Wars of the Realm is a trilogy of Christian science-fiction/urban fantasy thriller novels by Christian novelist Chuck Black. Drew Carter, an average college student in Kansas, gets in a laboratory accident that gives him superpowers and the ability to see angels and demons. When he uses his powers to fight gangs in the ghettos of Chicago, he is arrested and then hired by the CIA and ends up helping to save the United States. In the meantime, the warrior angel Validus is assigned as his guardian angel and fights off demon warriors who are intent on killing Drew, knowing his powers and importance to the plan of Elohim.
The books were released from 2014 to 2016 and feature companion audiobooks narrated by Michael Orenstein.
These books contain examples of:
- Action Hero: Drew Carter.
- Aerith and Bob: The series' deuteragonists: the human Drew Carter and the angel Validus.
- Alien Invasion: What Drew and Ben think at first when Drew sees angels and demons.
- All Asians Know Martial Arts: Mr. Lee is a Korean restaurant owner—and yet somehow also a seventh-degree black belt in tae kwon do.
- Angel Unaware: Happens a few times, since angels can translate themselves into the human world with any physical appearance they wish. The "unaware" part is zig-zagged. For example:
- When Persimus takes on the form of Agent Reed to contact Mr. Ross, Ross doesn't suspect a thing.
- Same goes for Persimus in the favela.
- But when Ral takes the form of a taxi driver to save Drew's and Ben's lives, Drew suspects him as soon as he looks him in the eye.
- Anyone Can Die: ...At least any angel. Not too many humans die, the only big exception being Ross.
- Arch-Enemy: Apollyon to Elohim; Niturni to Validus.
- Arrow Catch: Drew catches a thrown knife out of midair during his first mission with Reed.
- Asian and Nerdy: Jester, one of Ben's techs at NexTech.
- The Armies of Heaven: Both angels and demons fight as literal armies.
- Arms Dealer: Drew scares off Sydney's boyfriend by spinning a yarn about her father being an arms dealer.
- Avengers Assemble: Happens twice—first with Validus flying all over the world to recruit the best angelic warfighting talent available, then again with Drew gathering a team composed of all of his friends to help save America from the terrorists.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Drew's superpowers enable him to pick up on every detail he sees and correlate it instantly. He demonstrates this by counting up hundreds of rivets on a boat at one glance, and he uses it practically to spot and exploit stock-market trends to earn money for his and Ben's project.
- The Bad Guys Are Cops: At least they are to Drew at the end of Cloak of the Light and the beginning of Light of the Last.
- Benevolent A.I.: Alice.
- Big Bad: Apollyon.
- Big Good: There are several. On earth, General Brandt is the highest angelic authority. Michael is the highest angelic authority period, and of course Elohim is the highest authority of any kind.
- The Big Guy: The angel Brumak.
- Blade Brake: Validus uses his short sword and knife to get down the side of a building safely in this way in Rise of the Fallen.
- Boy Meets Girl: The basic romantic plot of the series. Drew meets Sydney Carlyle in high school and falls in love with her, then is repeatedly separated from and reunited with her by circumstances. On a higher level, the separation element of boy-meets-girl arc is metaphorical: Sydney refuses to consider Drew as a possible partner until he becomes a Christian like her (which of course happens by the end of the series).
- The Cartel: Drew and Reed's first mission together has them infiltrating a drug cartel in Puerto Rico.
- The Cavalry: Commander Malak's bad habit of arriving just in the nick of time to save Validus' neck at various times throughout the series.
- Celestial Paragons and Archangels: The angel army (properly called the Warrior order) is separated into divisions like a human military, with captains, commanders, and a general over it all, plus an archangel at the very top above the general. Most of the top-level officers get at least some screentime throughout the books.
- Chekhov's Skill: In Cloak of the Light, Sydney mentions to Drew that she will be going for a degree in microbiology. Which comes in mighty handy when Drew finds himself trying to stop a bio-attack on America by terrorists armed with ebolavirus...
