I learned that I love Mouse deeply. ;) Um. Okay. Let me start over. More free will stuff, in a yummy religious cyberpunk wrapper. I like how all the religions are equal in this series. ( )

The third installament in the Archangel Protocol. At present there are four books in this series; Morehouse is in the process of writing a prequel book called the "Resurrection Code". This book followed much in the manner as Fallen Host. I thought it was okay but the overly heavy religious themes get boring for me and the characters again seem to lack depth.

The story from Fallen Host continues but this time we are seeing from the eyes of Michael (archangel), Page, and Mouse. Other characters take their shot at telling from their points of view too; so we hear again from Diedre (her story is told in the first book), from the Dragon, and from Morningstar. Each chapter ends with a brief news bulletin describing world conditions as people are convinced the apocalypse is drawing closer. The plot follows as the new messiah and Anti-Christ are searched for.

This book is very creative and has a very complex plot. The world-building in this book (the whole series) is phenomenal. I find this whole series intellectually interesting but I don't take a lot of joy in reading this series. This book is no different.

The religious theme in this sci-fi series is overdone; there is no subtly to it. You are constantly having religious parable, cross-references, and consequences shoved at you. I don't particularly enjoy reading about religion and I find the depth of obsession with it in this series to be a bit silly. I also think that the character development and the plot development suffers from the fact that the story is parsed into little bits told from different characters' points of view. This method of writing worked much better in Fallen Host, there is propelled the story forward. In this story, for some reason, this method of writing parses the story up and makes the plot drag. Similarly you aren't allowed to have time to get attached to any of the characters.

I continue to read this series because I find the humanization of AI's interesting. I also find some of the "good" vs "evil" aspects of the story to be interesting. The world created is very detailed and interesting too. It is a bit disturbing though that, by far, my favorite characters are the Dragon of the East and Page. These are both AI's and seem to have more believable personalities and relationships than the human characters in the book.

This book is not as complete as Fallen Host and many things are left hanging. I will definitely read Apocalypse Array (the 4th book). I am not sure I will read the prequel though: I just don't get much enjoyment from these books. Lyda Morehouse also writes under the name Tate Hallaway and I am interested to read some of those books to see how her writing style crosses between genre. ( )

A meteorite has slammed into Jerusalem, destroying the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque but nothing else. It is a first sign that the Apocalypse may be upon the world. Unbeknown to the general population, Sammael Morningstar has found the Antichrist in Emmaline McNaughton and the prophet Elijah has singled out the daughter of Deirdre McMannus and the Archangel Michael as the Messiah. Things are not looking good for the human race.

Michael is determined to stay on earth with his family, doing his best to ignore God's calls back to Heaven. Each refusal may or may not be bringing him a little closer to Falling as Morningstar did; the fact he is able to heal Morningstar's Antichrist is not a good sign. Page, changed by the events of Fallen Host is trying to understand who he is now, and avoid becoming a messiah to the Maizombies. Mouse, escaped from prison but without the LINK, is simply trying to live, while Rebeckah finds herself on the run from the Order of Inquisitors. These three all find themselves suspects in the cyber-hijacking of the LINK-space analogous to Temple Mount and caught up in the fate of the world, while Apocalyptic hysteria mounts around the globe.

This felt very much like a transitional book to me - we're moving from one phase of the story to another, but we're not ready for the real action to happen yet. There was also a certainly feeling that I was being run around in circles, possibly for not sensible reason. There was a reason, and it was a good one, but the feeling persisted.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, to the point of going to great pains not to check out the end (a terrible failing of mine). However, now I come to review it, I'm finding it difficult to find things to say. The interaction between Deirdre, Michael and Amariah was lovely - I can't wait to meet Amariah as a teenager in the next book - and Michael's desperate fight to be there for his family and yet do the right thing was quite heartbreaking at times.

This is a solid novel in an excellent series. I think it is probably the weakest so far, but far from being weak. As I said initially, this is a transitional book; it's setting us up for the conclusion of the story, but little or nothing is resolved by the end. That's still be come and hopefully there will be angels and flaming swords. ( )