''Better Angels'' is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

novel by

Howard V. Hendrix Howard Vincent Hendrix (born 1959) is an American scholar and science fiction writer.. He is the author of the novels '' Lightpaths'' and '' Standing Wave'', '' Better Angels'', '' Empty Cities of the Full Moon'', '' The Labyrinth Key'', and ...

first published in 1999. Better Angels is a prequel to Hendrix's earlier novels ''Lightpath'' and '' Standing Wave'', filling in history about how the characters in those novels came to be who they are.

Title

In the novel, "Better angels" is a phrase used by agents of the organization Tetragrammatron to describe what they hope to make humanity into. Tetragrammatron is concerned with ensuring humanity's survival by creating a machine/human transcendences, turning humans into "better angels". The phrase itself comes from the closing of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

's first inaugural address, in which he said that, despite the rising conflict in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, the shared history of Americans would "yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

Release details

*1999, United States of America, Penguin Putnam Inc. , Pub date 15 October 1999, Hardback *2000, United States of America, Penguin Putnam Inc. , Pub date 7 November 2000, Paperback

Sources and external links

Official page
* 1999 American novels 1999 science fiction novels Transhumanist books {{1990s-sf-novel-stub