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Matthew Swift #1
A Madness of Angels
Enter the London of Matthew Swift, where rival sorcerers, hidden in plain sight, do battle for the very soul of the city, from a World Fantasy Award-winning author.
Two years after his untimely death, Matthew Swift finds himself breathing once again, lying in bed in his London home.
Except that it's no longer his bed, or his home. And the last time this sorcerer was seen alive, an unknown assailant had gouged a hole so deep in his chest that his death was irrefutable. . .despite his body never being found.
He doesn't have long to mull over his resurrection, though, or the changes that have been wrought upon him. His only concern now is vengeance. Vengeance upon his monstrous killer and vengeance upon the one who brought him back.
Two years after his untimely death, Matthew Swift finds himself breathing once again, lying in bed in his London home.
Except that it's no longer his bed, or his home. And the last time this sorcerer was seen alive, an unknown assailant had gouged a hole so deep in his chest that his death was irrefutable. . .despite his body never being found.
He doesn't have long to mull over his resurrection, though, or the changes that have been wrought upon him. His only concern now is vengeance. Vengeance upon his monstrous killer and vengeance upon the one who brought him back.
613 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 2, 2009
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About the author
Kate Griffin
20 books829 followersKate Griffin is the pen name under which Catherine Webb writes fantasy novels for adults. She also uses the pen name Claire North.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 845 reviews
August 29, 2021
Sometimes an author captures my imagination, and as long as they fail to become blazingly incompetent, I’m along for the ride. So it was with A Madness of Angels.
Matthew Swift wakes up from death, lost, confused, unaware its been two years since he died, as for him it feels like moments ago. The terrible and fascinating hook to his story is that as a sorcerer, he was dialing the phone as he died–and the phone lines are the home of the electric blue angels, the bits and pieces of humanity spun out over the wires and taking on life of their own. When Matthew is brought back to life, he is no longer alone in his familiar body–he shares it with the electric blue angels, along with their talents.
“We be light, we be life, we be fire!
We sing electric flame, we rumble underground wind, we dance heaven!
Come be we and be free!”
Griffin’s concept is given life (pardon the pun) by a fascinating use of language, a type of lyricism rarely seen in urban fantasy and which reminded me as much of scat and bebop as a written narrative. And, as I pointed out in a Booklikes post, more than a little bit of Fame’s “I Sing the Body Electric.” Although I enjoy a wide range of music, my reading experience and my musical listening experience are almost always two separate things; Griffin provided me a rare experience and enjoyment with her lyrical writing. With the musicality of the narrative, all I needed was a semi-coherent plot and I was sold. Thankfully, the rest of the details were more than competent.
A hallmark of many types of urban fantasy and mysteries are the emphasis on location. The setting is virtually a character, providing mood, spiking thought, inciting action. London is a chief player in this series, and with loving and full detail, it is clear Griffin is no mere tourist (I once read an apocalypse book set in a New York that the author very clearly had only visited–if seen in person at all). Some places are so iconic that they take on a role beyond their actuality. Hollywood is one of those places–dirty, dingy, filled with the outcasts of humanity and cockroach-infested diners, the imaginary Hollywood bares little resemblance to the reality. Not this London. This one is very real,with tired commuters, overflowing rubbish bins, and confusing and obscure tube system. I liked it, and because the angels are new to the corporeal experience, their joy in the details, in all their glamorous and dirty varieties, was contagious.
If the rest of the characters weren’t quite as developed as Swift/Angels and London, they were still reasonably done. There is a nice ambivalence surrounding Matthew’s former teacher Bakker, for his role in teaching him the craft and his ultimate path. Oda, an anti-magic fanatic, has little finesse to her arc, but is done well enough that it added an element of tension. Sinclair and Charlie were very interesting and not at all predictable. There's a nice amount of dialogue, occasionally delightfully described:
"'Yes,' she said, in the weary voice of someone who knows where this conversation is going and can't believe she has to wait at the traffic lights to get there."
Magic has an unusual flair as well. It is supposed to be ‘urban’ magic, evolving to its place and time, and one of the first malevolent creatures encountered is a trash-beast. Then there’s the magic of the city–the rituals of public transport gating, the mystery of the ATMs. I loved the graffiti-magic angle; and a perfect twist on the out-front yet underground language of the city, decipherable to those in the know. The magical healer connected to the NHS cracked me up. The city creatures are perhaps not precisely magical, but echo real life cities with an abundance of pigeons, rats and foxes. The Beggar King and Bag Lady were nice magical elements, echoing the parable of those least among us. Griffin cleverly avoids the over-powered magical protagonist as well. As Matthew is so new to his body and abilities from the electric angels, there’s believable limits on what he is reasonably able to accomplish, despite the abilities of both sorcerer and electric angels.
Plot is perhaps the least unusual aspect of the story, but with so much going on with narrative and magic, it’s rather nice to have something sort of straightforward. Swift and the angels seem to agree on revenge, and part of toppling a mighty sorcerer means toppling the pillars that support him. I’m not entirely sure this worked logically in any sense of the word, since everyone was on the defensive after the first went down, and because the sorcerer seemed more than capable of taking care of himself without said supports. The mystery surrounding Matthew’s death was rather unsurprising, as well as the ultimate denouement.
