Sons of Heaven & Hell

(5 stars)
Tal Frost has created quite the paranormal “War and Peace” with this series, and I have to say, I’m pretty impressed, both by the quality of the writing, and the control of an extremely long narrative. Frost has already pulled us deep into the hearts and minds of his main characters, and has used his many pages to plumb the complications of these young people living in a small town in the northern highlands of Scotland.

As with the first book, I was concerned at my own ability to cope with the emotional stress of volume 2. For all the triumph of book 1, there was no resolution to the bigger issue of Jin Harding’s demon father and his long-term plans. I knew that the angst and pain that these teenagers were going to suffer would be, at times, hard to read. Frost, however, managed all my fears and expectations expertly.

By the end of book 1 of the Hammer Falls series, I was already in love with Sam Gillespie, the ordinary mortal teenaged boy with endless curiosity and profound knowledge of the arcana of pop culture. He becomes the emotional and moral center of this massive story.

More complex are the other, non-human teenagers. The entire plot revolves around the half-Korean, half-demon Jin Harding. Jin is prickly and difficult, but in the second volume we understand him, and care about him and the (literal) hell he’s been through. Indeed, the fact that Jin has any emotional ability at all is testimony to his strength (even if he doesn’t quite understand that).

The half-angel Nate Crow, Jin’s boyfriend, plays his role in book 2 largely from the sidelines, having been suddenly whisked off to the island seminary where his training as a demon stalker switches into full gear. His family has a dark history, and he is treated like a pariah at the seminary for the sins of his father—while at the same time raising questions in his own mind about his father’s guilt or innocence. In spite of his loving siblings, Nate has to deal with an emotionally withholding mother, and a family legacy of, well, demon stalking. Being isolated from Jin, whose love has been the chief source of happiness in his life, is painful.

Sam Gillespie’s relationship with the formerly-closeted beautiful jock werebear Marshall Mason is the other complicated pairing that drives the story. Sam’s love seems to have transformed Marshall, but Marshall finds himself trapped in a (literally) demonic plot against his will. This is the single most uncomfortable part of book 2, and the author is relentless and calculating in the way the reader is pulled into Marshall’s wretched dilemma. Whatever Nate and Jin suffer from their forced separation is nothing compared to the hellish choices facing Marshall.

All of the secondary characters from book 1 are there, once again on the alert for any danger regarding Jin. The fact that none of Jin’s friends, or even his sorcerer/policeman uncle Phineas, really understand what’s going on, make’s Marshall’s position a double-edged problem. The reader is literally the only participant in this drama who understands what Marshall is going through.

I have to point out, that for all the dark magic and strong emotion, this is quite literally a teenage romance about the trials of being in high school. Perhaps the most brilliant bit of Frost’s storytelling is the fact that this is quite intentionally all about the drama of being a teenager. Having grafted that basic story structure onto a gruesome paranormal thriller about demons and existential threats is both hilarious and telling. Being a teenager is hell; just not usually this literally.

Also, there is a great deal of intense, hormone-driven teenage physical intimacy here. It is not gratuitous, because the plot insists on it. Jin quite literally builds his power against the evil threatening him because of his intense emotional ties to Nate, Sam and Marshall—and to a lesser but significant extent the larger friend-group at school in Hammer Falls. Jin is trying to find his own magic, to use it as a defense against whatever horror his father has in mind. Once again Frost handles this well, and in the process deals with some very uncomfortable real-life issues regarding love, lust, loyalty and relationship dynamics.

There is a third book promised in this series, and I know I’m going to enjoy it. Jin, Sam, Nate, and Marshall have a lot to figure out still, and it’s not only about Ashmedai and his demonic plans for Hammer Falls.