What readers think of Angel Down, plus links to write your own review.

I almost never read war novels, but I was drawn to this one because both of my grandfathers fought in WWI, a war I have never understood on any level. The writing is unlike anything I've ever read -- and absolutely necessary to experience what is going on. It's one long sentence that never ends -- but don't let that scare you off, the sentence is broken into easily digestible paragraphs, each one beginning with the word "and" and ending with a comma. An endless shriek is heard, and five "loser" GIs are sent into the thick of battle to "take care of it." They discover a mysterious being who seems to be an angel, and each one deals with it in his own way. The story is utterly engaging and the writing is beautiful, full of incredible metaphors. This novel seems to be about the hallucinatory states necessary to survive war's insanity and make sense of it on some kind of moral level.

“Angel Down” by Daniel Kraus has a quirky style that may distract some. It technically consists of one continuous sentence, engaging some and leaving others struggling to take a break, but the action of World War I did not slow down for anyone, so I assume the whirlwind stream of consciousness is by design. Imagine “Saving Private Ryan” years ago.

Since the crew has to euthanize someone instead of saving them, it comes as more of a shock that the being is a heavenly creature, blurring the realistic/fantasy lines in most war literature. We descend into the surreal, as many tales of war violence do. The characters, days, and conflicts start to run together, making it unclear whether you'll enjoy the story.

The process is long, as they locate a spirit, suffer from in-fighting, and learn about themselves. War is hell, and authors have to come up with new ways to show us that. We experience death, wounds, and the overall bewilderment usually associated with the Great War. Adding the mystical only adds to the soldiers’ confusion about their roles.

Books with a late climax require the utmost patience, and Kraus rewards those who stick with him. You have to buy into the fantastical setting and go along for the ride. Is there really a resolution when we discover an entire world we didn’t acknowledge? If our goal is to illuminate the horrors of war, do we reveal anything new?

If you like a more visceral experience, give “Angel Down” a try. I spent long periods wondering what was going on, but the ending tied things together significantly. In a world where “Saving Private Ryan” has been remembered more than “The Thin Red Line,” we have to remember 1998, when the latter had significant supporters. This is why that happened.

I’m not sure what to make of Angel Down, a surreal, at times almost hallucinogenic story of World War I. It certainly gets the gruesome, horrific scenes of war right. At times, it was really hard to listen to. A group of five doughboys, the dregs of their battalion, are given the assignment to enter a no man’s land to rescue the wounded comrade screaming there. But what they encounter, instead, is a fallen Angel. The Angel brings out the best and worst in these five. There’s greed, jealousy, paranoia. Each but Bagger displays egotistical desires. As the Angel says, she is the sword, not the arm. So their wishes lead to more destruction, not less.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Cyril Bagger, a conman and grifter who has survived thus far by always staying behind the lines of engagement. But now, all of a sudden, he’s acting almost heroic at times. I sometimes struggled with the writing. Those who read the book made much of the fact that it’s written as one big run on sentence, but you couldn’t really tell that from the audio narration. It’s just that there were way too many sections that felt overly verbose. Krauss is one of those writers who feels compelled to use 8 adjectives when 2 would do the trick. Yet other descriptions were so spot on, they just grabbed me. The ending turns into a big philosophical diatribe against the evils of man and how things will only get even worse after The War to End All Wars. There was a lot more telling than showing.

I listened to this and while Kirby Heyborne was a fine narrator, I felt it would work better to read this.