It has always been the problem of wrong book, wrong time for me. This goes for Angel Time as well. Having been an Anne Rice fan since I was 12 when I first came across with Interview with the Vampire in the year 2000. The writing was very blunt and imaginative as well as clearly put out and very intricate. I’m not a professional editor and I am not a writer, but this was what I felt when I first read the book. Then, I started reading more and more of her books. Although I admit that there are works of hers that have yet to read.
In my opinion, this is definitely not her best work. Anne Rice to me was mostly about crafting a great story line with a brilliant subtle description of the soul and mind of her characters. With Angel Time however, it’s a little draggy. I do feel like as if my late grandmother was telling the tale of the past or telling story about history to me. And I dreaded history when I was younger and it does not get any better now, but I do have a little bit more respect and want to know about history.
This book begins with the unveiling of a young hit man name Lucky the Fox… then it slowly reveals the past of a young boy to the day he became Lucky the Fox. That boy is Toby O’Dare. Anne Rice’s choice of words are unmatched by most contemporary writers nowadays. But at the part where she was revealing the past of Toby, it seemed a little too boring. But to put a mild mannered lute player as an assassin, the idea is awesome.
All the while reading the book, I felt like watching a Malay TV drama. It’s always seems that when a person is in a bad situation more and more bad things happens to them until someone break the chain to the unfortunate events. But that what sells the movie and books.
Like I have said earlier, the last part just does not do it for me as I am not really a historical fiction reader. But it makes me look up a little bit after I read the book. The question comes down to has Anne Rice lost her touch with younger readers? Hopefully not, because there are not many like her out there... Maybe for The Songs of Seraphim #2 she will do better...
Personally I’d give the book a three out of five (3/5) for I love her choice of words and intricate character of O’Dare. But it just lack the juice that she had years before as she had it with Interview with the Vampire and most of her Mayfair Witches collections. If you are Anne Rice fanatics, go ahead for the hard cover, if you are just like me, I’d advise to wait for the paperback version (we only have the hard cover version of the book here in Malaysia). It would not be a miss if you don’t read it though…
P/S: If this were to be made into a movie, personally I think Travis Fimmel (Ellis Dove in TV The Beast) would fit in the mould of this Toby O’Dare (only Toby is a few inches taller) or Nicholas Hoult would not do that bad either…
XOXO
Girl with the Rouge Lips.
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