- The Chessmaster: Mr. Ross. Although he works for the NCS instead of the CIA, he arranges to have Drew recruited as a CIA agent, then contrives an excuse (with the angels' help) to get him booted out of the CIA...all so that he can recruit him as a non-official agent for use in a special mission to save the United States.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Drew has a bad case of this, beginning in high school. It comes to a head when he begins fighting gangs in Chicago as a vigilante. His syndrome's not really his fault, though—he inherited it from his father.
- Cold Sniper: Jayt is sort of a sniper because of his throwing knives, and he is certainly cold about it.
- Commanding Coolness: Validus, both as Commander Validus of North America and as the leader of his squad of bodyguards for Drew.
- Converting for Love: Subverted. Both Drew and Sydney know that they can't be together unless Drew becomes a Christian like Sydney—and neither of them want Drew to convert just to win Sydney. In the end, Drew becomes a Christian from the heart, just as they both wanted.
- Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: Upon entering Rivercrest High School, Drew has a good chance at joining the "in" crowd because of his football skills—but he chooses purposefully to befriend the nerdy, bullied Benjamin Berg.
- Validus offers an inverted example—even though he is the last angel created, he is befriended by Niturni, one of the hundred first and most powerful angels in heaven.
- Cool Shades: Justified for Drew, because he needs them to avoid getting headaches from his Super-Senses.
- Corrupt Politician: President Harden and Director Ward.
- Could Have Been Messy: Drew is almost killed by a drunk driver while in high school, but somehow he avoids even being hit despite being right in the way of the car. It is revealed later that Tren, his Guardian Angel, flew in at the last second and pushed him out of the way.
- Cynic–Idealist Duo: In Cloak of the Light, this applies both to Drew and Ben and to Drew and Sydney. Ben believes in aliens, Sydney in God, and Drew in neither.
- Da Chief: General Brandt.
- Deadpan Snarker: There are several, including:
- Sason:
Validus: Elohim has given Crenshaw the ability to sense and determine events moments before they happen.Sason: So you can see the future.- Brumak:
Brumak: Porthan must think I need a vacation.- And Benjamin Berg:
Ben: He [my father] will forever be upset that I didn't try to follow in his glorious athletic footsteps. Any mocking I may receive would be considered justifiable payment for neglecting the more appropriate and respected activities.
Ben sure had sarcasm down to a fine art. - Deceased Parents Are the Best: Drew's late father.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: The Fallen army is separated into divisions like a human military, with captains, commanders, and a general over it all. The angel army mirrors this structure perfectly.
- Demonic Possession: Vexer-possessor demons are demons with the ability to vex or to possess a willing human. This actually becomes a plot point, with the demons targeting Drew by possessing a serial killer, a street gang, and even a black bear.
- Divinely Appearing Demons: Apollyon is able to make himself look much like a holy angel.
- Dodge the Bullet: Angels, demons, and the super-powered Drew Carter all have Super-Reflexes that let them move fast enough to dodge bullets in combat—a skill which all three parties use constantly.
- Double Entendre: Drew and Ben discussing whether they should contact Sydney given that she is being watched by the FBI:Drew: We don't know what Sydney has told them, if anything. By the way she was acting and the text she sent me, I think she's still with us.
Ben: But she's hot—ah...you know what I mean.
Drew stifled a laugh. - Dragons Are Demonic: The demon-controlled gang that Drew fights in Chicago call themselves the Dragons.
- Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: Angels wear white, demons wear black (both with wings to match).
- Edible Bludgeon: As a desperation move, Niturni translates a plate of food to throw at Validus in their final fight.
- Everyone Can See It: A minor example with Ben and Piper in Light of the Last.
- Evil Former Friend: Niturni to Validus.
- Fiction as Cover-Up: In Cloak of the Light, Ben reveals to Drew that he thinks the proliferation of media featuring aliens is a sign of there actually being aliens:Ben: Have you ever wondered why science, Hollywood, and so many publishers are investing billions of dollars on the notion of alien life? It has become a consistent and central theme in much of our culture....The influence is huge! I think we are being prepared.
