Artificial Light
by Nathan Wall
Sometimes you risk becoming a villain in order to be the hero.
Since recovering memories and incredible abilities nearly two years ago, an insatiable lust to grow more powerful has consumed Jarrod. Now that urge puts the friends he has left in mortal danger. The only way to protect them is to accept isolation. However, Jarrod has made promises and intends on staying with those he cares for until his pledge is upheld.
The Light of Souls has been disrupted and replaced with a fake. The Assassins, three angels from the fallen Corners living out their penance, are charged with eliminating the perpetrator. When their sights turn to Jarrod, he and all those around him are marked for death.
With the most dangerous killers in creation hunting him down, Jarrod must learn to evolve his powers without losing control. When new alliances are formed, and old ones turn sour, Jarrod must decide once and for all if he's a hero, or a villain waiting to be unleashed.
I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Wow, that was super-confusing! This was my first thought after I read the book. Artificial Light is the 3rd book of a series, but after the author reassured me I could jump in with minimal confusion, I skeptically began my journey into the realm of angels.
Yes, it’s a book about angels! I went through a phase of loving the concept of Nephilim and tried to read as many books with this topic as I could. Artificial Light’s premise of Angels battling against one another sounds quite appealing.
The character-building of this book sadly, doesn’t reach the potential I was hoping for. First of all, I wanted explanations: who are these people and what do they want? Most of the time I don’t know the characters or their agendas, and the author rarely explains. As a book with a huge cast, each character is somewhat limited from expressing their full personality. Still, there are several that stood out among all the others.
What I liked:
1. Sassy characters—I loved all the witty dialogues and quippy comebacks and wanted more dialogues.
2. Mythological references—the author included allusions to myths from many cultures like Egyptian, Hindu, Greek, Hebrew, and many others.
3. Complicated history—as immortal beings, angels have a long time to make shifting alliances.
Jarrod
(As the protagonist, he gets more time in the spotlight). Jarrod is a product of cloning with superhuman abilities. He is powerful, dangerous, and not in full control of himself; there’s a voice (Later revealed as Ryan, the real personality of his person, in which Jarrod is the second or alternate personality) in his head that takes over during crises, leaving a slew of bodies in his wake. As the story progresses, Jarrod learns more about himself and the voice in his head.
Lain
Lain’s special gift is telepathy, giving her access to everyone’s thoughts and even allowing her to control people at will. She is separated from her brother as a child and has been searching for him for years.
Madame Patricia
I love this character! She is overtly fragile but actually extremely powerful. As an Architect (a superior form of being even to Angels), she can control the earth and all that grows on it, like Gaia in Greek myths.
Isis
She is the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, and she and Horus fled to Horus’s uncle’s realm when Osiris was killed and their Corner was obliterated. Isis is willing to do all she could to help Horus grow into a ruler. She really has my sympathy.
Anubis
He is a giant with the simple mind of a child because of a traumatic event in his childhood. He grew up unappreciated and mocked for his gray complexion and stupidity. Another sympathy-arousing character.
What I didn’t like:
1. Too many characters—Not many authors can handle a Game-of-Throne-sized cast, and the story would have been better if some of the redundant characters had been cut completely from the plot.
2. Bland characters—as I’ve mentioned above, very few characters in the book caught my eye or made me care. I understand this is the 3rd book in the series, and readers would likely already have a fuller picture of the personality of characters, but I would have liked more character development even in the third book.
3. Character interactions—now this is slightly weird. The characters seem way too one-dimensional and immature for people who’ve supposedly lived for so long. Sometimes they start to scream or weep or get into fights without a justifiable cause. For instance, Hathor, the daughter of Amun, is given a girl to take care of, and she jumps scratching and screaming to defend this little girl, going to an extent of accusing her aunt Isis and defying her father. I mean, why? A lot of the characters’ actions are unexplained and abrupt, with little foreshadowing. This is why I find them too undeveloped for their years.
Nathan Wall's writing style is very graphic. Although I love some of the colorful, intense descriptions (I've never pictured someone's arm being sliced into bilateral pieces, so thank you), some fall into the overly-show-not-tell category. I feel like the author can condense some of the action scenes by NOT giving us a blow-by-blow description of every action of the characters.
But, Wall is awesome at dialogue, and I loved the banters and snarky dialogues!
The setting for Artificial Light is an extremely vast and complicate multi-realm universe. Angels guard the Corners and other realms they occupy. They left their marks on human history as gods in mythologies. Some of them (the most powerful ones?) have a piece of celestial crystal that powers their realm and give them access to other realms. At least that’s what I think they do.
Apparently some angels hunt down demons. I’m assuming demons run the Double-Helix operation (using angel DNA to enhance humans), making the whole affair evil and unnatural. However, some angels are associates of demons, commissioning enhanced humans as soldiers.
What I loved most in the whole book is the aurascale: an extremely advanced full-body armor that allows angels to perform astonishing acts. All those gadgets and screens and hidden weapons in the armors! I want one, please.
The pacing of this book is agonizingly strange. On one hand it’s fast and exciting, but on the other hand it drags and includes many unnecessary (in my opinion) events. It jumps from realm to realm and timelines to timelines, and I’m having a hard time tracking characters and remembering names because of these jumps. I simply feel disconnected from the story because of its structure. Only 70% into story did I feel invested in the characters’ fates.
