From Publishers Weekly
God is dead and the universe is breaking down in this climactic entry in Stableford's dark fantasy trilogy, which began with The Werewolves of London and continued with The Angel of Pain. Still alive are seven fallen angels who are fearful about what to do with the rest of their existences. To determine their futures, they pit their energies against each other in the likenesses of men at war. The story, which is as much a demonology as a novel, begins with Anatole, a French atheist wounded in France during WWI who finds himself tortured by agents of Satan, saved by Jeanne d'Arc and given a message he must carry to arthritic David Lydyard, retired English metascientist-and protagonist of the two prequels-who now thinks he's Satan. Stableford attempts a kind of Gray's Anatomy of the sensibilities of God-less angels as they try to grasp their own beginnings and shape their futures. With its cast of angels and world-wandering werewolves and a plot that considers space and matter, the death of Earth and a last chance for humanity, this richly inventive, sometimes achingly dense novel assures Stableford's place in the front lines of speculative fiction. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
As World War I ravages Europe, a young French soldier returns from the brink of death as the instrument of an otherworldly force that leads him to England. There he confronts a small group of people privy to the secret history of the world. The conclusion of this trilogy, which includes The Werewolves of London (LJ 11/15/92) and The Angel of Pain (Carroll & Graf, 1993), becomes a voyage through time and space as well as a journey into the consciousness of the universe. Fans of speculative fiction will enjoy this ambitious and imaginative novel.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
The conclusion to the dark fantasy trilogy Stableford began with The Werewolves of London (1992) and continued with The Angel of Pain is set in 1918, the climax of World War I. David Lydyard is again sent off on another adventure on behalf of the mysterious, otherworldly but not standard-issue angels. He is again involved with archrival Jacob Harkender and London's surviving werewolves (affected, like everyone else, by the war), and he encounters a French soldier mortally wounded in the trenches and translated at the last moment to the angels' sphere of existence. As literate and meticulously done as its predecessors, Stableford's latest is particularly notable for its First World War setting, one that seems an obvious candidate for a horror milieu yet also seems to have been previously largely overlooked. Roland Green

ANNOTATION

God is dead, and seven remaining fallen angels carry on their eternal battle through human agents. Now, while the Great War rages in Europe, David Lydyard embarks on his final supernatural quest. With a French soldier miraculously rescued from death for an ally against his old enemies, Lynyard penetrates the nature of angels and their interference in human affairs.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

It is 1918, twenty-five years have passed since Lydyard took part in an oracle constructed by the "angels" and the time has come for him to undertake a far bolder adventure on their behalf. It is an adventure that will also involve his arch-rival Jacob Harkender, the werewolves of London, and a young French soldier snatched from death on the battlefield into a world where all his distinctions between working and dreaming have been lost. The subsequent journey to the limits of the human imagination reveals at last the nature of the angels and the full consequence of their interference in human affairs.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

God is dead and the universe is breaking down in this climactic entry in Stableford's dark fantasy trilogy, which began with The Werewolves of London and continued with The Angel of Pain. Still alive are seven fallen angels who are fearful about what to do with the rest of their existences. To determine their futures, they pit their energies against each other in the likenesses of men at war. The story, which is as much a demonology as a novel, begins with Anatole, a French atheist wounded in France during WWI who finds himself tortured by agents of Satan, saved by Jeanne d'Arc and given a message he must carry to arthritic David Lydyard, retired English metascientist-and protagonist of the two prequels-who now thinks he's Satan. Stableford attempts a kind of Gray's Anatomy of the sensibilities of God-less angels as they try to grasp their own beginnings and shape their futures. With its cast of angels and world-wandering werewolves and a plot that considers space and matter, the death of Earth and a last chance for humanity, this richly inventive, sometimes achingly dense novel assures Stableford's place in the front lines of speculative fiction. (Dec.)

Library Journal