- This conversation is a foreshadowing of what happens later in the book—except the beings which Drew and Ben discover aren't exactly aliens...
- Fire-Forged Friends: Validus' and Niturni's friendship is so close (and their separation so painful) because Validus saved Niturni's life early on in Rise of the Fallen.
- Forged by the Gods: The angels' swords are literally said to be forged by Elohim.
- Freak Lab Accident: This is what gives Drew his superpowers. (Or so it seems...)note
- Gangbangers: Drew beats up quite a few of these in Chicago.
- Gate of Truth: The Hall of Ages in heaven, a place where time does not exist (so the past, present, and future may be seen all at once). It is off-limits to just about everyone. Which becomes a major plot point at the end of Rise of the Fallen.
- Geek: Benjamin Berg.
- General Ripper: The demon Niturni. He sacrifices dozens of his troops just to find out how good Validus' team is.
- Giant Mook: The droxans—demons who have indulged themselves in evil so much that they are now just mindless half-bear half-dragon monsters.
- Good Colors, Evil Colors: See Dress-Coded for Your Convenience above.
- Gratuitous Ninja: The angel Jayt, who looks Asian and uses throwing knives. It's even lampshaded:This warrior was quiet, even compared to Tren. There was an air of confidence in everything he did. He had narrow eyes, straight black hair, and movements like a human ninja.
- Guardian Angel: The entire angelic order of Guardians. Tren, Drew Carter's personal guardian, is a specific example.
- Guns Akimbo: Drew dual-wields FN Five-SeveNs during the fight in the gang's hideout.
- Guns Are Worthless: Since angels and demons can dodge bullets, neither group relies very heavily on guns to take each other out, preferring their trusty swords.
- Headbutting Heroes: General Danick and Commander Brandt. They don't exactly hate each other, but they certainly do butt heads a lot.
- Hero Does Public Service: Drew helping out at Reverend Ray's soup kitchen.
- Hero Looking for Group: In the last book, the angel Validus realizes that bodyguarding Drew Carter from all of the demons in the world is too big a job for him and his partner Tren. So he goes all around the world and recruits the best angelic warfighting talent there is.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: All of the angels use swords. So do the demons, in fact. Even Drew Carter gets to wield a blade at one point.
- Heroic Fire Rescue: Drew saving the day during the school shooting at Drayle University.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Ral, Jayt, and Persimus all die to save Drew and/or Validus.
- Heroism Won't Pay the Bills: Drew has to get a job delivering Korean takeout food while he looks for Ben in Chicago.
- Hitscan: The FN Five-SeveN, to some degree. Its muzzle velocity so high that most angels or demons can't dodge it, so it's basically a guaranteed hit.
- Husky Russkie: Brumak, the largest and most powerful angel in existence. He's not really Russian, but he does get stationed on the angelic Russian Front (literally) and, in the audiobook, speaks with a Russian accent.
- The Idealist Was Right: Sydney's faith in God and belief that Drew is seeing angels and demons turn out to be right all along.
- Impersonating an Officer: Validus disguises himself as a policeman to tail Drew after the school shooting.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: Drew's sunglasses and black leather jacket.
- Improbably Cool Car: Justified in Drew's case—his father collected classic Mustangs, and he inherits two of them after his father's death. Less so with Jake, who drives a Charger just because.
- Invisible to Normals: This is the entire premise of the series—that Drew is the only person alive who can actually see the spirit war between the angels and demons going on every single day.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Drew constantly (but reluctantly) distances himself from Sydney because he knows that the "invaders" (demons) might target her if they knew she was important to him.
- Jerk Jock: Cameron O'Brian.
- Kill It with Water: Water burns demons' skin painfully and can even kill them outright.
- The Lancer: Tren to Validus.
- Layered World: The angels and demons live in the Upper Realm, a sort of fourth dimension (or fifth, if you include time as a dimension) directly paralleling the "Lower Realm" in which humans live.
