I was sent this book for review by the author, and I was curious about it because he’s a local London writer. It’s always nice to read the words of someone who lives in your city.

The book is a slim volume, and explores some interesting themes about right and wrong, Hadron colliders and religion. In a lot of ways, it reads like a comic book, full of action, adventure and interesting concepts about the world and philosophy, without being heavy.

When scientists in Geneva are playing around with dark matter they manage to unleash the dark entities held within. These are creatures that look like angels, who feed of people’s negative emotions, like guilt and shame, their sins, and who start to vaporise humanity.

One priest, with the help of a young man who just happens to be his illegitimate son but doesn’t know it, stand their ground and take on the creatures to save humanity. But with all their own skeletons in the closet, can they withstand the angels? Is the earth doomed?

You know, I think that a lot of you would really like this book, and I think it will please the young adult reader. I think the concept behind this book is really interesting and would make a great horror film too, but I don’t really have that religious background where a priest saving the world really gets to me. I liked that the angels were hidden in science, and that they’re much more like medieval concepts of angelic beings, who destroy and avenge, and see things in black and white, rather than cute cherubic figures. I think exploring the way that science and religion intersect is interesting too, but I felt like while the story initially spoke about a priest who believes science and religion co-exist is then called upon to use forgiveness and holy water to fight the angels… It falls a little flat for me. I guess I’m pro-science, and feel that spirituality has an important place in life, but not at the expense of fact. The book seems to say that religion was right all along, and those pesky scientists just unleashed hell. Perhaps we should give them more credit for also coming up with things like antibiotics, heart surgery, and solar energy…

Read It If: great for young adults, and those of you who love a bit of death and adventure.