Lightbearer

Book excerpt: Lucifer: fallen angel or martyr of desire? Condemned to die by God and branded a traitor by his fellow fallen angels, Lucifer descends on Boston in a blizzard. He is drawn to humanity and vows to appear before the world again as Lucifer. But with Heaven's longstanding disinformation campaign stacked against him, he does not yet dare. When he learns of a celibate cult, the Wise Virgins, he dons human disguises and enters the lives of two of its leaders, Virgil Caldera and his aunt, Agatha Brimsmead. The powerful archangel Michael, Lucifer's creator and former lover, is behind the cult. Michael is convinced that sex is the source of all misery on earth, and has decreed that humans must renounce erotic love or burn in hellfire. The battle of wills and wits is onÑnot only over the bodies and souls of Virgil and Agatha, but in that age old struggle between desire and divine authority. Lucifer has one hope of defeating Michael: he must expose the deadly flaw in Michael's plan of salvation. But as long as he remains hidden, he cannot reveal the truth about his past in heaven or the scandal of the world to come. In The Bible and Milton's Paradise Lost, Lucifer is portrayed as the angel whose pride caused him to fall from heaven and turn toward evil. In Lightbearer, he is the artist, the dissident, and the genius of desire who dares to question the premise of creation itself, and who reveals that sin may be all that stands between us and living hell.