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Archangel (1996)

por Sharon Shinn

Outros autores: Ver a secção outros autores.

Séries: Samaria Publication Order (1), Samaria Chronological Order (2)

MembrosCríticasPopularidadeAvaliação médiaMenções
1,855599,022 (4.03)77
Fantasy. Fiction. Romance. HTML:From national bestselling author Sharon Shinn comes a stunningly beautiful novel of a distant futureâ??where the fate of the world rests on the voice of an angel...

Through science, faith, and force of will, the Harmonics carved out for themselves a society that they conceived as perfect. Diverse peoples held together by respect for each other. Angels to guard the mortals and mystics to guard the forbidden knowldge. Jehovah to watch over them all...

Generations later, the armed starship Jehovah still looms over the planet of Samaria, programmed to unleash its arsenal if peace is not sustained. But with the coming of an age of corruption, Samaria's only hope lies in the crowning of a new Archangel. The oracles have chosen Gabriel for this honor, and further decreed that he must first wed a mortal woman named Rachel.

It is his destiny and hers. And Gabriel is certain that she will greet the news of her betrothal with enthusiasm, and a devotion to duty equal to his own.

Rachel, however, has other ideas...


Winner of the William Crawford Award for Achievement in Fantasy
Nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer … (mais)
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» Ver também 77 menções

Mostrando 1-5 de 55 (seguinte | mostrar todos)
Fascinating world! I especially enjoyed all of the passages about music and how the voices singing with one another created such heavenly sounds. ( )
  s_carr | Feb 25, 2024 |
Archangel offers interesting potential for sci-fi exploring morality and faith with a highly interventionist, mechanical god. It never materializes, though. Instead, the book is split between a mediocre romance novel plot full of tropes I happen to hate and unsuccessful attempts at writing political intrigue.

Considering the abundance of tropes that I totally detest, I should probably be praising Archangel, because it was interesting enough that I did actually finish it. These tropes include arranged marriages between arrogant dudes and the feisty women who are destined to take them down a peg, quasi-Christian mythology, empirically-testable True Love, and a love interest dude who is almost literally Darcy with huge pure-white wings. (The angels are described as having different coloring at the beginning, but I think Shinn forgot, because by the end everyone seems to have pure-white wings.)

I think there's supposed to be politics happening. There's a spark of potential when Rafael talks about identifying with Lucifer, but mostly what passes for politics is about as subtle and fruitful as the following:

Gabriel: Hey, I'm about to become ruler of the continent, and I think we should talk about economic policy.
Burgher: Cool, here are my thoughts on trade and taxes.
Gabriel: BTW, I'm interested in ending slavery. How can I go about this to get the support of you and the other merchants?
Burgher: Um, you'd fuck up trade, and I'm not really into it.
Gabriel: *FLIPS THE TABLE* FUCK YOU AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON, MY GOD WILL SMITE YOUR ASS.

The inevitable ending to a series of similar confrontations is:

Everyone: Hm, do you think God will smite asses? Suspense!!
God: *SMITES ALL THE ASSES*
Everyone who isn't dead: I think I should probably be sad about this?


I actually have a lot of sympathy for Rachel, despite her being the White Savior who's sort-of-a-member-of-the-oppressed-POC-group.

However DarcyGabriel is a controlling asshole, and his total inability to do politics reflects that.

One thing I really wish Shinn had covered: What are the effects of and issues with the arm-crystal system? If you're going to write quasi-Christian sci-fi, don't you at some point have to deal with why or why not this is like the Mark of the Beast and/or Baptism? The potential here is huge---there's a whole group of people without arm-crystals for political/faith reasons, and they are maybe discriminated against on this basis?---but the only plot purpose the arm-crystals end up serving is to sparkle when people's True Love's are in the room. (BARF.) At least my fears that the sparkly Twu Wuv arm-crystals would gain other, even stupider powers were unfounded.

(15 April 2014) A woman next to me on the plane today was reading a trashy urban fantasy novel and I suddenly wanted to do the same, so I picked up Archangel which a friend lent to us last month.

Do you even know how many fucking books there are titled Archangel? A Lot.

