Traitor Angel by H. David Blalock

Today I welcome H. David Blalock, author of the Angelkiller Triad series, to the blog. And while he is telling us why he writes longhand, I will be reviewing Traitor Angel.

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I dislike word processors in general when it comes to creative writing. I see the creative process as personal, and the keyboard simply doesn't seem personal to me. There's too much mechanism between me and the work when I try to use the computer to do my first drafts. I can't touch the work, can't feel it. It's just electrons on a screen without substance. That's why I prefer to write all my initial drafts longhand. I can actually feel the flow of the work at the end of the pen, the pressure against the page is natural and subtly satisfying. I feel the transfer of idea from my mind to the page is more true to the spirit of the work.

I feel more connected to the reader as well because the page is something I can hand to another person that doesn't depend on an intermediary technology. Paper manuscripts don't need batteries. You can read them without a monitor. It's not virtual, it's real. That's what I want my work to be for the reader. Real. And that's why I write longhand.

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Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Seventh Star Press
Buy the book: Amazon
Source: I received an ecopy from the publisher

In Traitor Angel, the second book of the Angelkiller Triad, the war between The Army of Light and The Enemy continues behind the scenes. Unknown to the general population, the battle for control of humanity is heating up.
Jonah Mason, called Angelkiller, faces more than one decision. His Army resistance cell is wounded physically and emotionally, on the brink of falling apart. The mysterious allies calling themselves Knights are pressuring him to abandon his people. Meanwhile, the world outside draws closer to Armageddon.
As Mason and his friends pursue their campaign against Dorian Azrael's global megacorporation, Andlat Enterprises, the stakes get higher with each desperate foray into the enemy's computers. They are fated to lose one of their number and gain an unlikely ally, but any advantage they gain could be fleeting at best.
If they fail, it could mean the end of The Army and all resistance to the forces of Darkness.

What if in the war between good and evil, good had to retreat and evil won. And what if the world did not know evil won but was convinced good had won. Well that is the world created by Blalock.

I always like find a new author who has created a new world for me to discover. Eventhough the fight between good and evil isn’t quite new, the world created by Blalock is. Not only does evil rule without people knowing it, the story is partly set in an advance virtual reality.

I really enjoyed Traitor Angel. It is a fast read, with lots of plotting, action and leaves a lot of questions unanswered. It felt like this was a build up to a great finale with the third installment.

I do recommend to read the first book in this series, AngelKiller, first. I haven’t read AngelKiller yet and at times I really felt I missed something. So I will be reading AngelKiller real soon.

My rating: 3/5

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H. David Blalock has been writing speculative fiction for nearly 40 years. His work has appeared in print and online in over three dozen publications, spanning every format from short stories to novels, non-fiction articles to screenplays. He is also editor of _parABnormal Digest_ for Sam's Dot Publishing. To find out more visit his website at www.thrankeep.com.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book for review from Seventh Star Press author as part of a virtual book tour. I was not compensated nor was I required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”