Last week, I let you know that I was currently reading Teresa Frohock’s Carved From Stone And Dream (Los Nefilim #2) — and now I’ve finished reading so it’s time to share my thoughts!

As I also shared last week, I’m both a friend-in-writing of Teresa’s and a fan of her writing, which I’ve discussed previously in the following posts:

Miserere — An Autumn Tale

The Los Nefilim Novella Trilogy

On the Supernatural Underground: Year Of Romance #8: Endless Love in Where Oblivion Lives

So onto the most important question first: did I enjoy it? And the answer is, perhaps not so surprisingly: Yes, I definitely did — enough to finish reading it (from about a third of the way through, gulp!) in one evening sitting. (Yep, I had reached “point non-plus” with my own writing for the day! 🙂 )

The Los Nefilim Storyline

Just to give a quick outline, the Los Nefilim series commenced with a series of three linked novellas (Los Nefilim) set in pre- Spanish Civil War Barcelona. The central premise of the series is that the eternal conflict between angels and demons is  largely played out on the human plane between foot-soldier armies of nephilim, the hybrid offspring of human pairings with angels or demons respectively. (The ‘nefilim’ of the series title is simply the Spanish form of ‘nephilim.’) The nefilim are not immortal, but are eternally reborn to serve in the war-without-end between heaven and hell. For this reason, the nefilim’s maxim, “Watch for me” is both invocation and prayer, farewell and blessing, but may also be a curse if spoken to an enemy or betrayer.

In Teresa Frohock’s story, begun in Los Nefilim, the cosmic conflict both mirrors and intersects Spain’s descent into Civil War. The main character, Diago, is unusual for a nephilim in that he is of both demon and angel descent, although he has chosen to serve with an angel-aligned cohort of nefilim, led by Guillermo. The other main characters include Miquel, Diago’s husband and Guillermo’s second-in-command; Rafael, Diago’s son, whose mother was also an angel; Ysa, Guillermo’s daughter and heir-apparent; and Jordi, Guillermo’s half-brother and the antagonist who wishes to usurp his leadership of the Spanish nefilim.

The Los Nefilim story continued in the first of three novels, Where Oblivion Lives, at the very outbreak of the Civil War, with the action split between Spain and (Nazi) Germany. The recently released Carved From Stone And Dream is the second of the novel trilogy and brings the reader forward six years, to 1939 and the end of the Civil War, when the Republican government’s forces are effectively defeated and fleeing Spain and the reprisals of the Nationalist (rebel) forces of General Franco.

My Thoughts On The Story

Given Where Oblivion Lives ends in 1933 and at the beginning of the Civil War I was surprised,  on reading the back cover, to learn that the Carved From Stone And Dream story had leapt over the six years of the Civil War to the Republican defeat. Huge events took place during this period so I was curious to see how Teresa would handle the time jump without suspending my disbelief (or in this case, belief 🙂 ) as a reader.

Needless to say, being Teresa she did it in masterly fashion, by means of a prologue of dispatches that swiftly bring the action from 1936 to 1939 and the flight of Republican adherents: both their troops (which include Guillermo’s Los Nefilim) and civilian refugees. I also reminded myself, in the spirit of my current worldbuilding post series on Supernatural Underground, that Los Nefilim is not about the Spanish Civil War as such. Rather, the civil conflict forms the backdrop to much of the worldbuilding, particularly the intersection of the paranormal and human worlds. But the main story is about the paranormal conflict and Diago’s endeavour to reconcile his demonic and angelic heritage. Secondarily, it’s also about the conflict between Guillermo and Jordi, with control of Los Nefilim, but increasingly the fate of the human world, at stake.

Nonetheless, the aftermath of the Civil War plays an important part in framing the paranormal story, from Diago and Guillermo’s flight through the Pyrenees, the dreadful conditions of the camp where Spanish refugees were interned in France, the often-eroded loyalties of the defeated, and the imminence of World War 2, which is this story is being orchestrated by Jordi in alliance with the German nephilim. In Carved From Stone And Dream Miquel in particular is tested by the brutality of the the fascist-aligned regime Jordi is orchestrating, as well as by the attempt to raise an army of fallen angels.

The heart of the Los Nefilim story is always the relationship between Diago and Miquel, and their relationship as parents with their son, Rafael. The latter in particular, now fourteen and on the cusp of adulthood, plays  a more prominent part in Carved From Stone And Dream with his insight into his own song (aka nefilim power) influencing a deeper understanding of Diago’s own.

When I featured the  Year Of Romance #8: Endless Love in Where Oblivion Lives post on the Supernatural Underground, I wrote that: “If challenged to come up with a single adjective to describe Diago and Miquel, the word would be “fidelity.” In Carved From Stone And Dream the quality of fidelity extends beyond their personal relationship and immediate family, to choices about where they stand and what they are prepared to do to survive the darkness of the Civil War and the about-to-break storm of World War 2.

If you’re already a Los Nefilim reader then I’m sure you’ll enjoy Carved From Stone And Dream. Publishers Weekly certainly did, awarding it a prestigious starred review. Similarly, if you like well researched, well crafted historical fantasy then I think the entire Los Nefilim series is definitely worth checking out.

As for Los Nefilim #3, like other readers of the series, I shall be watching for it. 🙂