- The Leader: Validus to his group of "Valiants."
- The Legions of Hell: The Fallen.
- Lonely Together: Drew and Ben after the accident that killed Joey Houk.
- Magical Girlfriend: Sydney Carlyle. She is a normal enough person, but her faith in God lets her influence the angel realm through her prayers.
- Magical Negro: Reverend Ray Branson. Justified because he's a pastor, so it's kind of his job.
- The Man Behind the Man: Michael Dougherty turns out to be the one pulling the strings on President Harden.
- Man of the City: Drew becomes this for the area of Chicago where he hides while looking for Ben.
- Master of Disguise: Persimus. All of the angels can disguise themselves, but Persimus is an absolute master—he stayed in the slums of Sao Paolo in disguise as a human boy for thirteen months without ever being detected.
- Meaningful Name: Malak, Validus' second-in-command and later replacement. Malak is Hebrew for "angel."
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: General Danick, who serves as a mentor to Validus, dies to protect a Jewish mother and child. Subverted with Jake, to whom nothing bad ever happens.
- Middle Eastern Terrorists: The bad guys in Light of the Last.
- Misfit Mobilization Moment: The entire scene in Light of the Last when Validus' team of expert warriors works together to slay dozens of demon mooks.
- Mooks: This is how most of the demons are treated.
- Mr. Exposition: Ben, although he doesn't usually explain anything story-related—just the hyper-complex science he's always working on.
- Multinational Team: Sort of. Validus picks up his team of specialist angel warriors from various battlefronts across the world. In the audiobook, this reflects in their respective accents—Sason sounds Aussie, Brumak's accent is Russian, Jayt's is Chinese, Crenshaw's is Hispanic, and Rake's is sort of South African.
- In a similar vein, General Brandt, who operates out of Scotland, is given a Scottish accent in the audiobook.
- Nazi Grandpa: A special case—Drew's adoptive great-grandfather was a former Nazi soldier, but he actually defected and went to the United States for sanctum instead of just becoming a "retired Nazi."
- Not Wearing Tights: Drew doesn't consider himself a superhero and shies away from the attention that people give him because of his lifesaving heroics in the ghetto.
- Our Angels Are Different: Angels and demons both look very much like humans, except significantly taller and with the ability to sprout wings. They can also move and react extremely fast and can translate their bodies into the physical world, as well as borrowing physical objects to use in the spirit realm.
- Painfully Slow Projectile: Angels and demons have very fast reaction times, so to them, all projectiles are slow.
- Parental Substitute: Jake to Drew.
- Parrying Bullets: Angels and demons can and will do this easily because they can react faster than the bullets can fly. Most bullets, that is.
- The Plague: The terrorists plan to take down the United States by starting an ebolavirus pandemic.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Ral.
- Post-Climax Confrontation: Niturni showing up at the last minute to battle Validus one-on-one.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: The angel Brumak. He first appears on the angels' Russian Front (literally), and this is the first conversation he ever has with anyone in the books:Validus: Warrior Brumak.Brumak: This is the voice of Validus. How goes the life of ease and comfort in America?...Validus: On your feet, warrior. You've been reassigned under my command, and we leave immediately.Brumak: Porthan must think I need a vacation.
- The Quiet One: Jayt to the rest of Validus' team of "Valiants."
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The archangel Michael and General Danick.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Brandt and Danick, respectively. Brandt is a hothead and a go-getter who insists on the most logical strategy every time; Danick is a cooler, calmer type, a deep thinker who sets long-range goals, sees the big picture and tends toward the Reasonable Authority Figure archetype.
- Rule of Cool:
- Most angel commanders have their headquarters in churches or cathedrals. Not General Brandt. He runs the entire angel military from his World Headquarters which is located in...Crookston Castle in Glasgow, Scotland.
- Rock Beats Laser: Angels and demons prefer swords and don't use guns much because their reaction times are so fast that they can dodge—and parry—the bullets.