That said, I’ll undoubtedly read it again–a story that hinges on narrative, character and world-building is enjoyably revisitable. The enthusiasm Swift and the angels have for life is contagious, and make it a moderately uplifting read. This is one thatneeds to be was added to my personal collection. Highly recommended, but only for those that can tolerate a certain poetic laxity of narrative.
11/19 Re-read. Okay, maybe it loses luster a bit on the fifth or sixth re-read. Also, read the kindle version bc I wanted to highlight. Interestingly, a lot of it is about swathes of text rather than short bursts of sentences. Also note, Kindle edition is full of formatting errors and was a bit more distracting than it should have been.
08/21 This is one of the most satisfying books I own. Lovely language complex enough to hold up on re-read; generally positive/proactive, without being depressing (eyeballing Steven Brust); interesting world-building; forward-moving plot; and (spoiler) satisfying, if complicated resolution.
Matthew Swift wakes up from death, lost, confused, unaware its been two years since he died, as for him it feels like moments ago. The terrible and fascinating hook to his story is that as a sorcerer, he was dialing the phone as he died–and the phone lines are the home of the electric blue angels, the bits and pieces of humanity spun out over the wires and taking on life of their own. When Matthew is brought back to life, he is no longer alone in his familiar body–he shares it with the electric blue angels, along with their talents.
“We be light, we be life, we be fire!
We sing electric flame, we rumble underground wind, we dance heaven!
Come be we and be free!”
Griffin’s concept is given life (pardon the pun) by a fascinating use of language, a type of lyricism rarely seen in urban fantasy and which reminded me as much of scat and bebop as a written narrative. And, as I pointed out in a Booklikes post, more than a little bit of Fame’s “I Sing the Body Electric.” Although I enjoy a wide range of music, my reading experience and my musical listening experience are almost always two separate things; Griffin provided me a rare experience and enjoyment with her lyrical writing. With the musicality of the narrative, all I needed was a semi-coherent plot and I was sold. Thankfully, the rest of the details were more than competent.
A hallmark of many types of urban fantasy and mysteries are the emphasis on location. The setting is virtually a character, providing mood, spiking thought, inciting action. London is a chief player in this series, and with loving and full detail, it is clear Griffin is no mere tourist (I once read an apocalypse book set in a New York that the author very clearly had only visited–if seen in person at all). Some places are so iconic that they take on a role beyond their actuality. Hollywood is one of those places–dirty, dingy, filled with the outcasts of humanity and cockroach-infested diners, the imaginary Hollywood bares little resemblance to the reality. Not this London. This one is very real,with tired commuters, overflowing rubbish bins, and confusing and obscure tube system. I liked it, and because the angels are new to the corporeal experience, their joy in the details, in all their glamorous and dirty varieties, was contagious.
If the rest of the characters weren’t quite as developed as Swift/Angels and London, they were still reasonably done. There is a nice ambivalence surrounding Matthew’s former teacher Bakker, for his role in teaching him the craft and his ultimate path. Oda, an anti-magic fanatic, has little finesse to her arc, but is done well enough that it added an element of tension. Sinclair and Charlie were very interesting and not at all predictable. There's a nice amount of dialogue, occasionally delightfully described:
"'Yes,' she said, in the weary voice of someone who knows where this conversation is going and can't believe she has to wait at the traffic lights to get there."
Magic has an unusual flair as well. It is supposed to be ‘urban’ magic, evolving to its place and time, and one of the first malevolent creatures encountered is a trash-beast. Then there’s the magic of the city–the rituals of public transport gating, the mystery of the ATMs. I loved the graffiti-magic angle; and a perfect twist on the out-front yet underground language of the city, decipherable to those in the know. The magical healer connected to the NHS cracked me up. The city creatures are perhaps not precisely magical, but echo real life cities with an abundance of pigeons, rats and foxes. The Beggar King and Bag Lady were nice magical elements, echoing the parable of those least among us. Griffin cleverly avoids the over-powered magical protagonist as well. As Matthew is so new to his body and abilities from the electric angels, there’s believable limits on what he is reasonably able to accomplish, despite the abilities of both sorcerer and electric angels.
Plot is perhaps the least unusual aspect of the story, but with so much going on with narrative and magic, it’s rather nice to have something sort of straightforward. Swift and the angels seem to agree on revenge, and part of toppling a mighty sorcerer means toppling the pillars that support him. I’m not entirely sure this worked logically in any sense of the word, since everyone was on the defensive after the first went down, and because the sorcerer seemed more than capable of taking care of himself without said supports. The mystery surrounding Matthew’s death was rather unsurprising, as well as the ultimate denouement.
