Title:

Pulling The Wings Off Angels

Author:

K. J. Parker

Category:

Science Fiction / Fantasy

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

July 1, 2023

was still in my novella groove when I read Pulling The Wings Off Angels, which checks in at 138 hardcover pages. K.J. Parker is an established author, there is a list of his previous works at the beginning of the book, and it is an impressively long tally (he also writes under the name Tom Holt). K. J. Parker is a prolific author. He certainly knows how to write a narrative that will keep you turning the pages. This was a quick read, because the story was interesting enough that I always wanted to read what happened next.

Pulling The Wings Off Angels is set in a fantasy world that resembles our Renaissance. The story is told by the third son of the wealthy met'Auzen family (now that I think about it, I am not sure that we ever learn the narrator's name. The story is told in first person, and I doubt he ever names himself in the tale.) As the third son of a wealthy man, the protagonist is sent to work in the church, he is a theologian. But he certainly is not devout, he is interested in beautiful women - and discovers that beautiful women are expensive. Fortunately, he seems to have a knack at winning a cards, so he has become a gambler.

When the novella opens, the protagonist is being violently threatened by a ruthless gangster leader named Florio. It seems our hero had a sure-fire winning hand (four aces!), and so bet an extraordinary amount of money, only to lose. Now Florio is demanding that he be paid an impossible sum of money, or else he will start carving body parts off of our narrator. However, Florio is willing to cancel the debt, if the protagonist will deliver the angel that his legendary grandfather was rumored to have captured.

An angel? How absurd! They don't exist! Florio sighs and a minion hands him a sharp knife... and of course he gets a promise that an angel will somehow be delivered.

It turns out that there really is angel, the title of the novella is not metaphorical. What follows is bunch of questions of justice, mercy and sins. God himself makes an appearance, wanting to know what has happened to his angel. If you don't stop to think, the story is a good read. But obviously a truly omnipotent God could have stopped the scheme to capture one of his angels as soon as the idea appeared in Saloninus' brain.

Saloninus is the smartest man who ever lived. It is he that dragged the protagonist's grandfather into the crazy angel-trapping scheme in the first place. (One thing that bothered me is that Saloninus never appears to age. Did I miss an explanation for that?).

Pulling The Wings Off Angels is interesting for its story and theological arguments between the angel and the hero, and the evil machinations of Florio. The hero discovers that now that he knows angels are really, and he talks to God, that he is a true believer, all of his earlier cynicism is cast aside. But since he has participated in Florio's crimes, and because the sins of his grandfather are handed down unto the fourth generation he is now doomed to an eternity of damnation. (Does this mean that his brothers and sisters are equally condemned?) But it seems Florio has a plan...