“Universal Warrior” is a fantasy about several warriors who bear the names of the Archangels.  There has been a war between the highest powers and another war is coming.  Currently there are seven chapters posted and the story feels like it’s just getting started so I suspect this is going to be an epic.  What’s written so far is solid and engaging.

Each of the first four chapters introduces one of the major characters.  The first chapter starts with Michael fighting a monster called a “slake”.  The second starts with Uriel protecting children from a “Dorager”.  The third shows Gabriel administering Purgatory and also introduces Azrael.  The fourth chapter joins Raphael tending the wounded after a battle in the throne room.  At the end of each chapter, the main character receives an invitation to attend Yang, the supreme leader.  The following chapters continue to shift perspective to follow the main characters.

The other characters come from an interesting mix of traditions.  The highest powers are Yin and Yang.  Yang’s second in command is Odin, who lives in Asgard and commands the Valkyrie.  Azrael is a young angel trying to prove himself.  There are also references to Lucifer and Amen. 

The pacing of this story is great.  The action is fast and clean but doesn’t overwhelm the “human” element.  Each chapter gives the reader an intriguing glimpse of its main character and adds details to the world that is being drawn.  We see each character in action and in conversation with others.  The world is being “built” steadily through the eyes of each character.  The chapters end with enough tension to hold the reader’s interest but not enough to make them frustrated that they’ll be waiting 4 chapters to get back to that character. 

I don’t often make note of formatting issues but I found Universal Warrior awkward to read online.  I find white text on a black background hard on my eyes, but that’s a personal preference that can be changed by disabling styles.  Some of the “next” links led to notes from the author which were nice but interrupted the flow the story, and sometimes gave away details that would have been better hidden.  But the real problem was the inconsistency of the location of the links between chapters.  They weren’t always in the same location on the page, and, often, I had to scroll back up to the top to go to the next page.  Sometimes when I tried to go back to a previous chapter it opened a new window instead of just loading in the current one. 

Despite these problems, “Universal Warrior” is still a solid fantasy about war in Heaven.  The action is fast, the characters are interesting, and the world building feels natural.  I would recommend this to anyone who likes heroic high fantasy or stories of war between angels and demons.

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