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A thrilling epic about an ancient clash reignited in our time—between a hidden society and heaven's darkest creatures
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. —Genesis 6:5
Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in upstate New York. Now, at twenty-three, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim.
For the secrets these letters guard are desperately coveted by the once-powerful Nephilim, who aim to perpetuate war, subvert the good in humanity, and dominate mankind. Generations of angelologists have devoted their lives to stopping them, and their shared mission, which Evangeline has long been destined to join, reaches from her bucolic abbey on the Hudson to the apex of insular wealth in New York, to the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris and the mountains of Bulgaria.
Rich in history, full of mesmerizing characters, and wondrously conceived, Angelology blends biblical lore, the myth of Orpheus and the Miltonic visions of Paradise Lost into a riveting tale of ordinary people engaged in a battle that will determine the fate of the world.
Danielle Trussoni’s first book, the memoir Falling Through the Earth, was selected as one of the Ten Best Books of 2006 by The New York Times Book Review. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Danielle resides with her husband and two children in the south of France and regularly spends time in both Bulgaria and the United States. Her debut novel Angelology will be published in over thirty countries. Film rights were purchased outright by Sony Pictures with Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment producing and Marc Forester directing.
JL-FR
Posted February 23, 2010
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I really enjoyed reading this book because it is satisfyingly long, rich and crammed full of characters, stories, historical and fantastic detail. What I call a good read. Trussoni is a sensuous writer who made people, places and eras really come alive for me.even the most surreal and fabulous. I enjoyed the wealth of visual detail: Trussoni's superb descriptions such as of the secret academy in Montparnasse, Paris during the Nazi Occupation. or of a radiant angel corpse preserved deep in a Bulgarian cavern. The plot and pace of this book are very successful too. The pace really picks up and sweeps towards a riveting ending. Love stories and murders seemed almost incidental to the plot; while historical intrigues and family sagas kept me on tenterhooks for more. The Nephilim are a formidable enemy and I found myself really captivated and supporting Gabriella in her quest against them. Hope to hear that there will be a sequel!
20 out of 23 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Good and evil have been at odds since the beginning of time. Sister Evangeline has found herself once again, in the middle of a war between heaven and hell. As a child, she followed her father and caught a glimpse of something not altogether human. Stuffing this find down deep inside herself, she decided that it must not have been real.
At 23 she has a discussion with a man named Verlaine who has sparked her curiosity. Together they dig through old letters to find the truth about fallen angels and an item of immeasurable value.
There are not any words that can describe how much I loved this book. Amazing. Thrilling. Intriguing. Words just don't measure up. This is one of my favorite books of all time and I can't wait to read more of Danielle's work.
14 out of 14 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.FinMac
Posted March 22, 2010
I thought this book totally fell apart about halfway through the part 2. There is no character development. I've always felt that was a cliche' to say but in this case there's just no other way to explain it. There is no hero in the book. The villians are portrayed as nothing more than spoiled children and vandals. The whole second half of the book just made no sense whatsoever. On top of all that, the authors use of emotion was just confusing. In the space of a 30 second conversation character emotions were described as joyous, irritated, grateful, condescending, etc etc etc. Seriously, it was distracting at the beginning, but by the end, I just wanted all the characters to get killed off. That's how poor a job she did of identifying the heroes and villians. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
12 out of 20 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I believe the author may have been trying to cash in on Dan Brown's success with the religious/mystery genre. Like Brown's work, the premise was intriguing, but the plot line meandering and the characters flat and lifeless. The Biblical references were compelling, but the premise of three plot lines caused confusion, and yes, even some boredom. The novel could have benefitted from some careful editing, as typos and long-winded descriptions were abundant.
