Envy of Angels: A Sin du Jour Affair

This was SO MUCH FUN! Before I say anything more about this Tor.com novella, let me tell you that if you feel down and you just want a quick adventure with great humor, go pick this up. I'm so excited that a sequel novella is coming out this year.

ENVY OF ANGELS
by Matt Wallace

Published by: Tor.com, 2015
Ebook: 225 pages
Series: Sin du Jour #1
My rating: 7,5/10

First sentence: A hotel room in São Paulo is the third worst place in the world in which to go into cardiac arrest.

In New York, eating out can be hell.
Everyone loves a well-catered event, and the supernatural community is no different, but where do demons go to satisfy their culinary cravings?
Welcome to Sin du Jour -- where devils on horseback are the clients, not the dish.

The Sin du Jour is a New York catering service. For demons. Darren and Lena, two chefs out of work, can't believe their luck when they are hired by celebrity chef "Bronko" Luck to help out for a big event but when they arrive at Sin du Jour, things are... weird. They're not allowed to get fresh ingredients themselves because, well, let's say they don't only stock meats and vegetables here but also giant killer monsters that want to eat you. Hilarity ensues.

Matt Wallace has written a seriously fun and funny story about a restaurant for the supernaturally inclined. Throwing Darren and Lena into this formerly unknown world is a great way to introduce readers to the craziness that is Sin du Jour. A parallel storyline tells of four Sin du Jour veterans who go out to get more ingredients – and "ingredients" could mean literally anything in this case. I immediately fell in love with the dynamics between stoic Ritter, quick Cindy, Moon, and hulking Hara when they do one of their missions.

The big conflict of Envy of Angels is the fact that, for this big diplomatic meetings between two enemy demon tribes, they are supposed to serve angel. A real coming-from-heaven angel. And while preparing all sorts of wild creatures for demons may have a detrimental effect on your morality code, that is something most people at Sin du Jour feel a bit uncomfortable with. So they need a plan.

Apart from characters with great potential (yay for the sequel!), Matt Wallace is really good at writing funny dialogue and scenes that play out in your head like an action movie. There are a few twists and surprises along the way that always hit the mark and were usually as creepy as they were hilarious. The writing is worksmanlike, the pacing is perfect, this adventure is impossible to put down. I also loved the references to a certain fast food restaurant chain and its famed-for-its-secrecy recipe. And once you read the story, you realise just how perfect that cover is.

This novella also makes me appreciate Tor.com all the more for offering such a variety of stories in their 2015 novella line-up. We've had stories with the purplest of prose (Sorcerer of the Wildeeps), urban fantasy about modern small-town witches (Witches of Lychford), a first contact story in space (Binti), a fairy story about changelings (Domnall and the Borrowed Child), the gorgeous perfection that is Angela Slatter (Of Sorrow and Such), and all sorts of other fantasies that I haven't discovered yet. The often rather dark tales are interrupted by this funny urban fantasy romp that doesn't take itself too seriously. Tor.com know their readers and they also know we don't only like one thing. I loved Binti and Witches of Lychford to bits (nothing needs to be said about Angela Slatter, you know I'd read her shopping list and love it), but I also adored Matt Wallace's fictional restaurants with its chefs, busboys, and ingredient-hunting crew. Let's hope Tor.com continue giving us such varied stories in 2016.

MY RATING: 7,5/10 -- Excellent fun!