Azazeel is a book about Christianity’s shadow, it’s dark side, it’s duality, it’s devil, or Azazeel. It is also a fictional portrait of the Eastern part of Byzantium in the 5th AD, notably it’s ecclesiastical history: one of the characters is Nestorius, who was excommunicated as a heretic, Hypatia, who was lynched by a mob of Christian fanatics, and Cyril, a scheming bishop of Alexandria. The story is told through the eyes of a Coptic monk Hypa, whom I heavily disliked - he was tedious, tepid, and rambling. Even his “sins” were depicted in a boring and somewhat unpleasant way that made those pleasures of the flesh feel really dirty.
I haven’t smiled once while reading this novel. It is that dead serious. But it might be rewarding if you are after a philosophical approach towards that rarely visited period of Christian history when the creed was just being articulated by the “fathers” - people at the helm of the largest churches of the Empire, and politicians.
What I liked was an immersion into the world of Eastern Christianity, which the author achieved masterfully. And I finally read a comprehensive description of Nestorian beliefs!