I’m slightly put off by the treatment of angels and celestial matters, because it seems the world is run by volatile, warlike, and faithless angels without the guidance of God. That is, however, my personal values and beliefs, and others may not feel this discomfort at all. The plot may also put some off, because it’s too encompassing and meandering. However, a complex world will do that to the plot! Also, the ending is stunning. I didn’t see it coming, and I loved the grand exit! On the whole, the book offers supernatural characters, a confusingly complicated plot, and a messy, chaotic universe. As someone who jumped in late into the series, I highly recommend anyone to read the 1st & 2nd book of the series before coming to the 3rd, just so the timeline makes sense and the characters are more familiar. If you enjoy sci-fi or mythology, try Artificial Light.
Wow, that was super-confusing! This was my first thought after I read the book. Artificial Light is the 3rd book of a series, but after the author reassured me I could jump in with minimal confusion, I skeptically began my journey into the realm of angels.
Yes, it’s a book about angels! I went through a phase of loving the concept of Nephilim and tried to read as many books with this topic as I could. Artificial Light’s premise of Angels battling against one another sounds quite appealing.
Characters
The character-building of this book sadly, doesn’t reach the potential I was hoping for. First of all, I wanted explanations: who are these people and what do they want? Most of the time I don’t know the characters or their agendas, and the author rarely explains. As a book with a huge cast, each character is somewhat limited from expressing their full personality. Still, there are several that stood out among all the others.
What I liked:
1. Sassy characters—I loved all the witty dialogues and quippy comebacks and wanted more dialogues.
2. Mythological references—the author included allusions to myths from many cultures like Egyptian, Hindu, Greek, Hebrew, and many others.
3. Complicated history—as immortal beings, angels have a long time to make shifting alliances.
Jarrod
(As the protagonist, he gets more time in the spotlight). Jarrod is a product of cloning with superhuman abilities. He is powerful, dangerous, and not in full control of himself; there’s a voice (Later revealed as Ryan, the real personality of his person, in which Jarrod is the second or alternate personality) in his head that takes over during crises, leaving a slew of bodies in his wake. As the story progresses, Jarrod learns more about himself and the voice in his head.
Lain
Lain’s special gift is telepathy, giving her access to everyone’s thoughts and even allowing her to control people at will. She is separated from her brother as a child and has been searching for him for years.
Madame Patricia
I love this character! She is overtly fragile but actually extremely powerful. As an Architect (a superior form of being even to Angels), she can control the earth and all that grows on it, like Gaia in Greek myths.
Isis
She is the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, and she and Horus fled to Horus’s uncle’s realm when Osiris was killed and their Corner was obliterated. Isis is willing to do all she could to help Horus grow into a ruler. She really has my sympathy.
Anubis
He is a giant with the simple mind of a child because of a traumatic event in his childhood. He grew up unappreciated and mocked for his gray complexion and stupidity. Another sympathy-arousing character.
What I didn’t like:
1. Too many characters—Not many authors can handle a Game-of-Throne-sized cast, and the story would have been better if some of the redundant characters had been cut completely from the plot.
2. Bland characters—as I’ve mentioned above, very few characters in the book caught my eye or made me care. I understand this is the 3rd book in the series, and readers would likely already have a fuller picture of the personality of characters, but I would have liked more character development even in the third book.
3. Character interactions—now this is slightly weird. The characters seem way too one-dimensional and immature for people who’ve supposedly lived for so long. Sometimes they start to scream or weep or get into fights without a justifiable cause. For instance, Hathor, the daughter of Amun, is given a girl to take care of, and she jumps scratching and screaming to defend this little girl, going to an extent of accusing her aunt Isis and defying her father. I mean, why? A lot of the characters’ actions are unexplained and abrupt, with little foreshadowing. This is why I find them too undeveloped for their years.
Style
Nathan Wall's writing style is very graphic. Although I love some of the colorful, intense descriptions (I've never pictured someone's arm being sliced into bilateral pieces, so thank you), some fall into the overly-show-not-tell category. I feel like the author can condense some of the action scenes by NOT giving us a blow-by-blow description of every action of the characters.
But, Wall is awesome at dialogue, and I loved the banters and snarky dialogues!
Setting
The setting for Artificial Light is an extremely vast and complicate multi-realm universe. Angels guard the Corners and other realms they occupy. They left their marks on human history as gods in mythologies. Some of them (the most powerful ones?) have a piece of celestial crystal that powers their realm and give them access to other realms. At least that’s what I think they do.
Apparently some angels hunt down demons. I’m assuming demons run the Double-Helix operation (using angel DNA to enhance humans), making the whole affair evil and unnatural. However, some angels are associates of demons, commissioning enhanced humans as soldiers.
What I loved most in the whole book is the aurascale: an extremely advanced full-body armor that allows angels to perform astonishing acts. All those gadgets and screens and hidden weapons in the armors! I want one, please.
Pacing
The pacing of this book is agonizingly strange. On one hand it’s fast and exciting, but on the other hand it drags and includes many unnecessary (in my opinion) events. It jumps from realm to realm and timelines to timelines, and I’m having a hard time tracking characters and remembering names because of these jumps. I simply feel disconnected from the story because of its structure. Only 70% into story did I feel invested in the characters’ fates.
Final Thoughts
I’m slightly put off by the treatment of angels and celestial matters, because it seems the world is run by volatile, warlike, and faithless angels without the guidance of God. That is, however, my personal values and beliefs, and others may not feel this discomfort at all. The plot may also put some off, because it’s too encompassing and meandering. However, a complex world will do that to the plot! Also, the ending is stunning. I didn’t see it coming, and I loved the grand exit! On the whole, the book offers supernatural characters, a confusingly complicated plot, and a messy, chaotic universe. As someone who jumped in late into the series, I highly recommend anyone to read the 1st & 2nd book of the series before coming to the 3rd, just so the timeline makes sense and the characters are more familiar. If you enjoy sci-fi or mythology, try Artificial Light.
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