Story Rating: 4.5 stars
Audio Rating: 4.75 stars
Narrator: Lance West
Length: 15 hours, 9 minutes
Audiobook Buy Links: Amazon/Audible | iBooks
Book Buy Links: Amazon | iBooks
“All I ever wanted was to be loved, and now you’ve shown me that to be loved is to be broken.”
In an eternal paradise, the most beautiful angel, Lucifer, struggles with shame, identity, and timidity, with little more than the desire to worship his creator. It isn’t until the strongest angel, Michael, comes into his life that Lucifer’s attention alters, and he takes pride in his gifts—to a detrimental degree. Their friendship blooms into something else, a preoccupation with one another that is unheard of and anathema. Their enthrallment masks the weaknesses in their spirits that feed each other, and Lucifer’s focus on Michael makes deciphering God’s cryptic, increasingly violent lessons impossible. They may have the first romance in the history of everything, but God is a jealous god and maybe paradise isn’t paradise.
Spanning millions of years, Angels Before Man is a queer retelling of Lucifer’s fall, examining his formative years and exploring his transformation from naïve devotee of God to Satan. It expands upon Milton’s portrayal of Lucifer as a tragic hero and posits that Lucifer’s fatal flaw was created by an eroding cocktail of curiosity, desires, and trauma. Lucifer’s downfall isn’t caused by God’s preference for Adam and Eve, but God’s preference for Lucifer and all the damage that value inflicts. It excellently portrays Lucifer as a truly tragic and sympathetic character and makes his death as Lucifer and loss of Michael heartbreaking. The story is blasphemous and will upset some, because it portrays God’s jealous and wrathful aspects in brutal fashion, including an off-page rape.
If you’ve read epic poetry and/or stories where the outcome is almost superfluous to the journey, Angels’ narrative style will be familiar. Though not written in verse, the prose is rhythmic and mimics the feel of it. There is florid, figurative language and a very leisurely portrayal of heavenly life. It’s predominately harmonious joy in simplicity, but there are splashes of the darkness inherent in God’s nature. For the most part, the style fits the tone and its inspirations and each hint of imperilment slowly ratchets the tension. However, at times the dramatic irony is stretched too thin and transforms the tension into irritation. The prose can also be self-indulgent, changing leisure into sloth and fostering uneven pacing.
From the first moments of consciousness, Lucifer’s innate curiosity and tendency to fixate make him stand out beyond his beauty. While others herald his beauty, Lucifer finds his countenance horrific, almost unholy. He is far removed from who he eventually becomes, and the small flaws in his nature are subtle—unremarkable, if not for his end. Though for harmless reasons, his single-mindedness in getting his way and belief in his rightness leads to instances of scheming. He misses when pride in his gifts leaves the bounds of showcasing God’s greatness. God made Lucifer to be God-like, and Lucifer feels this extra inside him, fueling his presumptive and restless spirit. Eventually, he wonders if he can create his own paradise with Michael away from the beautiful stagnation of Heaven and seals his fate.
Though Lucifer’s flaws cause his fall, his relationship with Michael is the catalyst. One of Angels’ overarching themes is love—love in its various forms and its power to create and destroy. Before Lucifer and Michael, there is no eros or any love that allows devotion to another besides God. While they don’t have a romance in the contemporary sense, the intensity of their affections and inequality in their love for their brethren is palpable. To Lucifer, his love for God is endless and his feelings for Michael part of that, but to God, Lucifer’s purity is tarnished because “the handsomest creation is that uncorrupted by hands, by affections.” God created Lucifer to be his favorite, a perfect crowning achievement to worship on his knees beside God’s throne, and the growing connection between Michael and Lucifer is a threat. Lucifer’s love becomes reverent dependency and Michael’s becomes territorial and blinding. Michael metaphorically (and literally) hides from unwanted truths—to his, Lucifer’s, and heaven’s ruination.
A key component in Lucifer’s failure concerns the severe facets of God’s dichotomous existence. He is benevolently cruel and flows from soft direction to cold fury. His mind is unknowable, His love distant and conditional, and His wrath harsh. There are a few ruminations about God, such as if he also searches for purpose—“God looking for God” and His contemplation on forgoing creation like a r/regretfulparents reddit post. These brief queries illustrate His limitless and limited existence and how, to Him, everything He does is good so sees no atrocity in brutality. According to God, “The superior are burdened with the hunger to harm. Mercy is resisting temptation. . .” Yet, He never resists. And after every punishment, Lucifer trusts more in Michael’s succor and protection, further stoking God’s jealousy. God’s corrections may be designed to bend Lucifer to His ultimate purpose, but Lucifer doesn’t bend. He breaks.
God’s final and viscerally disturbing violence kills Lucifer’s soul, and Lucifer is lost. He is depressed, shattered, and driven to madness. His hatred, disillusionment and pain shine as bright as a star and transform into “obdurate pride and steadfast hate.” Now, Lucifer finds his ultimate purpose in desecrating himself and God’s creations—violating rather than being violated. He finally has the power to create, and his creation is sin, setting Heaven ablaze to simultaneously purge and share his devastation. His consciousness shatters into conflicted pieces all screaming for returned innocence and consuming worship of God; for rivers of blood; for consignment to the void. . . for Michael to save them.
Nicolás’ portrayal of the end is gut-wrenching, and narrator Lance West does an excellent job conveying this and the story’s pathos. From the first, Lucifer feels out of place, and West conveys this and Lucifer’s curiosity, despair, shame, devotion, and eventual transgression excellently. I really enjoyed Lucifer’s voice; it has a slightly slower cadence and tonal flatness than everyone else’s. It’s a small vocal modulation that subtly marks Lucifer out from his peers that I appreciated. West leans into the lyrical quality of the prose, mimicking its softness (even when conveying horror). He provides movement to the slowly paced narrative and causes the nuanced hints of peril to resonate.
Though Angels Before Man is too long and has prose that can be too purple and too slow, the story is very affective. I grew up in a very religious, evangelizing Christian church, so many aspects of Lucifer’s trauma are felt acutely. However, I believe the emotionality, evocative language, and narrative style will sweep others into the story, regardless of one’s position on the religiosity scale.
This is a re-edited re-release of the version originally published in 2022.
