Archangel

Raven Mistcreek is back. But so are all the forces of Hell

Look up “full gonzo” in the dictionary, and the Raven Mistcreek novels should be held up as an example. The horseman of war riding atop a velociraptor, mounted with duel miniguns? That was just the first book. Then the Seven Deadly sins came after her again in Dusklight. Now, Raven Mistcreek is going to have to stop the end of the world … again. Somehow, it never gets easier. “I was surrounded by dead bodies, and only half of them were my fault.” Has NR LaPoint been reading Jim Butcher again? Because that’s the opening line of Archangel. To begin with, Raven Mistcreek and her friend the Kistune (and her friend the half-succubus) have been ambused by the forces of darkness. “Even the cute little pink bow” on her nightshirt had blood on it. Then they are promptly swallowed by a sandworm of Dune. When they force it to cough them up, they land right in the middle of Raven’s old Catholic girls school. Unfortunately, they ended up exactly where the worm was supposed to drop them. Raven’s old school has been turned into a gauntlet. Two of the Deadly Sins are out to kill her and her friends. The walls are rearranging themselves. Monsters are crawling out of every corner of the high school. Every death drags the school deeper into the varying levels of Hell itself. Her chalk golem August is getting beaten around, her chainsaw is running out of fuel, and they’re all running out of bullets. And that’s only act one. I have to hand it to Nate LaPoint, the man knows how to write a flying start to a novel. At this point, Nate feels like he’s in a race with himself to see just how fast he can pace a novel. Also, he’s trying to top how many weird monsters he can stuff in each book. Chalk golem? How mundane. The horseman of War with a Velociraptor mount, armed with miniguns? Droll. Time to throw in giant blind albino penguins and a Yoggoth! Nate gets double bonus points for the Lovecraft references. Agatha Christie liked to wave the main clue under the reader’s nose the entire plot of her book. By Nate LaPoint is more like Mickey Spillane; the reader is so busy being caught up in the action, one barely notices that there’s even a mystery to solve, never mind the clues being assembled in front of them. He and Timothy Zahn have that in common. While Zahn’s heroes are busy with a full puzzle, LaPoint just keeps everyone running too fast. If you like insanely good action with a fantasy world that stops just short of over-the-top, you are going to enjoy this one. Original review here: https://upstreamreviews.substack.com/p/book-review-archangel-by-nr-lapoint