This is the dedicated *spoiler* thread for Archangel's Lineage and earlier books in the series. Spoilers abound, so be warned!!
Usual rules: be kind to your fellow commenters and have fun. This spoiler thread will remain active as long as the blog does, so you can join in at any time. :-)
We don't monitor the thread for questions, so if you have a question, you can email me (nalini.assistant AT gmail DOT com).
If you're at an earlier point in the series and would like to discuss that book, click on the Spoiler Zone tag and it should bring up all the previous spoiler threads.
~Ashwini
18 comments:
OMG !!! What a STORY !!! I am still in a book hangover !!! But I am worried; is this the last Elena Raphael book, since they are moving into a peaceful stage ? In my panic I am forgetting if I have heard otherwise ... please please somebody reassure me !
I stayed up all night to finish the book and it is marvelous !!! Nalini you are a superb author. I am so, so, so (bears re-iteration) very glad you chose to share the stories in your head with the world.
And the teaser of Primal Mirror .... It promises to be another stupendous read !!!
Am gonna start my re-reading of Archangel's Lineage now. I am sure I will come across bits that I missed in my first read.
Congratulations on another publication !!!
This feels like an ending to the series. 😢
I felt the same but I hope not
Uh why have I had a lump in my throat since I started reading and I'm on page 104? So many reminders that lifespans are limited and things change. Ugh--all the feels :( But, of course, written so beautifully and poignantly that I don't want to put the book down...and I don't want this series to ever end LOL. Thank you for writing this series. I absolutely love it. And a huge thank you for posting "Guild Hunter #17 - 2025" in the "Coming Up" part of the home page. Crisis averted!!!
It was a little slow in some parts, and I didn't particularly care for the rehashing of Elenas backstory and the Ari/Belle parts but overall I liked it. Mardock was definitely my favorite part of the book.
Oh thank god ... panic settled ! Thank you @Anonymous for sharing the detail about the next Guild Hunter book. I wonder if we will get to see the other half of the original Aeclari then ? Would be great.
Yes love Marduk.
Vivek's interest - hmmm I was not sure I liked her. But guess it is as edgy as him and would suit him fine.
I liked hearing about Jessamy's wing, the 20 year leap but of course felt sad about the lifespans of Beth, Sara, Deacon.... Gosh that is going to kill me if the next GH book has a 100 year leap.
Losing Andreas to Marduk .... I had started to like him. Guess we will see bits of him.
She said - the Archangel's in sleep may not come back any time soon, so I guess there is room for surprises.
And the Ancestors ... WOW ..... they are fascinating. Imagine creating something that will last eternity.
Although the lost knowledge of mantle, I wonder what steps were taken to ensure it did not get lost again.
Nalini confirmed at the East City virtual launch event that the next book will be Aodhan & Illium.
And she's said multiple times over the years the final book of the series will definitely be Elena & Raphael.
I enjoyed Lineage. Happy we got to learn a bit more about the Legion and that their building wasn't destroyed.
Loved catching up with everyone (too many favorites to list) and knowing that war-all-the-time is not the actual status quo for the Cadre.
Hope we get a novella or something for Cassandra and Qin. I know everyone was mad at him in the book, but I understood why he went to sleep without telling them.
Also glad they didn't have to sacrifice either someone at the end.
When Nalini said the title was a spoiler I thought the next book may be called Archangel's Ascension, but unless there's a significant time jump I now wonder given the last Illium scene in this book.
It was good I liked it it was very interesting but where does the dragon come from I don't understand that though hopefully it'll be in the books and on audiobook and CD
Yeah @library addict - I also understood why he went to sleep. Would love a world where they could be together.
You know I always feel sad for Caliane. I mean she's alone now and will always be, so it makes me wonder if she's going to be gone before the end of the series. To eternal sleep - like she mentioned in one of the books. That was she contemplating eternal sleep when she heard Nadiel's laughter.
Oh cool .. Ilium and Aodhan ... awesome. Am glad there will be more GH books.
Yeah you are right, I guess there will be a significant jump next time around esp if it is going to be their book and it will take him time to ascend. I guess in a way this was a gentle bye to all known characters maybe ?
I was thinking Sharine at first for the compass. Phew ! Glad they did not kill Keir.
