I don’t enjoy character stories. But when Kris Rusch writes them, I do.
I’m trying to figure out why I liked “Killing the Angel of Death” but the closest I come is “because it kept pulling me forward.”
Not with plot, but with character backstory.
Very, very, very well-executed character backstory.
You could say that most of the book (it’s a fairly short read) happens in the various characters’ heads. It’s their memories, their opinion of each other. They way they interact, the way their fears and traumas interact. It sounds boring, but it is amazing. Kris has a way of making you care for the characters, of seeing them as real people.
Depth, in Dean Wesley Smith’s words.
Killing the Angel of Death has depth galore. It’s full of depth. It’s so depth-filled that you can jump into it and float away for a few hours.
Highly recommended for all you writers who want to study an example of excellent craft. And for the rest of you, who just want a good book, yeah, you should read it, too.
Blurb
When Roderigo and Izzy form a group to stop the Angel of Death from taking more innocent lives, they realize they need help. One by one, Roderigo recruits people who see the Angel, who know its evil magic, who suffer from the damage the Angel wreaks.
When Roderigo enlists the newest recruit—a war-damaged sniper—he achieves the formula for the group’s ultimate success. But he might have just doomed the group to the ultimate failure.
A gut-wrenching story about love, loss, and the powerful inevitability of grief.
