A turbulent and exhilarating exploration of faith and fanaticism, the lies people are willing to tell themselves, and the lines between lying to others and lying to yourself. How long can you grapple with something you don't understand before it sends you leaping to unfathomable conclusions? The prose is sharp and brilliant, evocative and lush. The dialogue is grounded and earthy, very much like real people. The world is expansive and also, at the same time, small; we see very little of the Empire, but feel the wide-reaching expanses of its space. This book is, quite frankly, so exactly and extremely my shit that I wouldn't have rated it less than 5 stars unless it did something TRULY unforgivable with the ending, which it did not. This is a book about angels and weaponized faith and queerness in similar but also very different ways to Hell Followed With Us but if you liked one, you'll probably like the other. The same holds for the sci-fi seasons of actual play podcast Friends at the Table, which exude vibes so similar to this book I have to wonder if Neon Yang has ever listened to it!