Flaming Dove [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Armageddon. We know this to be the day when good vanquishes evil, light triumphs over dark, and God wins out over Satan. Or does He? In Daniel Arenson's "Flaming Dove," the battle between Heaven and Hell has yielded no clear winners, and, 27 years later, we find both sides exhausted and unsure of the next step. Unsure, that is, until the day Laila, the half demon/half angel child of Armageddon's most powerful forces, returns to Jerusalem, and each side begins to formulate a plan.

Set against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic Earth, where demons and angels have settled into an uneasy co-existence, and humans are all but extinct, Laila struggles to find her place. Heaven's godlight burns her, Hell's hellfires scorch her. She is of two worlds, but can belong to neither. Incredibly strong physically, emotionally vulnerable, and full of rage against both worlds, Laila unwillingly finds herself the key player in the continuing battle between good and evil.

Although filled with exciting battle scenes, and a cast of characters known to us all (Nathaniel, Lucifer, Beezlebub, Michael, to name a few), this is truly Laila's story. As Laila struggles to find her place, angels and demons alike try to use her for their own end. Each side believes Laila to be the key to victory. It is soon apparent that the entire outcome of Armageddon depends upon this one soul, and such an unwilling soul at that.

This book is a delightful read, with fluid writing and a nice pacing of action interspersed with tender moments. It was easy to get into this story, and hard to put it down. I love the way nothing is really cut and dry throughout this story; the Ruler of Hell is not without merits, and the archangels not without sin. The author really forces you to take a step back and question where the line between good and evil actually falls, if there is even such a line. The story seems predictable, but I was surprised many times with the events leading up to the climax of the story. Even when I thought I had finished the story, there was one last surprise waiting for me at the end, a surprise that really drove home a main theme of the story. Best of all, the ending did what all the best endings do; it left me with something to ponder.

I was fortunate enough to be one of the beta readers for Flaming Dove, and I can sincerely say that I absolutely loved this novel by Arenson. One of the main things I loved about it is how he dealt with our very notions of good and evil. In many books, you immediately understand who the protagonists and antagonists are. However, Arenson has created characters that have more depth than your usual hero, or your typical bad guy. Don't we all have concepts of angels vs demons? In Flaming Dove, an angel is not what you think an angel is, nor are the devils in this book. Now add a half-demon and half angel, and what do you get? A truly unique concept and very different characters.

My only critique is that Arenson perhaps describes the main character's sexy cape a few times, but hey, who can blame him? Laila is pretty hot. ;)

Fantasy these days seem to revolve around the same concepts (maybe we're all a little vampire crazy). Arenson has merged the pious with the evil, the corrupt with pure, and added the element that makes you relate to his characters: humanity. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

** spoiler alert **
I hate it when I don't like a book, but aside from the cover, which is awesome, I'm having a hard time coming up with something I liked about this one. And I'm not saying that to be mean - judging by other reviews of this book, plenty of people like it, so I'm going to chalk this one up to not being my cup of tea, especially since I enjoyed Arenson's Eye of the Wizard.

The first minor annoyance I had with this book is that Arenson repeated himself again and again and again. Phrases, words, and ideas. Again and again. And again. Just as an example, he used the phrase "swan wings" to describe angel wings 35 times and the phrase "bat wings" to describe fallen angel wings 37 times in 131 pages. That's once approximately every 3-4 pages. I think the readers would have been just fine if the angel wings had been described as swan wings and the fallen angel wings described as bat wings just one time each. Every other time, he could have just referred to their wings and we as readers would have still been able to picture to appropriate swan or bat wings. Readers are not stupid. Other reviews commented on this as well, so I know I'm not alone in being bothered by this.

My big problem with the book though was Beelzebub and his relationships with both Laila and Bat El. I think those relationships were meant to show that Beelzebub isn't all evil and that he's capable of love, but EW, NO!! As written, there is no way that I can believe what Beelzebub and Laila or Beelzebub and Bat El shared was love...on either side of the relationship.

This is how Arenson described Beelzebub's "love" for Laila:
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She knew Beelzebub. He had wanted her love, her kisses, her innocence, her dependence on him. He would have hidden this if he'd thought it could give her strength, give her a reason to leave his comforting embraces, his power.
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How he described Laila's "love" for Beelzebub:
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She had been seventeen, scared, innocent; he was millennia old, endlessly wise and strong, whispering in her ears promises he could never keep. Yes, she had fallen for him then, thought that he could save her from the turmoil within her.
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Also:
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He had taught her to cook her meat, and she had fallen in love with him, because he tamed her.
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Beelzebub's lust for Bat El:
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There's just something irresistible about taking this innocent, virginal angel and showing her all the pleasures of Hell.
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Bat El's "love" for Beelzebub:
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"I chose this," she whispered, tasting the saltiness of her tears mixed with ash. "I chose to stay here, I chose captivity."

She could have let Michael kill Beelzebub. She could have escaped then, returned to Heaven's camp, yet she had sided with Hell. No. Not with Hell. I sided with Beelzebub. Because I love him. Even here, chained underground, the thought of Beelzebub sent shivers of love through her, made her heart leap with light.
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In the end Beelzebub shows his love for Bat El by letting her go, so I can believe maybe he eventually sort of kind of loved her, or at least as close as he can get, but he was essentially a creepy old man who gave off statutory rape vibes by preying on innocent young girls who were WAY YOUNGER than him and for which there was a major power imbalance in his favor. The one woman in his life that was on equal footing with him in terms of age and power, Zarel, he said he loved but never showed it at all and constantly cheated on her with women that when compared to him were children. It all just felt...icky and wrong to me.

Don't even get me started on Bat El's Stockholm Syndrome or Laila supposedly liking being "tamed" by Beelzebub. So. Not. Love.

The only real love I saw in this book was the sisterly love between Laila and Bat El.

Maybe I was blinded by this book hitting one of my major squicks, and I don't mean to cut down on Arenson at all. This book just was not for me. I can see what Arenson was trying to do (I think) with this story, and I don't think he intended Beelzebub to be a creepy old man, but it just didn't work for me. I'm also perfectly willing to admit some of my impressions of this book may have been me projecting my own thoughts onto it, but that's what reading is all about - how what is written and what the reader brings to the table combine in the reading experience.