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Dancing on the Head of a Pin A Remy Chandler Novel Thomas E Sniegoski Books

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Dancing on the Head of a Pin A Remy Chandler Novel Thomas E Sniegoski Books

I really like the concept of Remy Chandler: an angel who willingly gave up Heaven after the War, despite having fought on the "right" side the whole time, who masquerades as a human for centuries and in modern times falls in love with a woman and marries her, while also taking on work as a private investigator. In the first novel of the series, A Kiss Before the Apocalypse, Remy's loving wife Madeleine is terminally-ill, and he is stuck working a case that quickly goes from normal to paranormal and which ultimately has an affect on the last days of his wife's life.

This second Remy Chandler novel stumbles a bit out of the gate. Whereas the first book capably introduced the main character and his emotional baggage and his supporting cast (in addition to terminally ill wife Maddy, there are Remy's best friends: his dog Marlowe, a homicide detective named Steven Mulvehill, and a fallen angel seeking redemption named Francis) and then set him (and some of his supporting cast) on a fast-paced "end of the world" adventure, this book plods along a bit and shucks most of the supporting cast right away.

The shucking of the supporting cast is a shame. While it makes sense to get the dog out of the story for long periods (because, let's face it, some of the situations an Angel encounters are just guaranteed to kill a dog, even one as smart as Marlowe), the sidelining of Mulvehill and Francis bothered me. At least Francis gets a handful of good scenes, a bit of a subplot, and his sidelining is an important part of the main story. Poor Mulvehill is stuck with sappy sidekick / supportive friend dialogue that turns an endearing character into a mouthpiece for the author -- saying things to Remy that the character needs to hear in order to move past his emotional baggage.

On the upside, even with Madeleine dead (no spoiler there, it's on the back cover), she is still a strong presence in the book -- stronger than the rest of the still-living supporting characters combined. I hope that Sniegoski continues to let Madeleine or, rather, Remy's memories of her, be a part of the story. Yes, if the series lasts, Remy will eventually have to move past his lost and find a new love interest (and there are hints toward that direction in this book), but Maddy should never be far from Remy's thoughts. She'd approve of his moving on.

Sneigoski writes the banter between Remy and Marlowe very well; perhaps the best-developed and most realistically portrayed friendship in the book. Which again, is not saying much for the rest of the supporting cast's role in this book.

Ultimately, as others have pointed out, this is the "set-up" book. In the first book, we were introduced to some of the other earth-bound Angelic community: characters like Francis, a fallen angel who partway through the War repented, and was sentenced to Earth for penance, and groups like the Grigori. This time we meet The Nomads (Angels who decided not to choose sides during the War), Denizens (fallen angels who did not repent, were sentenced to Hell for the first part of their penance, and eventually released to Earth for the second penance phase), and Offspring (the child of a Denizen and a mortal). Sniegoski is expanding his universe in this book, giving us peeks into what the rest of the Angelic (Heavenly, Earthbound and Fallen) are doing. Unfortunately, in at least one major plot point, the actions of a particular Angelic community end up not making too much sense because they are never really explained clearly enough.

There are a ton of story arcs that are introduced; more than enough to help Remy have the same long career Harry Dresden is having ... as long as the author tightens up his storytelling a bit and actually takes some time to develop the supporting cast and let us get to know them so that their actions have some emotional impact on us. While I enjoyed the second Remy book, it could have been so much better.

The third book in the series, Where Angels Fear To Tread, came out today and I will be reading it right away, while the second book is fresh in my mind.


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Dancing on the Head of a Pin A Remy Chandler Novel Thomas E Sniegoski Books Reviews

This is the second Remy Chandler novel which is the follow-up to the great series opener A Kiss Before the Apocalyse. Sniegoski is still a fairly new writer to me even though he has been around for more than a decade, although the Remy books are his first solo foray into adult books as he is very well known for his YA Fallen series.

Dancing on the Head of a Pin sees Remy Chandler, also known as Remial of the angel host Seraphim, getting sucked into more of the heavenly host's business. After losing his human wife Remy is still going through a lot of grief. He is struggling to hold on to his humanity as his great link has left him. I love the Remy character and how Sniegoski has built him up with a better sense of humanity than most people posses. Marlowe, Remy's always lovable dog, does a great job of keeping Remy connected to the human world, but after releasing his angelic nature Remy is finding it harder and harder to keep his thoughts in the human world.

Remy starts off by investigating the selling of angel organs by a group of the Fallen. Remy eventually finds the angel in question and witnesses him dying. Remy feels obligated to tell the group of Nomads the angel came from about his demise. The Nomads are another sect of Angels who sat out the Morningstar's war with heaven, while the Fallen are the angels who fought on the Morningstar's (Devil) side. They have no place in heaven nor hell and have lived on the earth for a millennia contemplating what they should have done during the great war.

Remy is soon hired by an old wealthy collector of antique weapons to recover a special group of weapons recently stolen from him. Remy learns the weapons are the legendary pitiless weapons. These are weapons of great strength more than equal to any other ever created. Remy uncovers the first of the pitiless weapons, which leads him into the deeper and darker mysteries of why the weapons were stolen and what their true purpose is. The weapons don't get much play until the end of the book are used very swiftly and could have easily been over done given their strength.

