Hey'a, everyone! For anyone wondering where my the mid-year book recap posts have got to: those will be up next week, no worries. But I have one last book to give thoughts on first: Heaven Came Down, Bryan Davis's latest release and the first book in the Oculus Gate series. You've probably seen my posts about this book on social media of late (because launch team, yay), and if you have, you may also know that I was waaaaaaaaay behind on reading my ARC of this. But I did read it, and now I have thoughts, so let's get to it!

Thoughts on Heaven Came Down

1. Conceptually, the book is super cool. The idea of false "angels" appearing and taking over by promising world peace (and the existence of a rising resistance faction) seems like something that could happen while still being a unique idea. Plus, the angel situation and a lot of the questions raised by it and the book's events were relevant to today's culture and climate without being so on-the-nose that it became unpleasant. (There's a reason I'm not reading contemporary lit, y'all.)
2. It's not a super-techy post-apocalypse/dystopia. Or, at least, it didn't feel as techy as some. I feel like a lot of post-apocalypse/dystopian settings are either SUPER SCI-FI TECHY or else all tech is gone, but this book occupies a very nice middle ground. It feels like what you'd end up with if a few major disasters had occurred between right now and when the book takes place, preventing tech from advancing too much, but not pushing it unrealistically far back.
3. The plot is very twisty. There were new revelations pretty much every few chapters, so that's cool. The last several chapters were basically a constant stream of "OH STORMS. WHAT THE PUMPERNICKEL JUST HAPPENED. WHAT IS GOING ON. OH STARS." But, y'know, in a good way. (Also, I saw next to nothing coming! Also in a good way! So that's great!)
4. I had mixed feelings on the characters. While everyone is reasonably distinct, very few people actually sound distinct, and I had a harder time getting a read on different personalities than I would've liked. Still, I did manage to develop favorites (Jack!!! Also Iona and Leo!!!), so it's not a complete negative. Just something that I think could've been done better.
5. I also have mixed feelings about the ending. It made sense for the story, both in terms of plot and themes, and it wrapped up the book well while still leaving enough questions that you want to get the next one. But it was still like . . . wow. That just happened. And it was kind of sad, to be honest.

Overall, I'd say it was good — not my favorite Bryan Davis book by a long shot, but still good. If you like dystopian, post-apocalyptic action and suspense, I'd recommend it.

Have you read this book yet? What did you think of it? If you haven't, are you planning to? And what do you think about tech in dystopian and post-apocalyptic storeis? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)