This novel was written much later but follows-on about 2 years after the events of Archangel - even though this is technically the fifth book, it works superbly as a stand-alone novel, and reads as if it were #2.The angels and people of Samaria are picking up the pieces after the god destroyed Mount Galo when the Gloria was not sung and Gabriel destroyed Windy Point where Raphael had ruled from. A new hold for the southern province of Jordana must be built to take its place. Gabriel appoints his half-brother Nathan to the post and a new city rises at Cedar Hills.Where there are angels there are always angel-seekers, mostly women who's ambition is to give birth to an angel baby and thus forever secure a place in the hold. Angel babies are rare, and most mortal babies produced from these unions are abandoned. Giving birth to one can kill a woman, mortal or angel.Elizabeth's wealthy parents are dead and she is forced to work in the kitchen at her cousin's farm. Her dream is to be someone of consequence again, so it's only a matter of time before she gets up the courage to leave the farm and go to Cedar Hills to seduce an angel. Which is easily enough done, since the angels are quite promiscuous and, having lost fifty or more angels because of Raphael, they have been encouraged to repopulate.The angel Obadiah, a friend of Rachel and Gabriel, has also relocated to Cedar Hills. Gabriel wants Obadiah to use his charm with the new leader of the Jansai, the incredibly patriarchal travelling merchants and angel-haters, angry now that the enslavement of the Edori has been outlawed. On his way home from his first meeting with Urial, he is struck by a firey missile and crashes into the desert. He manages to drag himself to the oasis, where he is later found by a young Jansai woman, Rebekah, sent to fetch water. She tends for him until he is well enough to fly on. He gives her one of his bracelets as a gift; she lets him see her face.Angel-Seeker follows Elizabeth as she learns to be a healer and discovers how misguided she has been, and Obadiah and Rebekah as they embark on an illicit affair that has disastrous repercussions. Jansai women are like the Taliban's women, completely covered up and kept inside windowless rooms where they sew and gossip and treat each other badly. My heart was in my mouth watching Rebekah disguise herself as a boy and slip out of the house for secret meetings with Obadiah. The ominous atmosphere to the Jansai city of Breven did not help.I especially liked Shinn's treatment of the Jansai and the Jansia women in particular. When escape is offered to Rebekah she does not snatch at it; she loves her family, her home, her life is all that she knows and even her approachng wedding is something she accepts as her duty. It is only when she falls pregnant that she truly wakes. But even though we are on the side of the angels in despising the Jansai, especially the men who are really horrible and basically mysoginistic, their beliefs are not dismissed lightly. Again Shinn does not moralise or lecture. She lets her characters feel their way through the minefield without judging them, making them seem very real and the hand of the author virtually invisible, like I'm there on Samaria with them.I've read a few fantasy books that feature winged people, but the matter-of-fact way they are dealt with here makes them so much more plausible. The awe is there, but also the acceptance. And, the people of Samaria, all of them, including the angels, just seem so innocent and naive, while we are already thinking outside the land to what is really going on, and what the god really is.
This is a somewhat disjointed romantic fantasy set after the events of Archangel.There are two main plots. Each has interesting moments, but they're barely connected. That makes the jump back in time that Shinn often does when shifting between perspectives seem even more jarring than it usually is in this series.One story is about a formerly wealthy young woman who wants to reclaim her earlier lifestyle by trying to bear an angel's child. The other is about an isolated Jansai whose chance encounter with an angel helps her realize how dissatisfied she is with her oppressive culture.This book deals more with the Jansai than any of the previous ones, and I was looking forward to learning about their secretive lives. I hoped that they would end up being somewhat different from the way the other cultures view them, just as the angels and Edori aren't well understood by those who have had little contact with them.Unfortunately there is no nuance to their portrayal, Shinn is determined to have them remain flat villains. All adult Jansai men are varying degrees of bad, and none have a problem with unthinkable brutality. One teenager shows compassion, but does so in a cowardly way that wouldn't have really helped without a stroke of luck. I hoped that the women would at least show some subtle forms of power and control in their own homes, but they're rigid, complacent, and casually abusive. One older woman was sympathetic, and several tried to finally take action at the end. But of course their attempts had to fail so that the helpless girl could be dramatically rescued.A lot of my problems with the presentation of the Jansai could have been redeemed if they hadn't all been evil, weak, or ineffective. Even the heroine wasn't very admirable. She faced danger (one that she showed no signs of understanding) for love, but could not be motivated to really do anything for herself.I kept hoping for the characters to come across a large-scale underground culture of subversive women, or a small mixed-gender group that smuggled "wayward" girls to safety. But instead, angels had to save the girl and scold the backwards culture. Everything came out okay thanks to a touch of luck and a strong-willed woman who was traveling with Edori (but not one of them).Again.
