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An Occupation Of Angels by Lavie Tidhar
01/12/2006 . Source: Joules Taylor 
pub: Pendragon Press. 83 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 4.99 (UK), $12.00 (US). ISBN: 0-9538596-9-X. Buy An Occupation Of Angels in the USA - or Buy An Occupation Of Angels in the UK  check out website: www.pendragonpress.co.uk
From the introduction by Liz Williams: 'The conflict of faith and fiction is often an uneasy one, driving some of the most profound explorations within literature, and also some of the most banal... An Occupation Of Angels takes as its premise the notion that angels - specifically the archangels - have come to earth, a small, but immeasurably powerful occupying force.
So other are they that they might as well be alien as angelic, creatures from another dimension, with their own agenda and their own indifference to humanity. And like any military force, they're subject to the investigations of the human realm.'
Killarney is an MI6 agent in what could be called the Cold War between the angels and humanity. She speaks a variety of languages, amongst them German and Serb, well enough to be taken for a native, is a marksman and a proficient martial artist (krav maga: 'it doesn't teach you philosophy, it teaches you how to kill, with whatever you have to hand and with everything else, too.' P14).
Wholly ruthless when required, dedicated and driven, she allows nothing to deter her. She's tasked to find Eldershott, fellow MI6 operative and expert code-breaker, who has gone missing. The chase takes her from London to Paris and into perilous Russian territory, finally ending up at a Nazi-staffed research facility 150 miles from Novosibirsk where Eldershott's true importance is finally revealed.
It's an oddly compelling work. Oddly because Killarney is a cold, merciless killer, not at all an admirable or appealing character. It's written in the first person from Killarney's point of view, which necessarily limits the description in the novella. It also jarred with me somewhat as the style is very masculine. Which in a way is apt, given Killarney's character, but I'd mistakenly assumed that the author was female and it wasn't until I read the closing notes that I discovered my error. Serves me right for making assumptions.
However, I found Killarney just a little too good to be true. She manages to shrug off injuries that would keep most people bed-ridden for weeks and can fight off numerous adversaries with...well, not quite ease, it does require effort, but it is certainly not as difficult for her as the reader might expect. Then again, she's a spy, in a sci-fi/fantasy story involving invading archangels. Perhaps I should suspend a little more disbelief.
The work is fast-paced and action-orientated, but suffers from a lack of decent proof-reading and is marred by the continual tense-changes in almost every sentence. This may have been intended to emphasise the oddness of the story, but it ends up being simply irritating. The secondary characters aren't overly memorable, which in context doesn't matter too much - they're members of ultra-secret organisations, after all - but which I found disappointing.
The novella is likely to appeal to fans of the 'noir' genre, not one of my favourites, but despite the book's shortcomings I found it an interesting read and the angels are fascinating.
Joules Taylor
http://www.wavewrights.com
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