Dealings with the Fallen and a Nephlim bring out more players in the game including Hellions. Hellions are kind of like giant evil hyenas who keep things inline over Hell and its inhabitants. Sniegoski keeps surprising me with the myriad of angelic creatures and sects involved. Hopefully he can keep this up in further books. Remy eventually uncovers who is behind all of the happenings and what they are planning The ending wasn't quite what I expected, but it worked really well, especially in setting up bigger events for future books. Sniegoski almost makes we want to go back and read the bible for pure entertainment given the cast of characters and creatures he employs. I give Dancing on the Head of a Pin 8 out of 10 hats.

It is definitely advisable to read A Kiss Before the Apocalypse first, which was just released in Mass Market format, although Dancing could be enjoyed on its own. The 3rd volume Where Angels Fear to Tread should be released next April 2010.
This is the second Remy Chandler book I've read, and it will be the last. I agree with other reviewers who describe the concept of an angel on earth as full of potential, but the writing as mediocre and leaden. I read about half and then skimmed through the rest. Got so tired of Remy's constant pining for his lost wife. Probably the best written character is Remy's black lab—Remy can talk to animals. You'll either like it or you won't. I couldn't get to a point where I cared what happened.
Remy is a disillusioned angel who has long ago left heaven to live as a human. He's currently making a living as a PI, but the love of his life has recently passed away and emissaries from both heaven and hell have increasingly intruded in his life making the angelic aspects he has kept hidden grow less under his control. Things do not look to improve with his latest case. A collector of rare artifacts wants some antiquities that were recently stolen from him hunted down and returned. The items, Remy learns, are powerful weapons that have long been hidden, and rightfully so because in the wrong hands they can spell unimaginable disaster. And it seems as if the wrong hands are close to gaining control of the weapons... demons and dark powers are plotting, and once again Remy is needed to aid against a dark fate for earth as well as Heaven.

Second book in an urban fantasy/mystery series that makes thorough and free use of Christian and apocryphal concepts of celestial and demonic orders and mythologies. This outing is even better than the first, in many way. Very tightly written and quick-paced with lots of action. Remy and his simple love of humanity and ordinary things can be a bit overwhelmed by all the fireworks, but it remains at the center to give perspective and heart to the tale.
I really like the concept of Remy Chandler an angel who willingly gave up Heaven after the War, despite having fought on the "right" side the whole time, who masquerades as a human for centuries and in modern times falls in love with a woman and marries her, while also taking on work as a private investigator. In the first novel of the series, A Kiss Before the Apocalypse, Remy's loving wife Madeleine is terminally-ill, and he is stuck working a case that quickly goes from normal to paranormal and which ultimately has an affect on the last days of his wife's life.

This second Remy Chandler novel stumbles a bit out of the gate. Whereas the first book capably introduced the main character and his emotional baggage and his supporting cast (in addition to terminally ill wife Maddy, there are Remy's best friends his dog Marlowe, a homicide detective named Steven Mulvehill, and a fallen angel seeking redemption named Francis) and then set him (and some of his supporting cast) on a fast-paced "end of the world" adventure, this book plods along a bit and shucks most of the supporting cast right away.

The shucking of the supporting cast is a shame. While it makes sense to get the dog out of the story for long periods (because, let's face it, some of the situations an Angel encounters are just guaranteed to kill a dog, even one as smart as Marlowe), the sidelining of Mulvehill and Francis bothered me. At least Francis gets a handful of good scenes, a bit of a subplot, and his sidelining is an important part of the main story. Poor Mulvehill is stuck with sappy sidekick / supportive friend dialogue that turns an endearing character into a mouthpiece for the author -- saying things to Remy that the character needs to hear in order to move past his emotional baggage.

On the upside, even with Madeleine dead (no spoiler there, it's on the back cover), she is still a strong presence in the book -- stronger than the rest of the still-living supporting characters combined. I hope that Sniegoski continues to let Madeleine or, rather, Remy's memories of her, be a part of the story. Yes, if the series lasts, Remy will eventually have to move past his lost and find a new love interest (and there are hints toward that direction in this book), but Maddy should never be far from Remy's thoughts. She'd approve of his moving on.

Sneigoski writes the banter between Remy and Marlowe very well; perhaps the best-developed and most realistically portrayed friendship in the book. Which again, is not saying much for the rest of the supporting cast's role in this book.

Ultimately, as others have pointed out, this is the "set-up" book. In the first book, we were introduced to some of the other earth-bound Angelic community characters like Francis, a fallen angel who partway through the War repented, and was sentenced to Earth for penance, and groups like the Grigori. This time we meet The Nomads (Angels who decided not to choose sides during the War), Denizens (fallen angels who did not repent, were sentenced to Hell for the first part of their penance, and eventually released to Earth for the second penance phase), and Offspring (the child of a Denizen and a mortal). Sniegoski is expanding his universe in this book, giving us peeks into what the rest of the Angelic (Heavenly, Earthbound and Fallen) are doing. Unfortunately, in at least one major plot point, the actions of a particular Angelic community end up not making too much sense because they are never really explained clearly enough.

There are a ton of story arcs that are introduced; more than enough to help Remy have the same long career Harry Dresden is having ... as long as the author tightens up his storytelling a bit and actually takes some time to develop the supporting cast and let us get to know them so that their actions have some emotional impact on us. While I enjoyed the second Remy book, it could have been so much better.

The third book in the series, Where Angels Fear To Tread, came out today and I will be reading it right away, while the second book is fresh in my mind.