What do You think about Angel-Seeker (2005)?
A Spellbinding Odyssey of Two Women on the Planet SamariaSharon Shinn's Samaria novels are among the most compelling examples of world building in contemporary science fiction, an intriguing mix of religious faith and technology coexisting uneasily on the human colonized world of Samaria; a world ruled benevolently for centuries by angels, bioengineered humans with wings. Having not read any of Shinn's work before, I was amazed that her world is nearly as richly textured as any I have found in classic works like Frank Herbert's "Dune" series and Ursula Le Guin's "Ekumen" novels, rendered in a most compelling narrative via her fine prose. In "Angel - Seeker" she has created a most compelling cast of characters, both human and angel. Shinn compares and contrasts the lives of two fascinating young women who will embark on transformative journeys that will change their lives forever; Elizabeth, born into wealth, forced by circumstances to endure poverty, until she realizes economic and personal salvation in the angel capital city Cedar Hills; Rebekah of the Jansai, implacable foes of Samaria' ruling angel elite, taught by her fundamentalist religious elders to hate them, until one day, she aids a gravely wounded angel and nurses him back to health. Eventually their paths will cross, altering not only their lives, but also those of an entire tribe, in unexpected, quite startling, ways. (Reposted from my 2011 Amazon review.)
—John
This is by far my favorite of the Samaria series. My favorite has always been the first one, so I was very happy to return to the time period in which Archangel is set and reunite with a few familiar characters. Sharon Shinn mentions on her website that Angel-Seeker is also her favorite book of the series, and that is most definitely reflected in the writing. Compared to the others, Angel-Seeker is so full of life. (Not that the others weren't good!) Within pages of meeting Elizabeth, Obadiah, and even Rebekah, I started relating to them.A lot of my favoritism towards this book is probably due to the fact that it tackles an issue I feel strongly about -- women's rights. Rebekah is a Jansai, a group of people who keep their women hidden from all others. Rebekah isn't allowed to show her face in public; in fact, she's hardly allowed to walk out of the house in front of others who aren't her family. Her entire well-being depends on her stepfather, and the man she will marry. As an independent woman, I felt so sorry for her and really wanted her to break out of her prison. It was doubly intense, since she falls in love with an angel, Obadiah, and secretly meets with him. I thought their love story was the most intense. First of all, because they seemed to love each other so much. Secondly, because of all that was riding on it. If Rebekah was caught, she'd be taken into the desert by her family, stoned within an inch of death, and left to die. So she had to be really good at keeping her relationship and midnight trysts a secret, which added a great deal of suspense and drama to the story.In stories with multiple points of view, my favorite character usually ends up being the one the book starts off with. That wasn't true for this one. While I loved Elizabeth's coming-of-age story of growth, I really didn't like her at the beginning. She's very whiny and tries to take the easy way out of life. I really respected her by the end, but her story just wasn't as good as Obadiah's and Rebekah because of all the obstacles they had in their way. Elizabeth just made obstacles for herself.As with most romances, a lot of the draw is from the characters and not the plot line. However, Shinn always does a good job in balancing the two. The individual stories were interesting, and while very much character-driven, this novel made for a good page-turner. Angel-Seeker is 2nd chronologically, but like Shinn, I recommend reading the series by the publishing date. I got a lot more out of this than I would have due to the information I learned in books 2-4.Overall, a good read. Romance fans, angel fans, science fiction fans, and simply fans of a good story and good characters will love this series, especially this novel. This was the end of the Samaria series, and it did not disappoint.
—Alyssa Archambo
I'm not entirely sure how I managed to miss this one until now -- I love Shinn's Samaria series (though I can't quite get into her other fantasy series she's got running right now), and this is an excellent installment. It's not perfect, but what book is? I really enjoyed the chance to return to the time period of Archangel and see Gabriel and Rachel from someone else's eyes -- I'm a real sucker for outsider point of view, in just about any form, and this is a good example of it. I really loved the characters in this one, too, especially Elizabeth's character growth and maturation. I had some problems with the Jansai society as portrayed, because it doesn't feel as rounded-out and complete as some of the other societies Shinn explores, but it wasn't enough to keep me from loving the book. Don't start with this one, though; start with Archangel, though you don't have to read the other two books in the trilogy in order to appreciate this one. If you like fantasy-romance blends, you should give this series a try.
—Denise
