Pulling the Wings Off Angels
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
Pulling the Wings Off Angels is a madcap adventure brimming with the ethical quandaries and sardonic wit of The Good Place by World Fantasy Award-winning author K. J. Parker
Long ago, a wealthy man stole an angel and hid her in a chapel, where she remains imprisoned to this day.
That’s the legend, anyway.
A clerical student who’s racked up gambling debts to a local gangster is given an ultimatum—deliver the angel his grandfather kidnapped, or forfeit various body parts in payment.
And so begins a whirlwind theological paradox—with the student at its center—in which the stakes are the necessity of God, the existence of destiny—and the nature of angels.
Also by K. J. Parker
Inside Man
Prosper's Demon
The Devil You Know
The Last Witness
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Parker (Inside Man) turns from demons to angels in this thorny, theological novella, set in a medievalesque fantasy world. The unnamed narrator, a seminary student who has abandoned his belief in the Invincible Sun in favor of gambling and womanizing, is captured by the gangster Florio, to whom he owes a massive debt. Florio offers to forgive all if the narrator can deliver the angel that the narrator's grandfather, a PT Barnum–style impresario of objectionable entertainment, reportedly captured. The narrator agrees only to buy himself time. Imagine his surprise when he and Florio head to his grandfather's chapel and the angel is actually there, held captive in a room designed by theologian Saloninus, "the most brilliant genius who ever lived," to be undetectable by god. Both Florio and the narrator's lives change forever with the existence of the divine thus confirmed: Florio contemplates what it will take for a man like him to avoid damnation, while the narrator discovers that he will have to pay for the sins of his grandfather. The result is a complex treatise on morality, justice, mercy, forgiveness, and fate disguised as a fantasy adventure, with Parker's trademark acerbic wit keeping things from getting too dry. This will give readers plenty to chew on.
