Rating: 
Summary: Very beautiful story, with familiar themes... (spoilers!)
Review: "Angel-Seeker" is the story of two women of Samaria. Elizabeth is a young woman who has lost all of her close family and yearns to recreate the security she knew as a child. At the first opportunity, she moves to new angel hold at Cedar Hills, hoping to attract an angel and bear an angel child, as she will then have a place forever. Rebekah is a Jansai woman who is preparing for her upcoming marriage. She encounters an angel who needs her help, tends him, and, gradually, they fall in love. As other reviewers have mentioned, this story has several familiar themes, especially to "Jovah's Angel." It was nice to see familiar characters again. The theme of the wild young woman finding contentment with an Edori lover is somewhat overdone, although I found Elizabeth to be much more likeable and interesting than either Miriam (Angelica) or Delilah (Jovah's Angel). In fact, I found Elizabeth to be one of Shinn's more interesting and sympathetic characters, as she seems to grow and change throughout the book. Rebekah seemed a bit more passive and certainly somewhat cavalier regarding her own safety - and the potential disgrace she was bringing upon her family. If she is willing to risk all to take an angel lover, surely it would have occurred what risks she was running. She seems imaginative - I would have liked to see her chafe more at her restrictions and wonder more what it would be like to be born into a different type of family. Her reluctance to leave Breven (and her willingness to honor her betrothal) seem odd to me. Jordan was a wonderful character, one of my favorites - and the freeing of the Jansai women and seeing the Jansai men get theirs was a terrific scene. Delightful. I do hope that Ms. Shinn finds some new and creative ways to keep writing about this world. There are only so many ways one can write about the clash of the Edori with the Jansai, with the angel, or the greedy merchants vs. the righteous angel(s); or the beautiful, innocent pure heroine finding love with the angel (or the more central male character) where the less pure, more worldly-wise woman finds love with the selfless, devoted Edori lover (and perhaps less material success than she wanted or had been accustomed to, but that's all right, because she finds TRUE LOVE). That is a bit hard to swallow. I'm giving it five stars, because it actually is one of my favorite Samaria books, and because of Elizabeth - but probably will get the next book from the library, just in case.
Rating: 
Summary: Must Have Read 'Archangel' First - This Is A DIRECT SEQUEL
Review: 'Angel-Seeker' is a direct follow-up book to 'Archangel', taking place a year after 'Archangel' ends, and following the angel Obadiah as he lives at the new angel-hold of Cedar Hills. We see the main characters of 'Archangel' - Rachel and Gabriel - but briefly. Here the focus is upon Obadiah and the impact Gabriel's decisions in 'Archangel' have had upon Samaria. We definitely get to see the 'dark side' of angels in this book, since the focus is upon the lives of women involved with the angels, particularly 'angel-seekers': women who desperately seek to seduce angels in the hopes of bearing angel children. So we see many of the male angels at their worst, treating these woman like whores. However, this is a Sharon Shinn book, so the unfaltering belief that True-Love-Is-Attainable-For-Everyone is upheld. There are two women contrasted in this book: The angel-seeker Elizabeth, who comes to Cedar Hills hoping to better her future, and the Jansai woman Rebekah, who within the veiled and cloistered existence of women among the Jansai manages to maintain a relationship with an angel in secret. Both women's lives turn out differently than they expected as they strive to make their future in the new Samaria under the rule of the archangel Gabriel. Since I loved the book 'Archangel', I enjoyed reading this postscript to that novel about the futures of its minor characters. However, without any knowledge of 'Archangel' this book would be of no interest at all. It doesn't stand well on its own, having nowhere near the depth and complexity of 'Archangel'. It reminds me of reading Anne McCaffrey's 'Nerilka's Story' after having read 'Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern'; the first a book about minor characters from the second book. 'Nerilka's Story' was more a postscript to 'Moreta', while 'Moreta' was a science fiction classic. Indeed, with 'Angel-Seeker' I felt like I was reading fan fiction set on the world of Samaria. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing; like I said, it makes good reading for fans of the Samaria novels. However, the book does not stand on its own. If you haven't read Sharon Shinn's Samaria novels, this book will be a waste of your time. I gave the book only '3' stars because, while it is 'okay', it isn't 'great'. For an unknown author, I might have given this '4' stars, but since I know what Shinn is capable of (see 'Archangel', 'The Shape-Changer's Wife', 'Wrapt in Crystal', and 'Jenna Starborn' especially), I find it just isn't up to her best. Light reading, nothing deep, characters predictable... you'll read this once, then probably never look or think about it again. For Samaria fans ONLY.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Laid Plans ...
