VIGIL
by Robert Masello
In spite of the clever title for this review, Masello's Vigil is not about anything vigilante-related. With that out of the way, let's dive into this hybrid style adventure, part sci-fi thriller, part Biblical apocalypse.
Jeff Long, author of The Descent, which I enjoyed immensely, gave Vigil very favorable reviews. I enjoyed the book, but Vigil lacks the visceral punch of Long's own Descent and even that of The Omen and The Exorcist, which Long references in his testimonial. Masello's work seems more akin to that of the solo novels of either Douglas Preston or Lincoln Child, co-authors of books such as The Relic, Mount Dragon, and The Ice Limit. Together Preston and Child are a force to be reckoned with. Apart they are entertaining, but lack a certain something.
Masello's work started strong and proceeded to an adequate, even suitably creepy finish, but lost me somewhere in the middle. I was expecting a little more out of this book beyond than "fallen angels are real and they like to impregnate earth women." A muddle of ideas get thrown at the reader only to never properly resolve themselves.
Are these real Biblical angels? Extraterrestrial beings? Masello goes out of his way to show that modern science cannot explain the living fossils which have been carbon dated as older than all other life on earth, but he also takes time to explain that the angels activities predate the church approved Biblical timeline by millions of years.
Do all human women die when they conceive by angelic fathers or just the one unfortunate woman who also swallowed a scrap of the ancient scroll? A scrap of scroll which, incidentally, turns out to be the membranous skin of the angel's bat-like wings.
Somewhere along the line the direction of Vigil lost its way, but it suitably delivers in most respects. Try it if you're in the mood for Preston/Child Lite.