One line summary: fallen angel turf wars in war-torn Paris. We start with an angel literally falling from heaven, reentry burning up her feathers, the landing breaking her bones; then we shift to the viewpoint of street gangs hurrying to harvest her body parts for magic; then abrupt shift again to another fallen angel, one who heads up one of the Houses of fallen angels and gifted humans which exist in a tense standoff with other similar Houses. The book is heavily atmospheric, with gorgeous passages lingering on the postwar ruin of Paris and the otherworldly beauty of the angels; unfortunately, the plot is confusing and opaque, and the constant viewpoint shifts don’t help. The main character is Phillippe, a former conscript from Vietnam whose powers came from the Jade Emperor; he unwillingly aids the angels in figuring out a murder whose repercussions threaten to bring down one of the main Houses (and also wraps in figures from Greek myth, because why not). I think the major weakness in this book is the lack of character development; de Bodard creates some beautiful characters (one might say too many) but their personalities are static, grating off one another in the same way throughout the entire book. In the end, even though literally earthshaking events have taken place, you don’t really get the feeling that anything has really changed.