Angel Mage by Garth Nix – ARC Review

Thank you Gollancz for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis from Goodreads:

More than a century has passed since Liliath crept into the empty sarcophagus of Saint Marguerite, fleeing the Fall of Ystara. But she emerges from her magical sleep still beautiful, looking no more than nineteen, and once again renews her single-minded quest to be united with her lover, Palleniel, the archangel of Ystara.

A seemingly impossible quest, but Liliath is one of the greatest practitioners of angelic magic to have ever lived, summoning angels and forcing them to do her bidding.

Liliath knew that most of the inhabitants of Ystara died from the Ash Blood plague or were transformed into beastlings, and she herself led the survivors who fled into neighboring Sarance. Now she learns that angels shun the Ystaran’s descendants. If they are touched by angelic magic, their blood will turn to ash. They are known as Refusers, and can only live the most lowly lives.

But Liliath cares nothing for the descendants of her people, save how they can serve her. It is four young Sarancians who hold her interest: Simeon, a studious doctor-in-training; Henri, a dedicated fortune hunter; Agnez, an adventurous musketeer cadet; and Dorotea, an icon-maker and scholar of angelic magic. They are the key to her quest.

The four feel a strange kinship from the moment they meet, but do not know why, or suspect their importance. All become pawns in Liliath’s grand scheme to fulfill her destiny and be united with the love of her life. No matter the cost to everyone else. . .

I have been told by many people to read Garth Nix books and I’m glad I finally did as I really enjoyed it. This story is inspired by The Three Musketeers, except there is four in this book and there are angels and angel mages! I know this book is a standalone, but I really hope we get more in this world especially as the ending was left pretty open and I need answers!

The story begins with Lilliath and we see how powerful she is and how she uses her beauty to her advantage, often to hide just how powerful she is. She is volatile yet has learnt to get people to trust her. She is unapologetic in her ambition and ruthless in her quest to achieve her goals. She is cunning and manipulative and is able to manipulate even the most powerful people into achieving her goals.

And not only do we have a powerful villain who’s a woman but also women in power in all areas in this world! I really loved that women are positions of power in the book and it wasn’t an issue, men didn’t make sexist comments or try to take their power. It was just really nice to see that as the norm in the book. The characters are all diverse and it was really great to see that as a norm too. There wasn’t any racism or discrimination because of someone’s skin colour and it was just so refreshing to read.

I really loved the four main characters, they were different from each other and had distinct personalities. I really loved their friendship and sibling relationship. It was really great to see them all bickering and the banter like siblings would do.

This book has really great world building and while it was a little slow at the beginning there was still lots happening throughout the book but the ending was definitely more action packed. There is so much mystery about Liliath’s plan and what happened in Ystara all those years ago to cause the Ash Plague. We don’t find out until the very end where all the information we are slowly told throughout the book when all it all comes together. It kept me on the edge of my seat as I needed to know why everything was happening.

I’m really glad I was able to read this book and I will definitely be picking up more of Garth Nix’s books!

Friday Favourites – Favourite Villains

This is hosted by Something of the Book who created this tag out of a love for lists. There are different topics for us all to be able to take part and you can find the prompts here. There isn’t a specific number of favourites so it’s entirely up to you how many you share. You can share your most or least favourites too!

As I did a post on my favourite villains not too long ago, I thought I would share my favourite Disney villains instead!

So here are the Disney villains I love or love to hate!

1 Hades from Hercules – I actually love Hades, I mean I know he’s trying to take over Olympus but he’s so sarcastic while doing it that you just can’t help but root for him just a little.

2Maleficient from Sleeping Beauty – The only good thing about this film was Maleficent.

3 Scar from The Lion King – Another absolutely awful villain who was sarcastic enough for me to actually enjoy his presence

4 Gaston from Beauty and the Beast – The Disney version of white male privilege and damn I could not stand him.

5 Jafar from Aladdin – I really hated him and how he view Jasmine as a thing to be owned

6 Mother Gothel from Tangled – I have never hated a Disney villain more than her. She manipulated, isolated and controlled Rapunzal and gaslit her when she tried to fight for her dream. Urgh! I really hate her!

So these are the villains I love to hate! Let me know who your favourites are!

Fictional Characters that are Scary as Hell

Everyone on bookstagram is talking about spooky/horror reads as it’s October but being a mood reader and not one for horror books I don’t really know many books that could come under these categories.

So I thought I would share some characters that would be scary as hell if I ever met them.

