Angelopolis: A Novel by Danielle Trussoni

Angelopolis. Danielle Trussoni. Viking Adult. March 2013. 320 pp. hbk. ISBN #: 9780670025541.

Danielle Trussoni in the second book of this series that began with Angelology focuses on interweaving discoveries of research on the physical composition of angel’s DNA, etc. and the imminent major battle between humans and angels.  Verlaine, an “angel hunter,” finds the angel Evangeline dead, lying in a pool of blood.  He is totally smitten by her and yet knows his secret love is an obstacle to his mission of killing all angels and their angel-human peers.  Evangeline is a Nephilim angel, a pure angel of Grigori descent.  It turns out she is not dead but has been captured and taken away to a secret, deadly “angel prison” by those who want to discover how she evolved from a total human to an angel.  For the goal of all angels is to annihilate humans and create another civilization; and the goal of these researchers/scientists is the same on another level. 

The angel researchers who combine their forces to find Evangeline are Verlaine, another angel hunter Bruno, and other researchers Vera and Nadia.  All have been part of the project to understand the angelic phenomena for years; all know the history that involved many dying in the attempt to find the key to angelic identity. It turns out the history tracks back to the days of Noah, who not only brought animals onto the Ark but also seeds of every living plant that he could find existing at that time. One was a metal no long existing, one that could actually be the final element needed to create an angel “egg” with secret properties for a “higher” or “lower” purpose depending on one’s point of view.  The mystery also involves the famous Faberge eggs created during the infamous reign of the Russian Tsar Alexander Romanov and his family.  The tale becomes rather enigmatic here, involving the madman Rasputin’s scientific theories and attempt to find a cure for the Tsar’s hemophiliac son that also involves “flower seed” experiments which also pertain to angels.  Some so-called “facts” are offered that imply that several world leaders of that historical time period were actually angels in human disguise.

The story at times seems meandering to no purpose and the reader wonders where all this talk of biology, chemistry and secretive plots is going to land.  The answer  is only partially supplied in this second of three books in the series.  What we wind up with is plenty of battles, a tough journey through Greece and Siberia, a putting aside of differences and forming a new union of hearts and minds to destroy one man who is perverting the previously benign research to create a master race of deadly angels.  The final confrontation is fierce, brutal and only partially concluded, obviously to reach a final solution in the next and final book of this series.

Angelopolis is adventurous and fascinating reading, a page turning whirl of incredible conflicts between an all-powerful angelic team of warriors and humans who partially understand these creatures, know how to bind them in controlled circumstances, and are still fiercely determined to conquer them for the safety and security of humanity. What isn’t clear is why sometimes the angel hunters can capture their prey and at other times are so easily and brutally tossed aside by this super-human race whose enjoyment of mutilating humans is the norm rather than the exception. At times it’s hard to determine who is friend and who is foe!

Angelopolis is a fine series for those who love intense, page-turning thrillers and fantasy!