Customer Reviews

Dancing on the Head of a Pin: A Remy Chandler Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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 one of those books that you race through because you must know what happens next and how it ends, at the same time wishing it would last forever so you could stay in the world with these characters. Remy Chandler (who works as a PI) is the human guise of Remiel of the host Seraphim who chose to come to earth when Lucifer was bound to the prison of hell. Now, another angelically related case has come to Remy, to recover ancient weapons of power. What they are, what they are for, who wants them, and what Remy does about it weave into a fantastic urban fantasy, with great characters (including Marlowe, the Labrador Retriever). I'm eagerly awaiting the next one. The first (A Kiss Before the Apocalypse) was really good, but this one is truly great

Dancing on the Head of a Pin: A Remy Chandler Novel

Sniegoski does it again, he created another exciting Remy novel that is action packed, with many twists and turns. It kept me on the edge of my seat and glued to the pages. The plot is unpredictable and the characters easily come to life, Remy is strong, intelligent, funny and sensitive. His side kick Marlowe is a love. The setting takes place in Boston and the surrounding cities, which makes it easy for a Bostonian like myself to picture the various places. "Dancing on the Head of a Pin" is a must read.

Remy Chandler is more than just a Private Investigator. He's an angel. But years ago, he left Heaven to live on Earth as just another human. But what Remy has come to found out is that you can't run away from your past or who you are and now, having lost the love of his life, he finds himself turning away from his human life and friends and seeking out his more dangerous, otherworldly past.

His latest case involves the theft of a cache of ancient weapons stolen from a collector who deals with antiquities with a not-so-clean nature. Remy knows the weapons were made eons ago and were imbedded with unbelievable power. Now he has to find and stop them from ending up in the wrong hands of someone who would try to use them for evil to destroy Earth and even Heaven.

And to do that, Remy will have to decide if he's willing to lose his humanity.

Dancing on the Head of a Pin is the second novel in the Remy Chandler series and a wonderful addition it is. Remy is a nicely-developed character who is torn between so being heartbroken over the death of his wife that he is being reckless and isn't sure if he wants to continue to live as a human. Because of that, the reader sees him fight his angel side yet at times it seems like he wants to give in. But not everything is dark and gloomy, Remy has this twisted sense of humor that lightens whatever situation and makes the story even more delightful to read. The plot of the stolen weapons is tight and very focused. Along with the great characters, including the secondary ones, and the action-packed plot, Dancing on the Head of a Pin is an entertaining and smart detective story.

Angels instead of wizards, vampires or werewolves. I like that a lot. I read a couple other books by Sniegoski before this one including the first Remy Chandler book, and I love his treatment of angels.

If you're a fan of season 4 of Supernatural, or if you watched Fallen with your kids, you'll probably like this book. I've been crazy about the paranormal detective genre since To Cast a Deadly Spell was on HBO and this is absolutely one of the better series I've read. I'm looking forward to reading more.

This is the 2nd outing in the series, excluding a novella in Mean Streets. This series is getting good. You care about the characters and the plot is interesting if sometimes a little too simple... I will be very interested to see if Mr. Sniegoski tackle God in future books, his view of heaven's wariors is very Old Testement, and they seem to make a lot of mistakes. Which is odd considering that they dont appear to have much free will. So maybe not mistakes and all part of the bigger picture? At any rate I will definitely read the next Remy novel!

At one point, I was so frustrated I almost threw this book across the room. An angel living as a human, and a private investigator, has a lot of potential. However, after finishing this I realized something. He's not really a PI. Every "case" is just another attempt to restart/prevent another war in heaven. Remy is pulled in to investigate; he fights with himself over the need to release his angel; and the bad guy is probably another angel. Remy doesn't investigate; he gets told what he needs to know (well after he needed to know it).

A man contacts Remy about finding some stolen antique weapons. The weapons turn out to be "The Pitiless," powerful artifacts of evil (which came from heaven, don't get me started on that). The man knows this. He knows what Remy is. But, he doesn't tell Remy. He deliberately handicaps the one person here to help. Remy discovers the truth when he's beaten up by a fallen angel's henchmen (henchangels?). Oh, he gets beaten up a lot for a supposedly great warrior of heaven. Remy has to enter Hell to retrieve the Pitiless. He admits to himself that his human persona won't be enough. So, does he change into an angel before going? No. He jumps in and ends up hanging off a cliff. Does he change now so that his wings can save him? No. He falls a huge distance and is injured. Does he finally change in order to heal himself? Of course not! He waits until he's attacked by a mob of hellhounds to start what is an oddly long process. (This is where the book almost flew.) Now that he's finally an angel, he's still pretty well useless. You'd think his holy powers would be more than a match for fallen angels, cut off from their holy powers, who've been suffering millennia of torment. Nope. He's beaten back only to end up failing in his mission. Just what is the point of Remy Chandler?