9 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.TiredofGarbage
Posted May 12, 2010
Hard to know how to rate this one - it starts off really well, with well-drawn characters, an interesting plot, and piles of research showing all over. We get the main story, about the nun, Evangeline, and the secrets hidden somewhere in the convent. Then we get the story within a story, about Claudine, the elderly nun, and the formal study of angels. By the time we get to the story within the story within the story, this time about Clematis and the First Expedition to find fallen angels, I started to ask myself, what gives here? Why leave the main characters completely and go off on 2 tangents? When we finally get back to Evangeline and a sudden (and not believeable) love interest, it seemed like a film plot tacked on to a book, as if the first part of the book is a real book, but the last part is a film script - and the 2 parts don't match up that well. Did we need lots of guts and gore at the end - no. Did we need the awkward love scenes - no, we didn't. Did we need to be deceived throughout as to the real identity of Evangeline - nope. There are lots of things that don't add up here, and it's a real shame - for example, we keep hearing about how frail the elderly nuns are, but suddenly they are strong enough to drag and dump large bodies. Like other books marketed to women, like "The Time Traveller's Wife" and "The Fearful Symmetery" this one is a big let down when you realize that it is really science fiction trying to hide itself as romance as a marketing tool. No dice, we are not that easily fooled. I am hoping that somewhere out there, there is an editor who cares enough about the reader's experience to stop the pattern of cheating the reader of a plot that makes sense, an editor capable of returning story telling to an art and not throwing away any sensible plot to sell a book as a script, something that clearly has happened with this book. In summary, I would give the first part of the book 4 stars, the stories within stories 2 stars, and the last third no stars because it was just completely unbelievable, in fact, ridiculously like a bad film script. Next time, I hope that this writer works with an editor and not an agent and an accountant to shape her work, and then her work will be worth reading from start to finish, but not yet.
9 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Angels are the new vampires!! Angelology by Danielle Trussoni just proves my point. Her debut novel, Angelology is a fast paced thriller that takes you from a convent in upstate New York to war torn Europe and finishes off in a snowy New York City. All to wage a war as old as time. Good versus evil.
Put aside everything you think you know about Angels. Angelology is an absolutely wonderful, fast paced novel that is a mixture of factual history with a whole lot of fictional lore. Written in a way that will have you grabbing your Bible to do a little fact-checking of your own. I would say the concept is similar to The Historian, but with the action packed plot of a Dan Brown novel. I enjoyed Angelology so much that I am going to give it a "Best of" tag.
7 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Speak_Easy
Posted May 10, 2010
This book would have certainly benefitted from a good editor. Inexplicably long with a storyline that often spiraled way off course. I read it to the end hoping for a redeeming conclusion; no such luck. It had the feeling of being written for the sole purpose of selling movie rights, complete with shallow characters and prepped for over-the-top CG. Maybe a good director can pull of the anti-hollywood: make a good movie out of a subpar book.
5 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.JGerber
Posted March 24, 2010
Let me start with this, I enjoyed reading Angelology. I thought that it had an original idea and a compelling characters and a plot that kept me going back to it as soon as I put it down. I tend to choose books that seamlessly blend various bits of history and facts into ideas such as angelology, and if the writer is good enough, I come away with a sense of urgency to google said idea to sort out what is fact from fiction. Danielle Trussoni in my opinion, has managed this feat with her novel. I was captivated from start to finish and loved how the book made me think of landmarks and places in her book that I've personally been to in new ways as well as introducing a foreign subject matter. My only gripe with the book (without spoiling anything), is that I felt that the climatic action towards the ending happened too abruptly and then ended. Unless Ms. Trussoni is planning on penning a sequel, then I feel that is had a justified ending (crossing my fingers because I feel that there is more to the story). Enjoy!
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 19, 2010
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One of the best novels I have read in a while. Angelology has a great plot and is different than many other fallen angel or Nephilim novels out there. The ending was truely shocking and leaves you wanting more. I can only hope there is a sequel. You will be left thinking they are among us. If you have read THE Mortal Instruments Series you will enjoy this book because it helps you understand more about the Nephilim.
5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted March 26, 2010
This is a book that you won't be able to put down!
4 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I liked the theme and found the storyline interesting. It was too dragged out though which ended up making it somewhat boring and hard to get through.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This was a page turner for me. Once I got into the story, I could not put it down. All though the theme is a common one, good vs. evil, I found it to be a new twist. I enjoyed the history that was woven through-out the story and learned quite a bit more about angels.
One thing that was disappointing and is a reflection on the publisher, Viking; there were numerous typos, spell check is not reliable, a person still needs to review the copy.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This book was interesting. I found it fast to read regardless of its large size. The link between the nuns and the Rockefellers pulled history into its pages, along with the story from WWII and the first expedition to the cavern. I was drawn in and looked forward to the climax. The cast of characters were diverse and different from the norm. Angelology was explained, it's quite an interesting discipline along with the history the author created made their world come to life.