In case you did not see the book event that explains about the series, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfXtHS9a0Kc
It was very informative and fun!
Thank goodness Ellie was at the Refuge with the Cadre to save Keir from being stabbed to death. Whew!
The parts with Ellie and Jeffery made me cry a little since they reminded me of making peace with my own dad before he died.
Nurses rule! The part where Raphael snuck into the hospital with Dionne's help made me smile. Also, when Dionne wouldn't accept Raphael's feather until Ellie said it would be a great story to tell her grandchildren made me laugh.
Marduk...definitely like his Legion. That answered the question of why the Legion were to go to Raphael and Elena. It would be interesting to read more about him and his Consort.
Zoe Elena is definitely her father's daughter with a bit of her mom. I wonder if Raphael stole the knife from Elena? Raphael always said he would be the one to give her knives. 🗡😁
Good to read in the above comments that there are more Guild Hunter books to come. Breathing a big sigh of relief.
That was lovely, we got to see so many characters we hadn’t seen in a while. I too wondered if it was the last book, glad to hear it is not! I wonder what Nalini will cook up next…
I wonder what happened to Dahariel, Astaad’s second and probable father of Michaela’s son? It says General Atu was a senior member of Astaad’s court, so that made me wonder.
Ooh, meeting Marduk’s consort could be interesting!
Was the first chapter Cassandra and Qin, Marduk and his consort or another pair of Ancients?
AndreaH
What a great book! Thank you, Nalini!
I had to take my time before writing this comment. Lots of overwhelming moments — but I’m glad it worked out for Elena and Raphael, that they finally have this moment to breathe and just concentrate on being together. Raphael has worked to repair his relationship with Caliane, and Elena has had the chance to do the same in regards to Jeffrey and Amy. I hope we’ll get to see the Deveraux clan together, to make up for the lost time.
I also went back and read some comments I’d left in past spoiler threads. The ones I left in AW had a lot of questions… and all of them have been answered. It’s a highlight that the answers have brought up new questions :D I can’t wait.
Oh Qin, you’re so tragic! Poor Cassandra!
Marduk, stop talking about your consort and wake the woman up. We want to meet her!
The climax reminded me a lot of Kiss of Snow’s, but with the whole world at stake — with that very important, beloved character acting like the Walker for everyone. It makes sense the Refuge is kind of like what centers it, and that in the end, it’s a haven for all races, even if mortals aren’t allowed in, because if the angels can’t get it together for their own safety, doom follows. I kind of want to hear what the kids will have to say of their adventure away from home.
No words to describe the joy I felt when I read about the Legion. Not only discovering why they went to Raphael, but the very discreet insinuation that the Ancestors had always planned for Elena and Raphael. Written in the stars and all. Maybe they realized destroying the world was necessary, hence the first Cascade, but Elena and Raphael were a failproof way of not doing that again. Hopefully, Marduk’s consort won’t be shy of voicing her thoughts. LOL
Illium and Aodhan are next, I believe? My poor heart. LOL But I’m going to be greedy and say I also want Andreas’s book (have since AP, in fact).
Loved the book. Since wars are stressful to me, I enjoy this type of story much more.
Now that many of the archangels have settled, I hope the focus will go back to some of the hunters like Vivek and Eve (and even Zoe), after Illium & Aodhan, of course.
I needed a couple of days to really let this sink in. Wow.
This was my most anticipated book of 2024, my most anticipated book at all since 2020, in fact. And now that I've read it, all I can say is ... there was so much in it yet still not enough.
First off, I liked that a number of open questions have been answered: We got an update on Jessamy's wing as well as Qin and Cassandra, Illium is in no danger of ascending prematurely anymore and we saw all of the grown up human kids Elena loves.
However, definitely more than ten years passed. It must be 12 or 13. Which makes me wonder how Maggie, who was two or three when we last saw her in AW, is 18 now ...? Plus, I kept wondering why Elena's grandparents were given no cameo or even mention. Yes, they eventually showed up briefly at the end, but still. And only now am I realizing that Ransom was also mentioned nowhere. Why? I wanted an update on him too.