(9 May 2014) I finished this a few weeks ago, and my thoughts on it haven't changed, other than that it was kind of disappointing. Updated my review to append fact to speculation. ( )
  caedocyon | Feb 23, 2024 |
A rec from a friend as One of Her Favorite Books With Music In It Ever
(as a swap upon/birthday sort of thing for gifting her/making her read Gayle Foreman's If I Stay and Where She Went)


I did not expect to love this book so much. (Which we've both said.) I was giggling in high heaven at Gabriel within the first two chapters and sending text updates about my reading the whole way, which I'm sure amused her. The music is covered gorgeously, but this book about a certain set of people, the world around them, it's fragile or unbreakable faith, and the groups of people which make up that land, and it managed to balance and weaves these all together in unexpected ways I deeply appreciated.

Gabriel and Rachel of course steal the show in all the ways that matter, Two amazing hard-headed, stubborn, amazingly deeply feeling and quickly acting people, who actually have massive morals and deceptive choices based on invisible, unknown, histories. And how they weave into the very first tales of the Archangel and the Angelica. And how the ending is truly just perfect for these characters, and made my heart so happy. The ending alone deserves a five. ( )
  wanderlustlover | Dec 26, 2022 |
Gabriel, an angel, is in line to be the next archangel when he and his wife sing the Gloria at the upcoming annual celebration. The first problem is that, while Gabriel knows the name of his potential wife, he doesn't know where she is. He has only six weeks to find her before they have to sing together.

Rachel in a slave in Semorrah for five years. She was born a farm girl. When her farm was attacked, she was a small child whose body was sheltered by the dead body of her father. When the attackers finally left, Rachel ran until she was found by the Edori who adopted her and raised her. She found happiness and a young man to love. But then their encampment was attacked by Jansai raiders looking for slaves. Rachel was captured and sold and left wondering about the fate of the rest of her adopted family.

Gabriel is reluctant to give up his search for Rachel in order to attend a wedding in Semorrah but as the next archangel he needs to get along with the wealthy merchants. He is very surprised to find Rachel there. He takes her back to his mountain Eyrie to marry her and make sure that she's ready for their vocal performance.

Rachel isn't pleased with what she sees as Gabriel's high-handedness. She has been filled with rage at her situation for most of her life. She had just convinced a young woman to buy her as her servant and then free her when Gabriel swoops in and wrecks her life again. It doesn't help that Gabriel doesn't have time to spend with her to get to know her. He's busy trying to deal with the consequences of the current archangel's actions which have done nothing to keep that harmony that their god Jovah requires.

So, there is Rachel in the Eyrie where she is trapped since the only way to get to it is to be flown by an angel and she is deathly afraid of heights and suffers from vertigo while Gabriel is off meeting people. There is the jealous rival who has always wanted Gabriel and is doing her best to sabotage Rachel. And there are the music practice rooms where Rachel is introduced to recordings of the great angelic singers of the past. Rachel refuses to sing herself leaving major uncertainty about her ability to fulfill her role at the Gloria.

Then there is the villain of the piece in Archangel Raphael who has held his position for the previous twenty years and who doesn't want to yield power to Gabriel. But the more Gabriel looks into things, the more he sees what Raphael has neglected. Gabriel comes to believe that Raphael doesn't believe in Jovah and has convinced his supporters that Jovah is a myth. Raphael has encouraged greed and lawlessness and is ruining the harmony that Jovah requires.

This was a stunning story quite different than the book summary. It actually reads as a fantasy with some science fiction elements like screens to talk to Jovah used by the oracles and devices implanted in babies which let Jovah know about and keep track of the population. The current generations don't know about the history of their world or about the goals of the founders or the existence of a ship in space. There are winged angels and humans on the world. There is a god named Jovah who can be invoked by the singing prayers of the angels. Jovah can control the weather and sometimes sends down medicinal plants or necessary seeds. Jovah is their god.

