Ronda Tutt's Reviews > Angelology

** spoiler alert ** It is hard to rate this story because there were parts that were very interesting and exciting, yet there were parts that were very slow where I fell a sleep.

I loved the story line but I didn't like how it ended to much, I was looking for a happy ending with some romance involved. This book totally left you hanging in the end so that you will find out the rest of the story in the second book.

there are so many things that happen in the story but I liked all the characters especially the main ones:

Percival Grigoris III - Nephilim/Angel - whos wings were once gold but now black with disease. He contacted a degenerative disorder that had been spreading through their community. Doctors predicted his wings would die spreading the disease to his muscles and he would eventually die.

Sneja Grigori - Percivals mother - her wings were the pride of the family - multicolored wings that stretched over 36 ft - they were a symbol of their blood, their breeding, the predominance of their position in the community.

Evangeline - Nun - Gabriella's and Percival's granddaughter - Evangeline doesn't find out that she is 1/2 Nephilim until the end of the book.

Gabriella - Angelologist - double spy - Percival's lover

Verlaine - Dr in Art History - worked for Percival until he found out what he was - fancied Evangeline and realizes he was in love with her at the end.

The things that intrigued me were how these angelologist explained how these angels existed:

"We begin in the years before the Great Flood, when heaven dispatched a fleet of two hundred angels called the Watchers to monitor the activities of creation. The Chief Watcher, according to these accounts, was named Semjaza. Samjaza was beautiful and commanding, the very image of angelic bearing."

"The angels moved among the children of Adam and Even unseen, living quietly in the shadows, hiding in mountains, taking shelter where humanity would not find them. They traveled from region to region, following the movements of men."

One afternoon, in the era of Jared, when the Watchers were stationed on Mount Hermon, Semjaza saw a woman bathing in a lake, her brown hair twisting about her. He called the Watchers to the edge of the mountain and together the majestic beings looked upon the woman. According to numerous doctrinal sources, it was then that Semjaza suggested the Watchers choose wives from among the children of men."

"The women took these strange creatures as their husbands and soon became pregnant. After some time children were born to the Watchers and their wives. These creatures were called Nephilim."

These Nephilim were very beautiful, tall, and gifted. The Watchers taught their children many things that were kept hidden from humanity such as secrets of fire - how to kindle and keep it, how to harness it for cooking and energy; metallurgy, the art of working precious metals into bracelets, rings, and necklaces; how to make objects out of gold and gemstones, how to use dyes for cloth, how to color their eyelids with glittering minerals ground into powder, how to melt metal and fashon swords, knives, shields, breastplates, and arrowheads; how to fight, hunt, and store meat.

They even taught their daughters how to cast spells and how to use herbs and roots in medicines; taught them the secrets of the magical arts, teaching them a system of symbols to record their spells. they taught them astrology, how tor ead portents in the constellations, knowledge of the clouds, map the course of the sun and the moon, and taught them counter spells.

They soon had developed their own tribe and became more powerful over humanity and taking domains of land and claiming their own kingdoms and then they took men/women human on as slaves.

"As the Nephilim ruled over earth and men perished, mankind cried to heaven for help. Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel, the archangels who had observed the Watchers from their first descent to the world, also montored the progress of the Nephilim."

"When commanded, the archangels confronted the Watchers, surrounding them in a ring of fire. They disarmed their brothers. Once defeated, teh Watchers were shackled and transported to a remote, unpopulated cavern high in the mountains. At the lip of the abyss, their chains heavy upon them, the Watchers were ordered to descend. Throught a crevice in the earth's crust they fell, plummeting deeper and deeper until they came to rest in a prisness of darkness. From the depths they grieved for air and light and their lost freedom. Separated from heaven and earth, awaiting the day of their release, they prayed for heaven's forgiveness. They called out for their children to save them. God ignored their pleas. The Nephilim did not come."

"The angel, Gabriel, messenger of good news, could not abide the Watchers' anguish. In a moment of pity, he threw his lyre to his fallen brothers so that they might diminish their suffering with music. Even as the lyre fell, Gabriel realized his mistake: The lyre's music was seductive and powerful. The lyre could be used to the Watchers' benefit."

The story just totally amazes me how the children of the Watchers were so selfish. Knowing that god was about to flood the earth and kill all the evil within, the Nephilim searched a way to save their race.

If you read Genesis 6 in the KJV bible, it tells the story of why god was going to flood the earth.

Genesis Chapter 6:
"1. And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2. That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
3. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
4. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, me of renown.
5. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face fo the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."

Well we all know that Noah found grace in gods eyes and this part of the story really trips me up and I have to give the writer thumbs up for this part of the story.

"High in the mountains, under a ledge that sheltered them from the rain, the Nephilim stood together, begging guidance from the daughters of Semjaza and the sons of Azazel, whom they considered to be their leaders after the Watchers had been taken below the earth."

"For some days Azazel's son and Semjaza's daughter watched the comings and goings of Noah's sons. They were called Shem, Ham, and Japheth, each very different from the others. Shem, the eldest, was dark-haired and green-eyed, with elegant hands and a brilliant way of speaking; ham was darker than Shem, with large brown eyes, great strength, and good sense; japheth had fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes, the most frail and thin of the three. While Shem and Ham did not tire as they helped their father load animals, satchels of food, and jars of water, Japheth worked slowly. Shem and Ham and Japheth had been long married, adn between them Noah had many grandchildren."

"Semjaza's daughter saw that Japheth's appearance was close to their own and decided that this was the brother her companion should take. The Nephilim waited for many days, watching, until Noah had loaded the final animals onto the Ark. The son of Azazel stole to the great boat. Its massive shadow fell upon him, blanketing him in shadow as he called for Japheth.

Noah's youngest leaned over the edge of the Ark, his blond curls falling into his eyes. Azazel's son summonded Japheth to accompany him away from the seashore, along a footpath that led deep into a forest. The archangels, who stood guard at the boats prow and hull, inspecting every object that entered and exited the Ark so that it fit God's dictate, paid no attention to Japheth as he left the ship and trailed the luminous stranger into the woods.

As japheth followed Azazel's son deeper and deeper into the forest, the man began to fall, pounding the canopy of leaves above his head and echoing loud as thunder. japheth was out of breath when he caught up to the majestic stranger. hardly able to speak, he asked, 'What do you want of me?'

Azazel's son did not reply but wrapped his fingers around the neck of Noah's son and squeezed until he felt the brittle bones of the throat colapse. In that moment, even before the Flood wiped out the wicked creatures of the earth, God's plan of a purified world faltered. The future of teh Nephilim race solidified, and the new world came into being.

Semjaza's daughter stepped from the forest and placed her hands over the face of Azazel's son. She had memorized the spells her father had taught her. As she touched Azazel's son, his appearance changed"

So now we know that a Nephilim was on the Ark and of course mated with his wife and so now they continue to exist. Japheths children eventually grew up and mated with children from his brothers tribe so now their is a mixture of angel blood in all the populations.