Rebecca Roanhorse

Celeste, a card sharp with a need for justice, takes on the role of advocatus diaboli, to defend her sister Mariel, accused of murdering a Virtue, a member of the ruling class of this mining town, in a new world of dark fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of ‘Black Sun’, Rebecca Roanhorse.

The year is 1883 and the mining town of Goetia is booming as prospectors from near and far come to mine the powerful new element Divinity from the high mountains of Colorado with the help of the pariahs of society known as the Fallen. The Fallen are the descendants of demonkind living amongst the Virtues, the winners in an ancient war, with the descendants of both sides choosing to live alongside Abaddon’s mountain in this tale of the mythological West from the bestselling mastermind Rebecca Roanhorse.

Tread of Angels

• This little novella packs such a punch. It has so many aspects that are done so well. You can almost smell the smoke in the air, the grit under your fingernails. A Western fantasy with angels and demons, romance elements, and a murder mystery to cap it all off.

I have been so intrigued by Roanhorse's writing since reading black sun, and Tread of Angels is an amazing show of her mesmerising, hypnotic style.

There is a deep divide between the Elect and the Fallen, a line especially distinct in Goetic. The elect sitting so righteously in their halls, lighted with divinity, with all amenities, all powered by divinity. The fallen live in their slums and run their dens of sin, or so the elect view it.

Because that's the greatest irony. They need the fallen.

They need them for their sense of divinity. To locate and mine the substance that powers their world, and despite this, they still view them as animals.

Celeste deals cards and stabs customers - not the best of habits but oh well. Her world is turned upside down when her sister, Mariel, is arrested by the Elect for murder. As fallen they all know its only a matter of time before she is pronounce guilty and hanged - no matter her innocence.

But Celeste will stop and nothing to defend her sister.

This book is filled with a sense of dread. It is harsh and cruel, but also so well done. I didn't enjoy reading it, but I can appreciate how well written it is, and how the sense of dread was probably intended.

Alice Hyman

• This little novella packs such a punch. It has so many aspects that are done so well. You can almost smell the smoke in the air, the grit under your fingernails. A Western fantasy with angels and demons, romance elements, and a murder mystery to cap it all off.

I have been so intrigued by Roanhorse's writing since reading black sun, and Tread of Angels is an amazing show of her mesmerising, hypnotic style.

There is a deep divide between the Elect and the Fallen, a line especially distinct in Goetic. The elect sitting so righteously in their halls, lighted with divinity, with all amenities, all powered by divinity. The fallen live in their slums and run their dens of sin, or so the elect view it.

Because that's the greatest irony. They need the fallen.

They need them for their sense of divinity. To locate and mine the substance that powers their world, and despite this, they still view them as animals.

Celeste deals cards and stabs customers - not the best of habits but oh well. Her world is turned upside down when her sister, Mariel, is arrested by the Elect for murder. As fallen they all know its only a matter of time before she is pronounce guilty and hanged - no matter her innocence.

But Celeste will stop and nothing to defend her sister.

This book is filled with a sense of dread. It is harsh and cruel, but also so well done. I didn't enjoy reading it, but I can appreciate how well written it is, and how the sense of dread was probably intended.

Tread of Angels

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