With
The Prison of the Angels, the final installment in her Book of the
Watchers trilogy, Janine Ashbless brings this epic erotic-romance saga to a
conclusion with a bang of near-apocalyptic intensity. And how could it be
otherwise, given what we’ve come to expect thus far in the series?
I’m
not sure I can give too much away here without dropping spoilers—everything in
this story is essential, and Ashbless never wastes a word. But, to review: in Cover
Him with Darkness, Milja frees the fallen angel Azazel from his
imprisonment. In the superb middle-installment, In Bonds of the Earth,
Azazel sets in motion his plan to free his fellow rebel angels from their
ancient prisons, setting up a cosmic showdown with the powers of Heaven. In The
Prison of the Angels, the scary feathered beasts come home to roost, the consequences
of choices made must at last be faced, the price of love and freedom paid
regardless of the cost. Yet, as always, Ashbless ties it all together with such
style, such flare, conveying a sense of inevitability—of ineluctable right-ness—with
the plot’s every twist and turn, it’s hard to imagine all hell breaking loose
in any other way, Or near half so excitingly, for that matter! Of course,
throughout, the sex is wicked hot, and it is sex, after all, desire and lust,
that have driven this story from the beginning, and ultimately created the
critical mass from which it draws its power.
But
it would be wrong to dismiss this story as just another facile fast-paced sex-action-adventure
franchise—though it certainly is fast-paced and often sexy as hell! What I have
always admired about Ashbless is her ability to tell riveting erotic stories in
a way that recognizes and honors her readers’ intelligence and curiosity, not
to mention their willingness to look up the occasional word if they need to.
The essential story is never weighed down by excessive literary vocabulary—the author’s
voice, or need to prove how smart they are, overwhelming the narrative—but words
are used correctly, precisely, and always with thoughtfulness and care. Big
ideas are woven into the fabric of the tale with seamless craft to seem as
natural a part of the whole as the action-packed set pieces and steamy bedroom
scenes.
And—wow!—do
I ever love the way Ashbless employs mythology in her stories, perhaps the true
hallmark of her style. It doesn’t matter that we largely no longer believe in
Zeus or Apollo, Thor and Loki, or the creation mythos of the Hebrew Bible; all
these stories—always essentially metaphors—have outlived literal credulity; yet
all are still exciting, still thought-provoking, brimming with narrative
possibility. The thing Ashbless shows us about myth is that it is malleable;
it can be molded and reformed, melded and spliced to suit any time and place. The
fascinating angelology in this series comprises far more than the traditional
(and rather staid) Judeo-Christian roster; but shows how different cultures may
have interpreted the same archetypes in different ways. The Norse trickster
god, Loki, becomes the tempter of Genesis, the fallen serpent-angel Samyaza;
the Archangel Michael assumes the form of something out of Native American myth…
It all makes for a wonderful, engaging, multi-layered story that touches the
mind as well as the heart, yet is always fun to read!
Perhaps,
the author is speaking directly to her readers through the character of
Pemenuel, the angel of the written word, when she describes the power of story
in this passage from The Prison of the Angels:
“The humans have done
something remarkable. Something we could not. They have created new
worlds. Worlds where decisions are made for good or evil, where hearts are
broken and won, where hope is found and innocence lost. I have been to these
worlds. They are real realms of the spirit.”
“Books?” said Azazel with
contempt. “Just words!”
“No. They are places that the
human spirit goes to be reborn. Landscapes and people that they recognize, just
as they recognize their own homes. Places as real as your memory…”
In
The Prison of the Angels, as in the books that preceded it, Janine Ashbless has
created an extraordinary new world, a “real realm of the spirit” that is a
sheer pleasure to visit.
Enthusiastically
recommended.
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