Rebel

This threadbare dystopian sequel to 2008's Fallen and 2009's Guardian never approaches the heights attained by Delacroix's better-known historical romances (The Snow-White Bride, etc.). Armand and Baruch are a pair of fallen angels determined to assassinate an evil politician and thus inspire beneficent angelic intervention in human affairs. Unknown to them, the mercenary and astoundingly hypersexual assassin Theodora is planning a hit on the Oracle—Delilah from Guardian—at the same event. Both marks escape, Baruch falls into the hands of the Institute (affiliated, naturally, with the Society and the Republic), and Armand and Theodora are left to figure out how to accomplish their goals and make a clean getaway. Delacroix is no world-builder, slapping together half-baked prognostications with tired paranormal tropes. The feeble speculative elements will annoy SF fans, the superficial use of religious themes will annoy believers, and there's more romance and character development in your average obituary. (Sept.)