This came up in Publishers' Weekly some months ago and is in today's Independent (link to the article is here).So, are vampires on the way out and angels on the way in?
Well, yes, but mainly no.
For those of you who have read Devil's Kiss (thanks guys and gals!) you'll know the book centres around Billi's misguided relationship with the Archangel Michael and his plans of humanity, namely the unleashing of the Tenth Plague.
Angels have always been there, well before the vampire. If we follow the development of the modern vampire we follow a trail that takes Edward Cullen to Lestat, to Dracula, to Poladori to Milton and Satan, the first, original and still best literary bad boy. Ask not if the angels are the new vampires but more the vampire was the new angel. I like to think the angels are now reclaiming their original primacy, shoving the vampire back into the earth and coffin. Time for a rest, a long one.
I'm bloody excited about this new take. As the article states the angel's a interesting reflection on our times, especially since we're focusing on fallen angels, those that were good but no longer stand in God's light. Are we, as a society, feeling we've done the same? That we no longer strive towards noble ideals? that we've become tainted by lesser, more earthly desires?
I remember how Devil's Kiss started and my decision to make Michael, the guy who cast down Satan, into the villain of my piece. I've had some flack (though not half as much as feared) for taking a good Biblical figure and casting him in a less than flattering light but angels raise important questions of 'how do we know we are right'? The world's too complex and today's hero may be tomorrow's villain. The Book of Enoch, a tale that never qualified into the Bible, centres around the Grigori, angels sent down to Earth that refused to go back. My version plays on this legend as well as King Solomon, John Dee (said to have communicated with angels) and how righteousness can become a dangerous virtue, maybe the most dangerous.
The poster's for a movie called Legion, with St. Michael going totally badass. Frankly, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that , is there?
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