Series ✦ Penny’s Take
Angel with the Sword
C. J. Cherryh · 1986
72/100
👍 Worth It
Cherryh's canal-city Merovingen is one of science fiction's more vividly realized environments, and Altair Jones is a genuinely memorable working-class heroine who carries the book. The main caveat is structural: the ending is deliberately open and the appendices consume fifty pages that could have been story, so readers who do not continue into the anthology series will feel the incompleteness. Worth it for Cherryh fans and readers willing to commit to a series.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety72
Substance / usefulness74
Craft & writing78
Originality68
Evidence & accuracy86
Hype vs delivers74
Age-fit76
👁 Human-eye gut-check71
Penny’s verdict72
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