Like another reviewer, I felt the contradictions in the world-building hurt the story. Is God good and Lucifer evil? If so, how is it that God is served by war-hungry angels? When Remy ends up at the gates of heaven on the brink of another war he meets Michael. "How does it feel to abandon everything that you are?" the Archangel asked, malice dripping from each and every word. Malice?! From a servant of God, one of Remiel's brothers? And if preventing Lucifer's escape is so important, why was Remiel the only angel working on behalf of God? Remy's refusal to return to heaven has become the elephant in the room. If he believes Lucifer was wrong, then how can he continue to refuse to return to God? Who he loves and misses. But if he does return, no more Remy Chandler novels.

There are good ideas here. Characters with internal conflict are usually interesting, especially Remy's grief over the loss of his wife and struggle to retain his humanity. The twist at the end with Madach was fantastic. I like the idea that hell is not for humans. Fallen angels operating on Earth like the Mafia is damn clever - and could have made for great cases. Sadly, I do not think the above issues can be resolved without a drastic change. And I don't like being frustrated with no payoff.

It was Paradise until the Morningstar let pride and jealousy turned him away from the Creator. He and his allies went to war against those loyal to the Lord. Angel fought angel until Heaven was filled with the dead. Although Archangel Remiel of the host of the Seraphim fought on the winning side against Lucifer and his rebels, he witnessed the atrocities that his squad of angels committed in the name of the Father. He left Heaven in disgust and came to earth where he hid his angelic side to live amidst humans and even loved a human. It has been a few months since his beloved wife died and the grieving Remy Chandler, as he calls himself, finally returns to the life of a twenty-first century Boston private investigator.

Alfred Karnighan hires Remy to find some ancient weapons; artifacts stolen from his collection, which is secured by a thick steal door in his basement. The Fallen want the weapons as does the Nomads, angels allegedly inspired by Remy who left Paradise after he did. They are neutrals who come and go between heaven, hell and earth have a grand plan to use these weapons. To prevent a second tragic war, Remy casts off his human cloak returning to the warrior archangel Remiel goes along with a Fallen and a Repentant angel hoping to go home one day if forgiven, into hell.

The allegorical title referring to medieval philosophy aside, DANCING ON THE HEAD OF A PIN is a powerful urban fantasy starring a hero who knows heaven's occupants were changed by the war; so he wants no part of the new heaven (see A KISS BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE). Still when it matters, Remiel's gut loyalty to the Creator leads him to defend heaven as he loathes the Fallen especially Lucifer whom he holds culpable for Paradise Lost. Readers will feel for Remy and pray he finds redemption and happiness amidst the humans he admires.

Harriet Klausner

What a useless angel! Every bad guy is kicking him around, screwing every case given to him (how he makes living being so lousy PI), he wants to be a good human but without any common sense... we can go like that for a long, long time. Books are truly good reading on rainy days but... you will be grinding your teeth of frustrations at this farce of angel. I don't know how many times I was mumbling, "Get a life, buddy" reading these books. Reminds me some of my beloved old westerns when a good guy is ready to kill a bad guy but hears a teasing words, "comm'on, let's fight like a man to man, mano a mano..." So, here we come again... We all know that at the end of this fight a good guy will kill a bad guy but a question still remains, What this senseless beating was all about? Remy, this is about you; make your mind what do you want to be or the beating will never stop. Besides, without the constant help of some of the bad guys (fallen angels)you would screw up our humanity totally and get yourself killed in the process. Aha, one more thing, Marlove, you are my man, dog...whatever. You are saving his day every day!

I really like this fusion genre of detective story combined with fantasy, and this book has a very good average review. However, the writing was horrible. I couldn't get past 20 pages because I found the bad writing so distracting. Maybe if I had read further I would have liked it better. Maybe the subsequent novels in the series are better written.