1 The Commandant from An Ember in the Ashes – Look that woman is so damn scary, even more so than the Nightbringer. She is the worst mum ever and I really hope Elias is the one to end her. However if I ever had to meet her, well I don’t know how I would cope. Just reading about how she dealt with Laia was scary enough.

2 Amarantha from ACOTAR – She is sadistic and there is no way anyone could convince me to go anywhere near her. I mean look at how she managed to control all those High Lord’s with their abilities.

3 Queen Levana from The Lunar Chronicles – She can literally control my mind so I’m just going to stay on earth far away from her.

4 Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows – The fact that he is 17 makes him even more scarier. It would easy to underestimate him but that would be a big mistake. I mean look at what he did to the guy who hurt Inej…He tore out his eye ball! Yup I’m going to stay far away from him.

5 Maeve from Throne of Glass – Another character who I would not want to get on her bad side. I will stay far away from her thank you very much.

Also honourable mention goes to the Darkling because while he is a mass murderer who literally tried to enslave Alina, I would still melt in a puddle if he so much as said one line to me.

What characters would you never want to meet?

Books I Want From The Villains Point Of View

I used to always root for the heroes when I read books but these YA books that I’ve been reading lately have me wanting to know more about the villains or straight up just rooting for them!

So I thought I would write about it on here as I would love to know all of your views!

Villains are being written in more complex and intriguing ways that makes me so interested in learning about them. And we’ve been getting some really great origin stories for fairy tale villains too! So it’s made me want to see how these villains and how they became who we see in the books!

So here are some villains I would love a point of view from:

The Darkling from the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

It’s no secret that I am completely and entirely in love with the Darkling. I mean you know aside from him being a mass murderer. Anyways I just want more Darkling okay?! I want to know his story from when he was a little boy to all those years he lived growing more and powerful and how he became the man that we met in Shadow and Bone. He deserves his own book!

Sebastian Morganstern from TMI by Cassandra Clare

Look he had no chance in life. His dad completely screwed him over and from before he was even born. Yet he was still a really interesting villain and I want to know what it was like for him growing up isolated and alone.

Luke Castellen from Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

I mean yes, he did make some really bad decisions which led to people dying but I still couldn’t help but feel for him. He has such a tragic story and in the end he ended up saving everyone. So I would love to read more about his life before he met Percy and how he ended up the boy we meet. I would also love to see the series from his point of view.

Bellatrix LeStrange from Harry Potter by JK Rowling

She is terrifying but I still love her! She is such an interesting character and I think it would be so interesting to see things from her point of view. Especially as we would be able to see a lot more of the death eaters and how they functioned.

The Jackal from Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Another villain who was so interesting to read about. Especially as he was the twin of one of the heroines. How did they become so different? I just want to know more about him. It would especially be interesting to read red rising from his point of view.

The Commandant from An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

She is absolutely terrifying and I still cannot get over how much she hated her own son. But I do want to know more about her. I want to know who Elias’s father is, I want to know how she became so terrifying and I would love to see more about her and Laia’s mother.

So here are the villains I would love to see a point of view from or even their own book!

What villains would you love to see a point of view from?

Friday Favourites – Fictional Criminals

I recently came across this weekly tag that looked like a lot of fun and thought I would try to take part!

This is hosted by Something of the Book who created this tag out of a love for lists. There are different topics for us all to be able to take part and you can find the prompts here.

There isn’t a specific number of favourites so it’s entirely up to you how many you share. You can share your most or least favourites too!

This weeks topic is fictional criminals and when I saw it I knew I had to take part because they are often some of my favourite characters!

1 Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows– I absolutely adore Kaz and the rest of the Dregs and I really hope we get to see more of them!

2 Artemis Fowl from the Artemis Fowl series – Probably the first criminal protagonist I read about and one that reminds me of a younger Kaz! This is the book that got me into morally grey characters!

3 Carswell Thorne from The Lunar Chronicles – He is sassy and sarcastic and charming. Which is probably why he was such a great con man but his character development is one of my fave!

4 Nik Malikov from the Illuminae Files – he deserves so much more love! Plus I love his banter with Ezra!

5 Nahri from The City of Brass – my favourite con woman! I mean the first line we read from her point of view is, “he was an easy mark”

6 Esta from The Last Magician – not only is she a thief but she’s a magician who can time travel so she is actually a time travelling thief!

7 Victor Vale from Vicious – I adored him in Vicious and how he will go to any length to achieve his goals, his rivalry with Eli kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the book!

So these are my favourite criminals and some of my all time fave characters!
Who are your favourite criminal charaters?