, which leaves plenty of character secrets to be unveiled in a sequel. Tedmon’s stellar artwork mostly comprises razor-sharp black-and-white illustrations of weaponry, though her sublime portraits of characters, such as angel Hydrogen, effectively grace full pages.

An enthralling epic of mortals, immortals, and endless battles.