Speaking of updates, why was Titus' mother, who awoke so surprisingly at the end of Resurrection, never brought up again? I thought we were in for a treat about her reunion with her now archangel son :/
And at the end I remembered the infected baby he and Sharine found in Sun, I guess Nalini didn't think it necessary either to give anyone an update on her who must have grown too?
Anyway, despite it being book 16 and Raphael being 1500 years old, it's quite nice that both he and we still learn new things about their world. That scene with the Cadre talking about the Mantle for the first time was great. As was that scene later when the realization hit that constant war and madness among archangels are actually not the norm. But my very favourite scene could be the one in which Raphael told Elena and Jessamy about flying in space and the latter was literally itching and pleading to record that incident xD
I loved reading about Raphael's special relationship to Zoe and really wish we would've been shown more of it instead of just told about it. I wonder, would she say "Oh this is just my uncle Raphael" like she casually said "Oh this is just my Aunty Ellie" to her friends? And shouldn't he have a similar relationship to Maggie? He did babysit her too when she was small after all.
Another thing is, I always wondered if Raphael and Jeffrey would ever come face to face. Imagine my surprise when they simply acknowledged each other with nods like its not the first time here. I feel like them meeting for the first time should've been a written out scene.
By the way, am I the only one who kinda expected Elena making peace with her father to be more ... impactful? I don't know, seeing them talk only in bits and pieces from scene to scene was not what I expected.
I further understand of course why Raphael didn't want to tell the Cadre that/why Elena has archangelic cells in her body. Still, I would've very much liked to see their reactions to the fact that he literally gave her a piece of his heart. Maybe he could at some point tell his mother at least...?
I obviously loved Marduk and hope we'll see his consort or at least hear more about her. I did wish he would've talked more to Elena, as he stated he would, but I guess his existence makes it clear that the actual Ancestors are very much off the table. Mindblowing that he not only confirmed what everyone awake in the world assumed were mere stories to be true, but also emphasized how truly old the Ancestors really are, especially in relation to him.
What really bothered me in this book were the Vivek POVs about his obsession with that Katrina lady. Objectively, I wouldn't mind a book about him if those POVs were supposed to be leading to that. But they were too many. And too long. Particularly when the oh so important book she helped him find turned out to be irrelevant in the end. They literally didn't care about it anymore once Marduk woke up, didn't even attempt to translate it, as was intended. And especially the last POV was way out of place. The entire Cadre is struggling with sacrificing a healer while the time for the Mantle and therefore the world runs out, and Nalini has to interrupt that tense scene with Vivek lusting after Katrina? Seriously?
Finally, ever since this book has been announced and the description released, I have been asking myself what new big existential threat could possibly come up after Lijuan. And well, Nalini did well in that regard. All the initially confusing little interludes between chapters made so much sense at the end. This necessary world reset made sense, period. Even if, as a whole, this book wasn't as action-packed as other R&E books.
Yes, this is the first time I finish a R&E book and don't find it perfect in its entirety, but I'm still gonna give it five stars because it's R&E. Even though Raphael seemed especially on edge and annoyed here, which was funny, they were them, I adored being back with them and the humor was on point. I laughed and cried and gasped and didn't want it to end.
And while I very much loathe the fact that the next book will be about Illium and Aodhan again, I can definitely seriously see a book about Eve coming in the future. She is of the perfect age now, and seeing as the world is at peace for now, that would be the perfect opportunity to shift the Guild Hunter series back to Guild Hunters aka away from Cadre business. A possible Vivek book would fit in the same vain.
PS: I agree with some other readers, this book could've been more steamy. In particular considering that Raphael and Elena were apart for freaking 140 pages. There were definitely several opportunities to slip in more than just one sexy time, opportunities where I expected more but Nalini left it at teasing. Strange if you compare it to the earlier books.
I enjoyed this book and definitely want to meet Marduk's Consort. But, I have this nagging question: Why didn't Marduk sense Mahiya (and Nivriti if she's Awake) the way he did Raphael and Venom?
I'm a little late with "Archangel`s Lineage!... -
What totally surprised me was Vivek. I have to admit that I had almost forgotten about him. I liked the scenes with Lady Katrina. It really makes you want to immerse yourself in this vampire world and a book about these two would be very interesting and... I think very intense.
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