Put simply, this was honestly one of the most boring books I have ever read.
I have read many of Anne Rice's Vampire Series books, and while some can be hit and miss, most were very enjoyable. Not so for this book, alas, which seemed like she just couldn't be bothered to make an effort with the unimaginative plot she expects us to swallow. The entire premise of a "redeemed hit-man" and his time travelling angel guide is not so much unrealistic as it is unconvincing and lack lustre. The story goes something like this:- hired hit-man with "bad childhood" meets an angel, the angel casts him back in time to medieval England to help others and redeem himself. The rest of the book is essentially dull page filling and pedantic rambling, neither of which really adds anything to the story, or my attention span for that matter. What makes it even less bearable is the way that Anne Rice spends pages ranting about religious themes, saints, god, and Christian salvation (Catholic, mostly)... thanks Anne, but I can get that kind of patronising stuff with any religious channel on satellite, cheers. On top of that, I can only assume she got paid handsomely for the many ingratiating pages she wrote on the real life hotel mentioned at the start of the book, which reads more like a obsequious travel brochure.
This book was a herculean struggle to get to the end:- its dull, boring, unconvincing, unimaginative, and the overbearing (not to mention endless) religious nonsense made it less of a story than it did sanctimonious preaching. Anne Rice has lost her flair, and I certainly won't be buying the promised sequels... watching paint dry in a catholic church will have the same effect, and for less money.
