Lately, I’ve been reading angel fantasy fiction. (Yes it is a genre.) I’ve taken an interest because of a new fantasy book premise I’ve been thinking about. I’m not sure of the details but I know that it will involve angels or angel human hybrids or something similar.
The question, for me, is – is it possible to write something like that without completely contradicting the things that I believe in?
I wasn’t, and still am not, entirely sure. So I decided to see how other people were doing it. Not other Catholics necessarily. Just other writers.
The Series I Read
For the purposes of my research on angel fantasy fiction I read the Penryn & the End of Days series. The three books in the series are Angelfall, World After and End of Days (affiliate links).
This is a young adult or YA series (ages 12 through 18). I chose YA because some of the adult stuff in this genre are a bit too explicit for me. Whether the sensuality and violence in these books is appropriate for a 12 year old or not is questionable. But my focus was more on the world building.
There are some things I like about the series. Penryn’s mentally unstable mother is well written and Penryn herself is sympathetic. There is a lot of action and the suspense builds reliably through the each book.
The romance arc was spread out over the three books of the series. This is something I’ve seen before and I do like it.
The Angels
The angels were interesting. The author wrote them as no more, or less, sure of the existence of God then the many human beings which I found a bit odd.
The banishment of the watchers (something I have always found fascinating) was a theme. In these books the banishment is depicted as unjust. Since no one is really sure if God exists or not (in the books), however, He isn’t explicitly blamed.
I don’t think being blamed is worse, necessarily, than being written out. But it’s the way the author chose to handle it.
The angels, in this series, are agents of destruction. And the books are set in a fairly believable post apocalyptic type world.
My Take Away
This author may or may not be agnostic. But she managed to write a book about angels from that perspective. My main take away is that if someone who doubts the existence of God can write a fantasy book about angels, so can a person of faith.
Since the Church has no specific teachings on the watchers or the Nephilim of Genesis 6 I feel I am thinking of incorporating some of that (really interesting Book of Enoch) stuff into the old paranormal manuscript I’ve been working on.
Rewriting in a way that doesn’t directly oppose my Catholic faith is going to be tricky but I’m going to go for it.
I hope to be posting some of my research and a few excerpts very soon.