As I approached the end I was concerned that there were not enough pages left to give the book a good ending and I'm sorry to say I was right. I realize that this was only number one, but I do not feel the book had an ending that was satisfying to me as a reader. It made the book feel rushed. The next book I imagine will start off right where this one left off, but I felt robbed at the end of this one. The story was detailed, long and then bam it was over. The end also did not mesh with what we had learned about Evangeline, her whole character changed in the blink of an eye and that was hard to swallow. I have high hopes for the next one, but then again I had high hopes for this one.
If you enjoy interesting stories weaved in and out of historical fact, you may enjoy this book. If you think you may like this, wait for the next one before reading this one, that way you don't have to wonder what the heck? I do want to know what happens to Evangeline and the rest of the Angelologists, but then again by the time the next book comes out I may not even remember why. This series would be better read all together. At least that is what I hope
2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I couldn't get through the rampant use of "as if" throughout the book. Was this ever edited? It was a complete distraction to the story line and because it was used so much in describing EVERYTHING, it totally destroyed the flow of the book for me. I had high hopes for this book, as it has some really good reviews, but I just couldn't muddle through it. After a week of trying, I finally put it down. I may or may not revisit it, but I am disappointed.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.meat_dog
Posted May 5, 2010
This is a book that will make the world occasionally dark and windy. There are creatures afoot that will change your perceptions, and forever change the meaning of the word "angel."
I read Trussoni's earlier memoir and found it captivating, and had trepidation about this novel because Falling Through Earth was such a wonderful book. I heard the marketers hype it as the next Da Vinci Code. It's not. Its smarter, more thought provoking, more allegorical. There is a race underway for control of the world, and like an intellectual's "24," it's happening fast. Christmas be damned, the dark angels are itching for a fight. They'll burn nuns and kill researchers and stop at nothing to get an instrument that's twice as red-hot as the lost Ark.
Take it home and light a fire in the fireplace. I loved this ride, and the author is more Umberto Eco than Dan Brown.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.'Angelology' by Danielle Trussoni (2010). A complete satisfaction in that this novel transcends the kitsch of muddled-headed angel-obsession and instead Trussoni writes a superb intellectual and metaphysical adventure that is very much a modernized novel, but feels as though a (positive) throwback to the likes of Umberto Eco (think: Foucault's Pendulum), John Fowles (think: The Magus), Iain Pears (think: The Dream of Scipio), and Harry Mulisch (think: The Discovery of Heaven). Trussoni has crafted a well-balanced alchemy of spheres that is part Dantesque, part esoterica, and the collision of old world mythology and new world discovery. Sidenote and only for the adept: SOTAR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS which was also found in 'Avalovara' by Osman Lins, 1979).
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 29, 2013
I have trouble putting this book down. I truly believe this would make an awesome movie!!!!
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.CD/Thriller?: Very long at 17 discs. The narrator did a great job with the voices, but I would have never finished the novel if I had the book. There was a lot of extra "stuff" that was not needed verses the quickness of the ending. I had a lot of problems with some of the plot logic, physicality logic, and economic logic of some of the character's wealth. I did like the flashbacks and back story.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I_am_Andi
Posted August 23, 2012
The basic storyline is what caught my attention. I think there is
potential here - if only the characters were more developed. I would
like to see a series based on the idea of angels among us and this could
have been a great lead into such a series (I am tired of the endless
vampire stuff... and what;s the deal with zombies???). I give this a 3
star rating instead of lower because I do "get" where the
author was going and that still leaves me optimistic.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.NuclearPeanut
Posted June 29, 2012
I picked up this book after reading the back cover. It sounded interesting. Through the first several pages, I really was intrigued. But about a third of the way through, the part where you learn about Celestine in Paris, I began to get bored with the book. I would count how many pages I had left to read because I will not put down a book once I start it. The problem is that I did not connect with any of the characters, the story was poorly written, and that the story did not go anywhere. The ending was even more confusing and I saw it coming from a mile away. Sorry, that last statement may seem contradictory, but I am trying not to give anything away for people who have not read it. For those who have, you should understand. To sum up, skip this book. There are plenty of better books out there.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Overview
A thrilling epic about an ancient clash reignited in our time—between a hidden society and heaven's darkest creatures
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. —Genesis 6:5
Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in upstate New York. Now, at twenty-three, her ...