A flaming wheel covered in eyes! A chimera of wings and light! An unfathomably terrifying divine abomination paradoxically telling you “be not afraid!” While TikTok might try to say otherwise, these examples of “biblically accurate angels” are neither biblical, accurate, nor angelic (discuss). According to biblical scholarship, angels just looked like regular dudes, not heavy metal visions of radiant glory. Thankfully, these fantasy authors didn’t get the memo, and decided to let their imaginations fly to the heights of Heaven on dove feathered wings. These are 10 best fantasy books about angels, featuring angels of all kinds.
His Dark Materials
The flagship angel fantasy novel, Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is an undisputed classic. Inspired by the OG Bible fanfic Paradise Lost by John Milton, this story follows a young girl named Lyra on a quest to topple Heaven. After learning about a secret metaphysical substance that a world ruling church would rather keep under wraps, Lyra vaults across the multiverse in order to seek out reality’s ultimate truth. While angels don’t appear until the second book of the trilogy, The Subtle Knife, their guiding presence is felt throughout The Golden Compass – directing Lyra on her quest through the titular way-finder in her possession. Powerful, otherworldly, and deliciously queer-coded, the angels of His Dark Materials are some of fantasy’s best.
Kill Six Billion Demons
Tom Parkinson Morgan’s Kill Six Billion Demons is one of the most original takes on angels since John Milton decided to turn Satan into a tragic protagonist. The narrative takes place in Throne, a one-time urban paradise turned into a corpse city by warring divinities. The law is tenuously upheld by an ancient order of angels, who incorporeal essences are bonded to stone bodies, allowing them to physically influence the world around them (usually through awesome angelic kung-fu). After an Earthling barista named Allison is spirited away to Throne and granted godlike power, the taciturn angel 87 White Chain Born In Emptiness Returns To Subdue Evil is forced to serve as her reluctant protector. Each angel in the series fights with the power of 10 anime protagonists, and each are trans/non-binary coded. Win-win.
Hell Followed With Us
Andrew Jospeh White’s Hell Followed With Us is the story of transmasc teen Benji, who was raised by a doomsday cult to bring about the end of the world. Unlike most doomsday cults, this particular organization got their apocalyptic predictions correct, and the world is now tearing itself apart. With his body changing due to the cult’s genetic engineering, Benji flees into the wasteland before the dark clergy can use him to bring about the end times. While on the run, he finds a group of teen rebels led by a charismatic sharpshooter – and Benji is smitten immediately. Balancing trans identity, religious trauma, and first crush love is hard enough – harder still when you’re mutating into an angelic abomination designed to wipe out humanity. But Benji handles it all with heaven-sent grace and aplomb.
Between Two Fires
Christopher Buehlman’s Between Two Fires is set in the Dark Ages, made darker by the looming threat of war between Heaven and Hell. The plot follows a disgraced knight turned highwayman named Thomas, who chances upon a young orphan girl during a botched robbery. Convinced that the girl may hold divine power able to cleanse the land of its growing demon problem, Tomas agrees to take the kid to Avignon – where the Pope is said to be. And so begins a surrogate daddy/daughter adventure through a monster-ravaged world, like a medieval The Last of Us! Most of the angels in this novel are of the “fallen” category, and appear as terrifying demons. But patient readers will be rewarded! The forces of Heaven, including Saint Michael the Archangel himself, make a glorious appearance.
Paradise Lost
The ultimate angel fanfic, John Milton’s Paradise Lost is the pioneer of the genre. One of the most seminal novels ever written, this is Milton’s retelling of the Biblical early days through the eyes of the good book’s chief antagonist: Satan. In a stunning stroke of literary blasphemy that shocked his devout contemporaries, Milton frames Lucifer not as the irredeemable apex of evil, but as a tragic anti-hero. Lucifer’s fall from Heaven is narrated in splendid blank verse, and provides a villain origin story that shows how he went from Paradise’s most beautiful denizen to its most hated exile. Other Bible-famous angels like Raphael and Michael make an appearance, as do a bevy of angels-turned-demons that help Satan build his infernal palace of Pandemonium. When in Hell, it’s good to have company.
