Review: Angels, Demons, Pistols, Chains and Action
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 24, 2013
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from “Tears of Heaven,” the artwork suggested “Blade Runner” but the early chapters take place in a slave market.  However, it didn’t take long for RA McCandless to draw me in to an exciting tale of adventure and action.The book alternates between two stories: that of a slave called “Water Lilly” and a demon bounty hunter named Del.  Initially I preferred the Del chapters, but about a quarter of the way through the novel, the “Water Lilly” chapters start picking up steam.There is a substantial religious element to “Tears of Heaven” but this is not the literary equivalent of Christian rock.  The appropriate corollary that came to my mind was the 2006 Keanu Reeves flick “Constantine” (although even that’s heavier on the religious influence than “Tears of Heaven”).RA McCandless is a new writer with a strong literary voice.  He’s got a real knack for dialogue, especially in the scenes that show what a tough cookie Del is.  A few of these scenes may go on a touch too long for the tastes of some readers, but I happen to like that kind of thing.  It’s difficult to delete good material for the sake of pace, and personally I’m glad that McCandless (or his editor) didn’t.  It’s also nice to see an editor give a writer a little bit of slack to weave his or her own particular style of narrative.You can tell that this is a professionally published book (it was released with Wild Child Publishing) since it has the polish of a manuscript that has been worked over several times.  It’s a clean work with no grammatical errors.RA McCandless succeeds in taking some familiar story elements and placing them in a unique and vibrant world all his own.  I’ll be looking forward to seeing what happens to these characters in the future.