I’ve been a John Marco fan for years, ever since reading his first novel The Jackal of Nar. I have gotten to know John a little bit, and served as a moderator for a discussion forum he participated in over at ibdof.com.

The Sword of Angels, his sixth novel, concludes the story of Lukien the Bronze Knight. At almost 1000 pages it is his longest book to date. Some really long books really need to be long in order for the plot and character development to reach their necessary endpoints. I thought that The Sword of Angels would have been much improved by some aggressive editing. For a start, I would have cut the entire Salina/Aztar storyline.

The characters in the Lukien series are not particularly realistic. They tend to be simple, lacking nuance, depth or dimension. Often they obsess about a particular issue or obsessively display a particular character trait, like something from a morality play. They frequently act irrationally, bringing upon themselves unnecessary difficulties (this part, at least, may not be so unrealistic). Some readers will find these characters frustrating. In the earlier books I was interested enough in what Marco did with these characters that I was willing to take them for what they are. In this book the only character I found much empathy for was Lahkali, whose story was completed about two thirds the way through the book.

I thought that both the Mirage and Jazana stories both had far too much invested in them to be given such abrupt and unsatisfying conclusions. Mirage’s tale in particular should have been more effective (with opportunities for irony on multiple levels). The resolution of the Lorn storyline should have been the emotional climax of the book, but I found I just didn’t care.

And while previous Marco novels have given us compelling, exciting, horrific battle scenes, the three big battles here all felt routine.

I remember liking The Devil’s Armor more than I expected to. I am sorry to say that I think that The Sword of Angels is John’s weakest book to date. ( )