Angel Mage is in part a homage to Garth Nix's love of The Three Musketeers, both the book and the movie. The rest is one of the best examples of the art of fantasy storytelling.
This is a world where "magic" is worked through angels and you give a little bit of your own life force each time you invoke one.
A powerful mage's obsession with one particular angel brings down a whole country and curses the inhabitants. They are no longer able to interact with angels or partake of their assistance. To do so results in them eventually turning into monsters.
Four young people are drawn together. They come from very different backgrounds yet feel an immediate friendship and comradery. It is these four who become central to the mage's plan to restore her angel and return to her country.
A story of friendship and bravery, obsession and love. With four heroes who you will love who despite their differences come together and fight together and for each other. A villain whose actions are reprehensible and she is willing to use and discard people without any regret so long as it brings her closer to her goal.
The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix is one of my all
time favourites so I had high hopes when I heard he had written a new fantasy book. I was lucky enough to go to a book signing and meet him a few days before it was due to be released so that made it even more special.
The angelic magic we are introduced to in Angel Mage is unlike anything I’ve read before and yet it is so well written it’s hard at times to remember you’re reading a fantasy. Rather than racing through this book like I often do, I slowed right down so I could concentrate and take it all in. The characters were fascinating and all very believable. There are elements of all of the main characters I could easily relate to and I found myself longing to be part of the group of four friends. Although the book deals with some quite dark themes, Nix still manages to instil it with humour. I don’t know if there are plans for any further books set in this world, but I for one would love to learn about the further adventures of Simeon, Henri, Agnez and Dortea.
I can say I'm so disappointed with this.
This is most likely because I was expecting a very different story than what I got.
I whole heartedly went into this expecting a Lilith retelling, especially as the synopsis talks about angels and Liliath trying to bring her lover back.
Instead I got some weird three musketeer story that had angels involved and a whole load of descriptions about things I didn't really need to know, such as where tents where being placed for a whole page.
The start of the book I loved but it quickly changed into a story full of posturing and arguments between literally everyone.
I couldn't tell you what happened as there really didn't seem to be much happening and all the interesting parts such as the beastlings, the angels and Liliaths powers never got explained.
2 star read
“A unique fantasy with an interesting magic system.”
I've been meaning to see what Garth Nix's storytelling was like, so I had to give Angel Mage a try to see for myself, and I was really impressed. I loved the magic system that was used here, and I found myself imagining what the world was like. This was a unique fantasy for me to experience and I'll definitely check out more of Nix's works!
