The Angel Caste series - Book 4 - Angel Bound
The Story
Viv’s chances of finding her mother were never very good but being disfigured makes them non existent. She joins other outcasts in a far flung settlement but yearns to know the child she loves is safe.
When she is unexpectedly offered the chance to see the child again, she jumps at the opportunity, but the enemy leader still hunts her and the journey to the child’s home is perilous.
Her escort offers her trust but haunted by childhood images of witch-burnings, Viv dare not reveal what she really is and once she reaches the child’s settlement, hatred and suspicion of her grows.
Viv loves being with the child but is torn between her desire for Thris and her need to resume the hunt for her mother.
Thris’s search for Viv brings him to the same fold, but his time there ends so catastrophically that he longs for death.
In Ezam, Ky uses his new-found skills to search through countless scrolls in a desperate attempt to save Ash from the first blue angel’s fate but Ash fears he is already doomed.
He bears the full white plumage of transcendence but remains a Dane.
The Idea
Angel Bound raises questions about how folds are connected within the Rynth. The Angellus (angels) appeared in The Wheel and then departed, leaving behind their mixed blood descendants, some of whom are keen to follow their Angellus forbears out. The arrival of Viv - who is clearly part Angellus - suggest the 'door' the Angellus used is still open but Viv is uncooperative. She knows the terrible consequences of transference and, apart from the dangers of transiting, she has no idea where rifts lead.
The Angellus's creation of those like Viv, also raises questions about how angelic and human elements are expressed in such individuals, something Viv continues to struggle with. She also struggle is to balance her conflicting needs. She dreads leaving the child, who offers her unconditional love, but yearns for her mother, for Thris, and for a home.
Ky's decision to become a seeker of knowledge means he must confront his mentor and the Principae and this new-found strength advances his quest for ascendance.
The Secondary World
Angel Bound takes place in Ezam and The Wheel. The Green Helixai, which was formerly of glassy green stone, transforms into a mountain of lush growth and rotting timber, and then into a throbbing, blood-filled womb, from which Ash is expelled, symbolically reborn.
The Music
London Grammar - Strong
There are a number of tracks on London Grammar's If you wait CD which are a great emotional match for the Angel Caste series.
Deep Fantasy
Viv's quest for her mother mirrors the quest of those of mixed angel-human parentage to reunite with the Angellus, as well as the quest of Ezam's angels to ascend/transcend back to the Great Beyond. Hero quests are not really about the end point but about the difficulties along the way that change the hero for the better. In Viv's search for her mother, Viv comes across a child who she refuses to abandon. The child gifts Viv the unconditional love and the possibility of a home that Viv craves. But Viv must first forgive herself, learn to trust, and become open to romantic love. This is really her quest. She already knows that sex is not love; that real love is not abusive; and that Thris’s angelic love cannot fulfil her human needs.
Kald and Dejon remain poised on the edge of transcendence because they fail to change sufficiently to enter their desired new states. Both are driven by competitiveness and abuse the trust of more junior angels who they are obliged to guide and nurture.
The hero journeys of Thris, Ky, and Ash are more explicit, but also more complex, partly because the three angels are inextricably linked. Thris's attack on Viv and compensatory defence of her against the beastman destroy his old state, but are insufficient to deliver him to his desired new state. More is required. Likewise, Ky's previous state is destroyed by fear and he finds a new direction but it is only after he deliberately breaks with his mentor, and confronts the Principae, that white feathers appear in his wings. Most of Thris’s quest occurs outside Ezam, while Ky’s later quest occurs in Ezam. Ash’s quest occurs in Ezam too, but mostly at an unconscious level.
The Helixai work like enormous steles - the crystal shards in Ezam that use resonance to test angels. Ash's music (resonance) connects him to the universal resonance focused in the Helixai. His quest requires him to be tested in different ways by all four Helixai that, together, bring him to the edge of transcendence. However, as part of a trinity, Ash's final transcendence is intimately connected to those of Thris and Ash'.
Happy reading.