- Satan: Apollyon.
- Science Hero: Ben.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: During the Great Purge, Validus gets to help seal the evil in a can himself - the last four demons remaining from the pre-Flood era are chained at the bottom of the Euphrates River, to be released as part of the last judgment (based on Revelation 9:13-15 in The Bible).
- Seers: A handful of angels and demons have the ability to see a short distance into the future. Crenshaw is a particular example.
- Sensory Overload: Drew experiences this quite a bit due to his Super-Senses. That's why he has to wear sunglasses—to keep from getting headaches from bright light. In fact, one of the music tracks for the audiobooks is literally called "Sensory Overload."
- Sherlock Scan: What Dr. Whitton convinces Drew his mind is doing automatically.
- Shout-Out: Drew's mental nicknames for Validus and Durgank—respectively, "Wallace" (after Sir William Wallace) and "Kurgan" (after the villain from Highlander).
- The Shrink: Drs. Fisher and Whitton.
- Smart People Build Robots: Ben built Alice, his "near-artificial intelligence" program and OS.
- The Speedster: All angels and demons can move inhumanly fast. Rake is a specific example—he's extremely fast, even for an angel.
- Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Angels and demons can translate weapons (or any object, really) from the human realm to use in their own battles. They do it plenty, too.
- Stupid Sacrifice: Persimus' death could easily have been averted in theory. He came into the soup kitchen in plenty of time to just stab Niturni in the back before the demon could do anything—but no, he had to take the blade for Validus instead.
- Superhero: What Drew essentially becomes after the lab accident. It's even lampshaded:Drew: I can see, hear, feel, and smell things in our dimension that I never could before. And I can move quicker. Everything seems to be...accelerated...improved.Ben: So you're like some superhero or something?
- Super-Reflexes: Drew's main superpower. Also true for the angels and demons.
- Super-Senses: Drew's other superpower.
- Sword and Gun: Most angels and demons use pistols as well as their swords, and they often wield both simultaneously.
- Sword over Head: Validus to Niturni in their final fight scene—resulting, of course, in Validus' nearly dying for it.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Drew and Ethan Elsing, Sydney's new boyfriend, have to work together in order to survive the UN hit squads despite their aversion for each other. Also Validus and Tren when they first meet.
- The Team Normal: Tren, at least in the context of Validus' special bodyguard team in Light of the Last. Everyone else has some unusual ability or specialty, but Tren is just a plain-vanilla angel. Also Sydney in Drew's final save-the-world team (all she contributes is some knowledge about ebolavirus).
- Technobabble: Subverted. Most of the complicated science terms that Ben uses actually do have something to do with what he's talking about.
- Teen Genius: Benjamin Berg:Ben: By year's end I'll have enough dual credits to graduate from this dump and enter college as a sophomore.
- Those Wacky Nazis: During World War II, the demons use the Nazis to eliminate important Jewish lineages through the Holocaust.
- Trenchcoat Warfare: Jayt's greatcoat makes him a walking armory.
- Two Girls to a Team: Piper and Sydney in Drew's "saving America" crew.
- Vice City: New York City is mentioned in passing as a stronghold of the Fallen. The North American headquarters for the demons is in Los Angeles. The actual state of these two cities is left to the imagination.
- Vigilante Man: Drew turns into one after some time in Chicago's ghettos.
- A Villain Named "Z__rg": Many of the demons, especially Zurock.
- Villain No Longer Idle: Niturni coming after Drew at the very end—complete with this line to Validus: "I decided that I would not use an army to destroy you. I would come after you myself."
- Walking Armory: The angel Jayt (see Trenchcoat Warfare above).
- Weaksauce Weakness: See Kill It with Water above.
- Weapon-Based Characterization: Jayt, who is clearly supposed to be a Gratuitous Ninja, loves to use throwing knives.
- Winged Humanoid: Angels and demons both have wings, which can be extended or retracted at will (though this can be difficult and requires focus).