Review: Angel-Seeker is the fifth novel in the Samaria series, but is the sequel to Archangel in internal sequence. In the previous volume, Raphael was the archangel of Samaria. From his hold at Windy Point, he ruled over both humans and angels, changing traditions and corrupting his followers. Raphael married a Jansai women and took other Jansai as followers, even allowing them to enslave the Edori. Finally, Raphael denied any need to sing praises to Jovah and brought his followers to Mount Galo to wait out the entire day which had been appointed for singing the Gloria. After the sun went down, Raphael announced that he was their god and the thunderbolts sizzled out of the sky to destroy him and all who were with him. A great storm blew over Samaria, the skies opened up, rain fell in torrents, and the rivers began to flood. The next day, Gabriel lead the survivors in singing the Gloria and the skies calmed and peace returned to Samaria. Gabriel was chosen as the Archangel as foreseen by the oracles. He even convinced Rachel to marry him and become the Angelica. In this novel, the angels have abandoned Windy Point and have begun to build another city of angels in Jordana. Cedar Hills is unlike any other angel hold, for it is down on the plains, easily accessible by ordinary humans. Gabriel appoints Nathan to rule the new city and so Nathan takes Magdalena, his new bride, and a group of Monteverde angels there to reestablish proper relations with the landholders who have been slighted for so long. Gabriel has banned the enslavement of Edori and freed all the slaves. Now the Jansai are moaning about their economic difficulties. Since Nathan already has enough problems to handle, Gabriel sends Obadiah to handle relations with the Jansai. Shortly after moving to Cedar Hills, Obadiah flies to Breven and meets with Uriah, the acknowledged leader of the Jansai. After concluding his visit, Obadiah is flying back to Cedar Hills when, suddenly, he is shot out of the sky. Obadiah manages to crash into a small oasis, but hasn't got the strength to attend to his wounds. He is found there by a young Jansai woman, Rebekah, and she covertly tends him for several days while he recovers, but eventually she has to leave with her family. Shortly thereafter, Obadiah flies out of the desert, but has a relapse in mid-air and crashes once again, causing additional injuries. He has been seen falling out of the sky and is quickly found and placed in a trader wagon to be taken for treatment in Cedar Hills. Elizabeth is a young women who has come to Cedar Hills as an angel-seeker, a woman trying to become pregnant by an angel in order to bear an angel child. Mothers of angels are very well treated, but most pregnancies between angels and ordinary humans do not produce angel progeny. She has met Obadiah briefly and soon comes to know him rather well after she helps tend his wounds and then is assigned the additional duties of periodically checking his condition and tending his needs. In this story, the lives of these two women are opposed in many ways. Elizabeth is an orphan who comes from a wealthy family who fell upon hard times; she was living with a distant relative and working as a cook before she fled to Cedar Hills. Elizabeth wants to become pregnant by an angel, but has no real affection for her paramour. Rebekah is living with her step-father, mother, two brothers and other family members in a fair amount of comfort. She is leery of Jansai men, but believes that her betrothed is kindly enough. Yet she has begun to develop warm feelings, even longings, toward the angel Obadiah. Elizabeth is a very independent woman who has already proved her willingness to change her circumstances according to her own desires. Rebekah, while is a fairly liberal thinker for a Jansai woman, just cannot convince herself that she could possibly withstand the heartaches of leaving her family and circumstances. What surprises will destiny bring? The author continues her accounts of intercultural conflicts on Samaria and its consequences. As with Archangel, the pairings herein suffer from inadvertent miscues and other misunderstandings, adding a layer of comedy to the actions of the protagonists. While the major characters have entirely admirable personas, they are contrasted with all sorts of unfeeling and corrupted individuals, from Elizabeth's relative James and his wife Angeletta to the angel David to the Jansai men of Breven. Once again, the author has provided an intricate portrayal of an exotic society and its populace, with special emphasis on their romantic involvements. Highly recommended for Shinn fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of exotic cultures and strange ways. -Arthur W. Jordin
Rating:
Summary: Every Samaria book gets better! This is the best yet.
Review: I have read all of the Samaria books. They are beautiful, fun and precious little treasures. This is the best yet as we go back to the time of Gabriel (my favorite time period in the series) and follow the story of Obadiah. I love to read about how they enjoy singing together and am getting an entirely new appreciate for music. There's another story of Elizabeth, an angel-seeker which was very well done.
Rating: 
Summary: Political diatribe (all arabs=evil) disguised as story
Review: I have read, enjoyed and even highly recommended Shinn's other Angel-series books to others. So, I was stunned by how dreadful this one was. In past novels Shinn thinly veiled two of her planet's tribes -- one group were obviously arabs, and another group gypsy/jews. This novel tells the stories of two young women, one who is suppressed and almost killed by the arab-look-alikes, and the other who finds redemption in the arms of a jew-look-alike. The former is presented as a one-sided, nightmarish, diatribe against everything Arab you can imagine. The men are fat, greedy, self-centered, and oppressive. The women are denied basic human rights, confined to harem-like areas, hidden beyond veils, stoned to death if they disobey. Shinn obviously has a complete lack of respect for cultures other than her own. Rather than using fiction to bring insight into our own world, she uses it to spread bigotry. In this age of global conflict, we need and deserve greater knowledge, not kneejerk, uneducated passions.
