Reading Journal -- Review of When Heaven Came Down By Bryan Davis:

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I was offered a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Premise:

In a time of chaos, creatures known as angels took over the world, enslaving humans as their hosts.  A rebellion is desperate to get rid of the angels, but the odds are not in their favor.  Even so, the rebels do everything possible to solve the problems in their way and complete their mission to free humanity.

Audience:

Not many content cautions in this one.  As implied by the angels mentioned in the book's synopsis, there are a few mentions and brief discussions of religious topics, but it shouldn't be too much for most people.  And while this book features adult protagonists, the content is probably clean enough for both teens and adults.

Pros:

The idea of the angels and how they operated was easily my favorite aspect.  It's nice that, instead of simply having their mission and trying to fulfill it, the plot requires the chars to learn interesting tidbits about the angels.

Another upside is that the story emphasizes platonic relationships instead of relying on a romantic subplot.  There's nothing wrong with romance in stories, but sometimes it's nice to read tales where that isn't the focus.

There were several specific things I liked about the plot and angel design, but I won't get into them because they take place far later in the story and I want to avoid lacing this review with lots of spoiler warnings.

Cons:

The characters in this book weren’t as interesting as they are in some of Davis’ other tales.  A few basics of their backstories and personality were there, including things commonly fit into action characters (losing/trying to save a spouse or child) but since the story didn't feel as rooted into the characters' perspectives, it was hard to connect with them beyond the initial acknowledgement that they were going through a hard time(just like any other set of action movie characters).  And while there were differences and development for each character, those aspects felt more at a surface level of assigning a few beliefs/traits without using the narrative in a way that made us feel the pervasiveness of those traits.  So it was harder to experience the full breadth of each person's perspective/relationships.  

Some of the speech patterns and such also reminded me of several character types in Davis' other books.  That isn't bad in and of itself since it can be a stylistic thing, but when combined with the lessened depth to character perspectives, those speech patterns felt a little recycled, rather than simply following a style.

Because of that, everything seemed centered mostly on the plot, action, and creature design of the angels.  That’s actually not a bad thing.  It’s perfectly valid for a book to emphasize the situation/mission/etc, rather than harping on the unique perspectives of the characters and their feelings.  But since the book wasn't very long, it would have been nice to have a little more description and depth to character things and scenery.

Conclusion:

It's very rare for me to give five star reviews, and since the characters weren't as well developed as other Bryan Davis books I've read, I'm going to go ahead and rate this book as a three star.  But it's not a bad book at all, and I do recommend it for people that prefer quick sci fi reads focused more on plot, action or creature design.