Angelology

Gah, this thing has been in my TBR pile for yeeeeeears. I can't even remember where I got it. 

It's set in multiple time periods. 1999 is the present day, though the book was written in 2010. That's the first chunk of the book, which introduces the main cast. 

Evangeline is a nun who is learning about her past. Her mother was murdered when she was young. Her father died a few years back. Her grandmother she hasn't seen in years. 

Verlaine is an art historian/professor working on a book about Abigail Rockefeller. He's the only main character to be referred to by his last name. There's only one other in the entire book, Mr. Gray, and he's barely in it. Verlaine is currently working for Percival Grigori. 

Percival Grigori III, his younger sister Otterley, his mother Sneja, and his father Percival II are all Nephilim. 

You see, the Nephilim never died out. They continued to live over the millennia and have taken part in some of the worst instances of human history, though never in the forefront. Like Hitler was human, but the Nazis definitely had backing from Nephilim. Humans developed angelology, the study of these creatures and the defense against them, as a protective measure. 

Verlaine meets Evangeline, as she's one of the librarians at her convent. They slowly work together to solve the mystery of what Abigail Rockefeller was doing writing to one of the past mother superiors. 

Evangeline talks with Celestine, an older nun ill with cancer, and Celestine tells her some of what she knows. She's a former angelologist. She also gives Evangeline letters from her grandmother that have come to Celestine one per year. They were supposed to be given to Evangeline at age 25, but she's only 23 now. 

The second part of the book goes back to WW2 when Celestine and Evangeline's grandmother Gabriella were students of angelology in France. This was a pretty interesting part, but it was also odd to move away from the main cast for such a large chunk of the book. There's a letter inside this part from before AD 1000. Can't remember the exact year. So there's briefly another time period, too. 

The third part goes back to the present day with Evangeline reading her grandmother's letters. Gabriella is still alive and soon enters the picture and things get even more action-packed. More angelologists appear and split up into groups to find the pieces of Orpheus's lyre, the thing both the angels and angelologists are searching for. Then there's a huge final confrontation and I won't give any spoilers for it. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this. It could easily be a series. I don't think it would work as well as a movie, but TV series are better suited for longer time jumps. Flashbacks are one thing, but Celestine's story would need multiple episodes, not just a few scenes. There's a lot of history and it tries to look at angels from multiple viewpoints, including scientifically. The cast is all likeable. The plot may seem to drag, but I assure you, there's a lot of important stuff going on in Celestine's story. I think this is worth reading.