Between Heaven and Hell

If you’re not writing or reading about dragons, then the next best thing is angels.

Or some say vampires, zombies and assorted ghouls. Paranormal romance seems to be the hot in thing.

Last week I was talking about Urban Fantasy and mentioned Jim Butcher’s series. I thought I was done with the genre, but as I was casting about for what to read this week, I stumbled across an old favorite who has given a new twist to his stories and falls into the Urban Fantasy genre and whalaa

Has an angel as his main character.

Meet Doloriel, advocate angel of the Third House, otherwise known as Bobby Dollar, and author Tad Williams of the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series that was a favorite of mine back in the day. Tad Williams made a name for himself in the fantasy genre with this riveting and satisfying  chunk of fantasy. I recommend The Dragonbone Chair, The Stone of Farewell and parts 1 & 2 of The Green Angel Tower novels. These are not skinny little handbooks, but large tomes full of action and interesting characters.

Now he has come out with a totally different style and story in the form of The Dirty Streets of Heaven. The story is told in the first person, as if you and Bobby Dollar, advocate angel, are in an intimate conversation while all hell breaks loose around you…literally.

The story has a very Jim Butcher taste to it and if you like his Harry Desden series, you’ll like this too.

Angel Bobby Dollar has a past as an avenging angel, which turns out to be a fierce and dangerous job. So he knows survival techniques, but has opted for a quieter vocation as angel advocate in a San Francisco area town called St. Jude. When anyone dies, Bobby goes to bat for their good side, trying to get him/her to heaven against someone from the lower region who reviews his/her life in hopes of gaining a new resident in Hell. Earth is a battle ground between heaven and hell.

Life is supposed to be quieter and healthier as an advocate, but  when a valuable article is stolen from a Lord of Darkness, fingers point to Doloriel as the culprit. Soon Bobby has a monstrous beast that is an undead avenger after him, a high level seductress and she-demon called the Countess of Cold Hands who tempts him, and a new suspect angel Haraheliel whom they call Clarence in homage to “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

Events go from bad to worse as Angel Bobby goes on the lam to figure out what’s been stolen and what’s really going on. Then souls go missing at judgement day. Both Heaven and Hell are in an uproar and Bobby is right in the middle of it all.

Wild times guaranteed.

Now for those of you that ask, “What happened to the scifi gal with cutting edge science facts?”

Here’s a tidbit that titillated me. http://inhabitat.com/transgenic-spider-goat-hybrids-produce-tougher-than-steel-silk/

David Pogue hosts several shows on the television series of Nova that are very well done. In “Making things stronger,” he mentions transgenic goats whose milk contains the gene components of spider silk. Two genes from the silk spider are inserted into a goat’s embryo. Their milk can be processed so that it produces spider silk. Spider silk, it turns out, is stronger than steel or kevlar, and is one of the strongest substances in nature.

Think of the possibilities!

There’s still a ways to go with it, but we are breaking new ground in genetics every day…see my blog “Slice and Dice” back in November 2, 2011.

Now if they could only make up a “Marilyn Monroe Cocktail” for me. With my luck, I’d turn dumb and suicidal.