I enjoyed this story which is the first of the Samaria series and look forward to rereading and listening to the rest. ( )
  kmartin802 | Feb 4, 2022 |
Gabriel, an angel, is in line to be the next archangel when he and his wife sing the Gloria at the upcoming annual celebration. The first problem is that, while Gabriel knows the name of his potential wife, he doesn't know where she is. He has only six weeks to find her before they have to sing together.

Rachel in a slave in Semorrah for five years. She was born a farm girl. When her farm was attacked, she was a small child whose body was sheltered by the dead body of her father. When the attackers finally left, Rachel ran until she was found by the Edori who adopted her and raised her. She found happiness and a young man to love. But then their encampment was attacked by Jansai raiders looking for slaves. Rachel was captured and sold and left wondering about the fate of the rest of her adopted family.

Gabriel is reluctant to give up his search for Rachel in order to attend a wedding in Semorrah but as the next archangel he needs to get along with the wealthy merchants. He is very surprised to find Rachel there. He takes her back to his mountain Eyrie to marry her and make sure that she's ready for their vocal performance.

Rachel isn't pleased with what she sees as Gabriel's high-handedness. She has been filled with rage at her situation for most of her life. She had just convinced a young woman to buy her as her servant and then free her when Gabriel swoops in and wrecks her life again. It doesn't help that Gabriel doesn't have time to spend with her to get to know her. He's busy trying to deal with the consequences of the current archangel's actions which have done nothing to keep that harmony that their god Jovah requires.

So, there is Rachel in the Eyrie where she is trapped since the only way to get to it is to be flown by an angel and she is deathly afraid of heights and suffers from vertigo while Gabriel is off meeting people. There is the jealous rival who has always wanted Gabriel and is doing her best to sabotage Rachel. And there are the music practice rooms where Rachel is introduced to recordings of the great angelic singers of the past. Rachel refuses to sing herself leaving major uncertainty about her ability to fulfill her role at the Gloria.

Then there is the villain of the piece in Archangel Raphael who has held his position for the previous twenty years and who doesn't want to yield power to Gabriel. But the more Gabriel looks into things, the more he sees what Raphael has neglected. Gabriel comes to believe that Raphael doesn't believe in Jovah and has convinced his supporters that Jovah is a myth. Raphael has encouraged greed and lawlessness and is ruining the harmony that Jovah requires.

This was a stunning story quite different than the book summary. It actually reads as a fantasy with some science fiction elements like screens to talk to Jovah used by the oracles and devices implanted in babies which let Jovah know about and keep track of the population. The current generations don't know about the history of their world or about the goals of the founders or the existence of a ship in space. There are winged angels and humans on the world. There is a god named Jovah who can be invoked by the singing prayers of the angels. Jovah can control the weather and sometimes sends down medicinal plants or necessary seeds. Jovah is their god.

I enjoyed this story which is the first of the Samaria series and look forward to rereading and listening to the rest. ( )
  kmartin802 | Feb 4, 2022 |
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Nome do autorPapelTipo de autorObra?Estado
Sharon Shinnautor principaltodas as ediçõescalculado
Palencar, John JudeArtista da capaautor secundárioalgumas ediçõesconfirmado
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For my aunt, Mary Krewson
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The angel Gabriel went to the oracle on Mount Sinai, looking for a wife.
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Fantasy. Fiction. Romance. HTML:From national bestselling author Sharon Shinn comes a stunningly beautiful novel of a distant futureâ??where the fate of the world rests on the voice of an angel...

Through science, faith, and force of will, the Harmonics carved out for themselves a society that they conceived as perfect. Diverse peoples held together by respect for each other. Angels to guard the mortals and mystics to guard the forbidden knowldge. Jehovah to watch over them all...

Generations later, the armed starship Jehovah still looms over the planet of Samaria, programmed to unleash its arsenal if peace is not sustained. But with the coming of an age of corruption, Samaria's only hope lies in the crowning of a new Archangel. The oracles have chosen Gabriel for this honor, and further decreed that he must first wed a mortal woman named Rachel.

It is his destiny and hers. And Gabriel is certain that she will greet the news of her betrothal with enthusiasm, and a devotion to duty equal to his own.

Rachel, however, has other ideas...


Winner of the William Crawford Award for Achievement in Fantasy
Nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer 

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