Rating:
Summary: Political diatribe (all arabs=evil) disguised as story
Review: I have read, enjoyed and even highly recommended Shinn's other Angel-series books to others. So, I was stunned by how dreadful this one was. In past novels Shinn thinly veiled two of her planet's tribes -- one group were obviously arabs, and another group gypsy/jews. This novel tells the stories of two young women, one who is suppressed and almost killed by the arab-look-alikes, and the other who finds redemption in the arms of a jew-look-alike. The former is presented as a one-sided, nightmarish, diatribe against everything Arab you can imagine. The men are fat, greedy, self-centered, and oppressive. The women are denied basic human rights, confined to harem-like areas, hidden beyond veils, stoned to death if they disobey. Shinn obviously has a complete lack of respect for cultures other than her own. Rather than using fiction to bring insight into our own world, she uses it to spread bigotry. In this age of global conflict, we need and deserve greater knowledge, not kneejerk, uneducated passions.
Rating:
Summary: Never a disappointment
Review: I must disagree with a couple of the reviews I have read here. Though the names of some of the characters in this book are familiar, the focus on the Jansai is fresh - and timely (they do not remind me of gypsies). The characters in this book are not simple-they are flawed, all of them, and the conflict has to do with our halting experiences as human-beings of free choice. The study of the Jansai women, who live in a cultural situation not unlike many in our own contemporary world, was very interesting to me. ( Why does a woman choose to stay in hell? When does safety become imprisonment?) I'm with Sharon - I want to read stories that tell me in the end, we can be honorable, we can work against what is unjust, we can make mistakes and find redemption and real love is worth sacrifice. But the choices in this book are not facile - the conflict not easily resolved. For those who read for meaning, there is much to mull over in this bit of work. I haven't got a whole lot of time, but this story was worth what I invested in it. Besides, I got a kick out of reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: Racist reviews should be banned on Amazon
Review: I was appalled by the ignorant racists ranting about "jew look-alikes" in their reviews. Their hatred obviously rendered them unable to even see what was actually written in "Angel-seeker", rather than what they wanted to see. The Jansai are explicitly described a) as gypsies, repeatedly and b) as blondes, frequently. They are depicted as rapacious, money-loving merchants-isn't that a typical racist stereotype of Jews? And for those lambasting Shinn for "abusing a culture"-first of all, hate to break it to ya, but this is fiction-Shinn can create any kind of hero or villian, culture, religion or society she wants and it doesn't have anything to do with the real world. Second-Arabic culture IS known for its repression, abuse and outright murder of women and is rightly condemmned by every intelligent human being for it. So-called "honour killings" are happening in places like India, Jordan and Afghanistan all the time (I have an Afghan refugee friend who could tell you horrifying stories about things that happened to the women in his family)-are you reviewers seriously defending it? If so, why are you not living there with your sisters, wives,and daughters? As far as the Edori=Jew thesis, WRONG! I've read all the Samaria books and the Edori remind me of nothing so much as Native Americans-golden skin, long straight black hair, and a welcome for everyone, even those who would destroy them. These reviewers are reading their own vicious prejuidices into the text. After all this, I have to say I enjoyed the book. Not perfect, but interesting. It's a little hard at first because Elizabeth is unlikable in her heartless ambition, but she learns and grows. The book sets up some intriguing philosophical problems, about angel-seekers, sexual morality and the value of a life that I look forward to Shinn exploring in future books.
Rating:
Summary: Angel Seeker - A hit!
Review: I will keep this brief as the synopsis by other reviewers doesn't need repeating. I have read all of Sharon Shinn's "Angel" books so far. This is second in time sequence and is one of the best of the after Archangel. I liked them all but this one had a far bigger emotional impact on me than any of the other stories. I hope that Sharon Shinn does more in the time period of Angelica or Archangel/Angel Seeker as I have found them the most interesting. The Angel characters and their role in this world are just fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: Angel Seeker - A hit!
Review: I will keep this brief as the synopsis by other reviewers doesn't need repeating. I have read all of Sharon Shinn's "Angel" books so far. This is second in time sequence and is one of the best of the after Archangel. I liked them all but this one had a far bigger emotional impact on me than any of the other stories. I hope that Sharon Shinn does more in the time period of Angelica or Archangel/Angel Seeker as I have found them the most interesting. The Angel characters and their role in this world are just fascinating.
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