THE ANGELS' GALAXIES

Debut author Noor offers a high-fantasy epic with Judeo-Christian trappings.

There are various orders of angels in the universe, including Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Thrones, Dominions, and Seraphim, among others, and each are headquartered in a specific galaxy; the Principalities are in the Andromeda Galaxy, for instance. The Dark Kingdom, ruled over by King Saty and inhabited by demons and jinn, exists in the dark spaces between galaxies—and on Earth, among humans. Young Princess Jennifer, the only daughter of King Jason of the Virtues, is a headstrong, compassionate warrior-in-training who loves her celestial home in the Comet Galaxy. One day, she encounters a small crowd of Dark Kingdom jinn attacking a young angel. She intervenes, and after the danger is dispatched, she realizes that the angel is “cute”; he’s Prince Justin of the Powers, and he and Jennifer immediately embark on adventures together, spurred by upheaval in the Dark Kingdom. It turns out that Prince Kaly and Princess Sally have grown impatient with the complacent attitude of their father, King Saty, toward the angel galaxies, which they seek to conquer. In the ensuing fast-paced narrative, Noor shows considerable skill at building dramatic tension and delivering effective action sequences, while also ably developing the story’s young leads. Readers coming to this tale expecting familiar angels from the Christian mythos, though, will need to adapt quickly, as Princess Jennifer and her cohorts sleep, dream, bleed, and bicker like average young adults. The hybridization of Christian material with standard fantasy concepts, such as warring kingdoms and military orders, is enthusiastic, if scattershot; Noor’s angels do intercede in human affairs, but they’re much more concerned with warfare and romance in a manner that calls to mind fantasy author Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses series.

An energetic and unusual take on a familiar angels-versus-demons plot.