Angelkiller by H. David Blalock

I was very intrigued by the idea behind Angelkiller when it was sent to me for review. There were two reasons for why I was so interested. In the world that Blalock created the war between Light and Dark ended with the Dark winning. I found this to be an interesting way to start the book because it meant the the world was living in a darker set of circumstances and it made the Light side basically a bunch of rebels. The second reason I was interested was because The Army (the rebels in this book fighting against the Dark) has taken this fight into a virtual reality type setting. This was interesting to me because I have seen a lot of books recently incorporating this into their plots. Cyberspace is a world where there are almost no limits, so I thought this was an interesting way to incorporate the fight into a new and fresh realm. 

Jonah Mason, the main character is the Angelkiller, where the main title comes from. Everything is kind of opposite in this book, you would think an Angelkiller would be a bad guy killing the good, but it's opposite. The Enemy is made up of Angels and they are on the dark side not the light. Jonah has been in around for a very long time, centuries, and as a fighter it shows his ability to adapt to the situations at hand. I was curious to see how virtual reality was going to play a role within this book, and as it turned out it came in the form of online gaming. 

I have a very small experience with gaming online (my husband is really the expert), so I have to admit there were times when I did have to ask my husband to clarify something for me. But even without a complete working knowledge of the technical speak I was still able to understand how the plot was moving alone as well as the benefits to conducting their work through this format, anonymity helps protect you. 

I did have a couple things I had problems with in the book though. The book did jump around, which is fine with me, except I did find myself being confused sometimes. Although normally a quick re-read of the past page or so helped to clarify that my confusion. And my other issue was my connection with the characters. I am a reader who likes to really identify with the characters in a story, to really feel their emotions and pull for them. I found myself throughout this book still pulling for the main character but wishing I had a stronger connection to him. But both of these things are minor issues. 

Overall I have to say the writing is good. The concept is fresh, creative, and well executed. I could easily see this book working for a lot of different readers, in fact I could see my husband reading this book and enjoying it, and he is one picky reader! People who have a background in computers or gaming might enjoy this book more than someone without that background, but I could see either enjoying it. This is a solid book, and I truly appreciate the freshness of the idea behind it.