Chaos has fallen over Ystara as the Ash Blood plague has either turned or killed many of the people of this country, and after a century of sleeping in an empty sarcophagus – the mage Liliath emerges unharmed from the fall of her country. Unscathed and unaffected, her awakening does not signal coming peace, no she doesn’t care for her people. Instead Liliath sets her sights on four young Sarancians, as they all hold something she needs to complete her quest, one that brings death and destruction with it.

The Angel Mage by Garth Nix follows a three musketeers style story, with even several characters from The Three Musketeers appearing. It handles an enchantingly complex magic system revolving around angels, and the best part? It focuses on the effects of calling on angels for magic – as humans cannot fully comprehend the beings before them when called.

So not only does this book have a stunning cover, it has a unique start involving angels and magic! So is it worth reading? Honestly, it depends on what aspects of a story are important to you.

To start off, this book’s strongest points are its magic and its characters. The biblically accurate angels, well, they aren’t exactly biblically accurate as much as they are described as being beyond human comprehension yet we still get glimmers of understanding by looking at them.

The descriptions, despite being unable to fully paint an image really drive home that idea of something different from what humans naturally see, and the effects of using one for magic is my all time favorite! I adore magic that comes at a cost, and while one character is unique in her abilities in dealing with angels it is well portrayed and doesn’t feel like main character plot armor. The magic system revolving around calling angels to use their powers, but in turn it would age your body or deteriorate it further was the strongest feature of this book!

The characters that make up the cast are pretty diverse, the main four Sarancians are Simeon a doctor in training, Agnez, a reckless musketeer cadet, Henri, a low clerk, and Dorotea, an icon maker who has a powerful ability to create sketch icons that will call angels. I’d say the characters absolutely carry this story as the plot is more character driven. Liliath is the most intriguing. After waking from her magic slumber for centuries, she begins to lead those who are affected with Ash Blood who could turn into beasts or die if touched by angel magic, they see her as a beacon of hope as they follow her, but is that why she is leading them? To save them? Or complete her quest?

I’m leaving this review pretty open, as I don’t want to spoil things, but now let’s go over what fell short.

To me the descriptions and worldbuilding were very vivid and fascinating, but a lot of the time it was too much to understand at once and led to a lot of being confused and rereading sections. While the cast is diverse and fun, and they definitely drove the plot I feel like they could have had a little more depth.

Also, The Three Musketeers aspect fell flat, and I honestly didn’t even get that it was trying to be like that story beyond taking a few names and using the term musketeer. Maybe if the story was a little faster paced and developed characters further it would be amazing, but as is I’d give it 3 stars. I did give it 5 stars when I first read it when I was younger, but after going back through it again I honestly think I just rated it based on the angel descriptions being majestic and eerie at the same time.

Overall, this story had a good idea, an excellent magic system, and the start of some really fun characters – but in a lot of ways just didn’t meet the set expectations. Despite this, I’d definitely say it’s worth trying once as it is good to read widely and try new stories and this one is definitely different, it’s just not the best.