The Bone Season
Samatha Shannon’s The Bone Season doesn’t feature angels in the traditional Judeo-Christian sense, but one glimpse at the ethereal extraterrestrials that haunt this novel and their angel-coding will be made clear. The action takes place in The Republic of Scion, a brutally authoritarian regime currently in control of Europe. Under The Republic’s rule, magic is outlawed entirely – but don’t tell that to clairvoyant Paige Mahoney, who uses her powers to make a living in the criminal underground! After she’s caught by the authorities, she’s sent away to a secret city where she discovers the true rulers of Scion: a race of divine extraterrestrials that have been secretly pulling the strings from dimensions beyond. Lucky for Paige, her angelic jailer has an anti-authoritarian streak, and might just help her topple his own people’s government from the inside. The novel carries the rebellious torch of Paradise Lost, and then slowly pours gasoline on it with enemies to lovers romance.
The Satanic Verses
One of the most rhapsodic works of magical realism ever written, Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses is one of a kind. The novel begins with a plane exploding in midair, and the only two survivors find themselves magically transformed while falling out of the sky. Bollywood superstar Gibreel Farishta finds that he’s taken on aspects of the angel Gibreel, the same angel said to have dictated with Quran to Muhammad. Farishta (now sporting a halo) attempts to return to his film star life, but his relationships and career are threatened by his growing belief that he IS the angel Gibreel – and his vivid dreams about Muhammad’s life certainly aren’t helping his delusions. Considering the other plane crash survivor is now sprouting horns and goat hooves and turning into a devil, maybe Gibreel’s angelic transformation isn’t so hard to believe after all? Whimsical, weird, and wildly entertaining, The Satanic Verses is often hailed as one of the greatest works of fiction ever penned.
Hell Is The Absence of God
Despite being a short story, Ted Chiang’s Hell Is The Absence of God packs more literary punch the most full length novels – angelic or otherwise. The story follows Neil Fisk, recently widowed after an angelic visitation caused the death of his wife Sarah. As destructive and as commonplace as earthquakes and tornados, angelic appearances cause widespread chaos across the world. While the existence of God is proven, Neil finds his faith slipping due to grief, and decides to seek out an angelic visitation in order to gain entrance to Heaven and reunite with his wife. Devastating and darkly funny, Chiang’s novel is a meditation on an unjust universe – ruled by an ambivalent kind of God that allows bad things to happen to good people.
Bright’s Passage
Bright’s Passage is the debut novel of Josh Ritter, a singer/songwriter known for his lyrical poetry. Set around the time of World War I, this historical fantasy novel follows Henry Bright, an American soldier who is watched over by angels. Well, one angel, that happened to followed him home from the trenches of France. After a forest fire claims his West Virginia home, Bright is forced to venture out into the world with this cryptic angel for a guide, who assures him that his newborn son will someday serve as the future King of Heaven – whether Bright likes it or not. Lush and lyrical, this novel unspools like the folk songs that Ritter is famous for spinning.
When The Angels Left The Old Country
When The Angels Left The Old Country by Sacha Lamb is an immigrant story centered around unlikely supernatural duo – an angel and a demon. After numerous hardships have caused all the young people to leave their shtetl and seek a new life in America, the angel Uriel and the demon Ashmedai decide to pack up and go too. The pair are on the hunt to rescue an immigrant girl, who mysteriously vanished on her journey out of the old country. Along the way they run into all sorts of characters, both mortal and spiritual, including spurned sapphic lovers, unsavory mob bosses, and the demons that thrive in the infernal bureaucracy of Ellis Island. With the twists and turns of a detective story and the pathos of a turn of the century autobiography, this historical fantasy epic is an unexpected spin on a classic narrative.
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