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The Principles Of Angels by Jaine Fenn
01/07/2008 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Gollancz. 293 page enlarged paperback. Price: £12.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-575-08292-2. Buy The Principles Of Angels in the USA - or Buy The Principles Of Angels in the UK  check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
The openng premise of 'Principals Of Angels' by Jaine Fenn is wonderfully introduced. Kresh City floats over an uninhabited world where democracy is ruled by assassination in a two-tier society. The top is for the rich with the bottom for the criminal classes although corruption is wide-spread. Much of the assassination work is done by a team called Angels. Although the means of flight can vary from feathers to anti-gravity generators, they are all equipped with wrist-blades and have access to a wide arsenal when they do their work under the orders of the First Minister. That alone would make for a beautifully violent computer game.
We see this city from several different viewpoints. There is Taro, a male prostitute fostered by one of the female Angels until she herself is assassinated. Wanting to track down her killer, he finds himself in the employ of the First Minister who wants him to locate Nual, a reclusive Angel, who supposed to have killed his foster-mother as well as working for the town pimp to earn his keep.
New to the city for a supposed concert tour is Elarn Reen who under her own threat of death is seek out and kill her Lia Reen, her estranged daughter (contrary to the back cover blurb which says she's her lover). Elarn also becomes friendly with Consul Vidoran and his bodyguard, a Screamer called Scarrion who has his own agenda. Vidoran is also been targeted for assassination and it is only through Taro's untimely intervention that he's left alive the first time. Nual, herself, becomes more prominent later in the book as she takes the centre stage pops up from time to time.
If anything, I thought the first two thirds of the book were very well conceived. Fenn showed a remarkable aptitude for characters, brutal regimes and even romance. Where it tends to untangle is towards the end where all her work with character development tends to be forgotten in favour of different confrontations and if you're not careful, miss the impact of any deaths. There is always a fine balance in getting that sorted out. If anything, the reality just becomes a backdrop rather than using its strengths to build up a decent Science Fiction story. For that reason alone, I can only classify this as inexperience but if she gets her head sorted out about this, Jaine Fenn, is a potential star in the making.
GF Willmetts
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