At its best, Of Angelic Blood and Other Tales is a smooth and articulate take on the concept of angels walking among men.  We've read the story before:  an angel takes human form to help a member of humanity find himself, and falls in love.  Collins adds a nice twist with his interpretation.  The angel, Sophia, has no memory of her time in Heaven, and was raised as a child by humans that found her wandering alone.  She seems to be learning her duty as she goes, with little actual help from Heaven.  She is aware of her divine lineage, but because she has no actual memory of Heaven she also feels a sense of incompleteness.  So it makes sense that she falls in love with her charge, the nerdy and overly cerebral Filo.  Filo is simultaneously a wounded soul with self-esteem issues and a self-important intellectual who is probably his own worst enemy.

At times, Filo gets a bit grating.  He's prone to waxing overly philosophical, and name drops famous and/or obscure scholars while referencing equally famous and/or obscure philosophical works.  Because the story is told with Filo as the narrator, the reader has to suffer through his sometimes insufferable ramblings.  Of course, those folks who enjoy philosophy and understand Kant and the other intellectuals referenced may get added value out of the points.  But casual readers may be put off by what at times comes across as high brow.

Fortunately, Collins has an artful hold on the English language, and crafts beautiful prose that pulls you in and makes you care about the characters.  Particularly of note are the flashback scenes in which we learn about Filo's previous heartbreak and an attempted suicide. 

Two other stories fill out the rest of the book.  Night of the Raven is a sci-fi yarn about a remote mining community that is practically enslaved by the intergalactic corporation that controls it.  A Voice Unheard is a sad but vaguely amusing story about a young man trying to introduce himself to a girl in a diner. 

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