Breakaway Books

Authored by Daniel Kraus; Published July 2025; Historical Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Angel Down may have a thoroughly fantastical premise, but it is historical fiction to its core. The subject matter is as down to earth as it can get. 

In the middle of World War I, the under-achieving Private Bagger is given an assignment meant to guarantee his death: find a dying man, audible to all through his horrific shrieks, in the middle of No Man’s Land, and relieve him of his suffering. Bagger discovers that the victim is in fact a female angel, emanating a holy light and curiously familiar. As he works to bring her to safety, all the soldiers surrounding her know exactly what they want from this angel and her power—everyone except Bagger. But what if she can end the war?

Before you pick up Angel Down, there are two warnings I would give you: The whole book is one very long run-on sentence, and it does an excellent job showing just how rotten humanity can be. If you have ever read any book about World War I, you probably have a pretty good mental picture of the setting, including filthy trenches and deadly barbed wire. The novel does not shy away from how nasty this form of warfare is; in fact, if anything, it emphasizes it to highlight the contrast with the bright, pure angel that Private Bagger finds. But how dirty the fighting gets is nothing compared to the sinfulness exposed in men’s souls.

The angel rarely speaks, and yet her mere presence motivates the soldiers to action. Each of them acts on a base desire to exploit her majesty and her power, and it is a depressing sight. Men seeking power, riches, sexual satisfaction—even seeking eternal war. What these men seek ultimately kills them, in a predictable turn of events that illuminates an unfortunate truth of human nature. When Bagger makes it back to his company with the angel, he is shocked at how desperately his military commander wants to prolong the war rather than end it. And yet, it all rings true to what we’ve witnessed in the century since World War I. We ended a horribly large and brutal war, the War to End All Wars, as it was initially known, and how did we react? We signed up for several more. We invented awful ways to make the killing more efficient. The author brilliantly drives this home and somehow, still shows that there is reason to hope because of the righteous acts of individual humans, if not humanity as a collective.

Angel Down is gory and depressing and hopeful all at once—and it will definitely make you think twice about the righteousness of any war.