That said, I’ll undoubtedly read it again–a story that hinges on narrative, character and world-building is enjoyably revisitable. The enthusiasm Swift and the angels have for life is contagious, and make it a moderately uplifting read. This is one that
11/19 Re-read. Okay, maybe it loses luster a bit on the fifth or sixth re-read. Also, read the kindle version bc I wanted to highlight. Interestingly, a lot of it is about swathes of text rather than short bursts of sentences. Also note, Kindle edition is full of formatting errors and was a bit more distracting than it should have been.
08/21 This is one of the most satisfying books I own. Lovely language complex enough to hold up on re-read; generally positive/proactive, without being depressing (eyeballing Steven Brust); interesting world-building; forward-moving plot; and (spoiler) satisfying, if complicated resolution.
December 16, 2014
Hands down, one of the most God awful books I've ever read. Ever.
The edition I read had 458 pages. It could have easily been whittled down to 150. Really. The descriptions of mundane things went on and on and on forever! I feel like this book has sucked years off of my life. Ok, maybe a couple of weeks. Every night I kept trying to finish it, and every night I fell asleep after about 15 minutes. I honestly think I deserve some kind of a medal for reading all of it. To be perfectly honest, I had to have a few drinks to fortify myself before I finally managed to slog through the last few chapters (um, so please excuse any spelling errors...cause I can't see so good right now).
The plot could have been really cool. A sorcerer wakes up two years after his death, and we get to be there while he unravels the mystery of his resurrection! Sounds good right? No. It's not. Matthew Swift is not so much unlikable as he is (not even sure how to describe this) a non-character. He didn't even seem like a real person. No one in the entire book did. There was not one single character that I felt anything toward! Do you know how hard that is to do?! I couldn't have cared less what happened to him (or anyone else) by the end of the book.
Oh, wait! I see this is part of a series! *snort* One that I definitely won't be reading!
The edition I read had 458 pages. It could have easily been whittled down to 150. Really. The descriptions of mundane things went on and on and on forever! I feel like this book has sucked years off of my life. Ok, maybe a couple of weeks. Every night I kept trying to finish it, and every night I fell asleep after about 15 minutes. I honestly think I deserve some kind of a medal for reading all of it. To be perfectly honest, I had to have a few drinks to fortify myself before I finally managed to slog through the last few chapters (um, so please excuse any spelling errors...cause I can't see so good right now).
The plot could have been really cool. A sorcerer wakes up two years after his death, and we get to be there while he unravels the mystery of his resurrection! Sounds good right? No. It's not. Matthew Swift is not so much unlikable as he is (not even sure how to describe this) a non-character. He didn't even seem like a real person. No one in the entire book did. There was not one single character that I felt anything toward! Do you know how hard that is to do?! I couldn't have cared less what happened to him (or anyone else) by the end of the book.
Oh, wait! I see this is part of a series! *snort* One that I definitely won't be reading!
August 9, 2014
I had high hopes for this book, and it has some splendid ideas. Ultimately, however, two things about it annoyed me so much I can't give it an enthusiastic thumbs-up. I do see how this can be a matter of taste, and perfectly respectable readers could give this five stars. Bet here are my beefs:
Length and Plot. The overall structure of the book is that our protagonist, newly-resurrected urban sorcerer Matthew Swift has to destroy a chief bad guy (gamers will recognize him as a boss) who has rings of protectors and junior bosses to be gotten through first. There are puzzles to solve, preparations to make, setbacks to un-set-back, and then a big fight scene where the preparations pay off and we see cool magic. This cycle happens several times in the course of the book. And—it's just not enough. If you're going 500 pages, you need more. There are interesting digressions, a couple of them, but they are just not really compelling as sub-plots.
Too LushIf nothing else, Griffin can write beautiful, lush prose. The problem is that there's too much description, not just of settings, but also of feelings. Now I like good settings and characterization, and I like lush prose. But it needs to lead somewhere more than it does here. Griffin, for example, strings together long lists of seemingly-disparate lexical nuggets in order to show the complexity of something she is describing. This is a really great device, but it appears over and over, and I got sick of it. The problem is not the particular string of attributions, but that the tenth such string ceases to inform us about the plot or characters. And then there are the similes and metaphors. Again, more than we need.
An example. Our hero summons a spirit, and we get a bunch of description, including:
Cool, right? But a couple paragraphs later, we get this, in the midst of some action:
Me, I just get tired trying to assemble all those images and attach them to the spirit in the scene. He's creepy-looking and rickety, we get that, but how much does it matter that the rails are new?
Then, in my annoyance, I get picky: why use chewing gum twice, huh? Skin and teeth, unless he's a gum spirit, and we have no indication of that. Then those rails. To train wheels really rattle across shining new rails, or do they more generally rattle along them, unless you really mean that our train is passig over switches or crossings, which makes the description of breath far too complicated. Finally, that creak in his bones: the bones can creak like a rusted gate swinging, but if the gate bangs, that's not the sound of bones creaking, is it? Ack.
Finally, because our hero is inhabited by electric blue angels, he goes back and forth between first person singular and first-person plural (I to we) in the narrative. Although this reveals his inner multiplicity, it's too cumbersome and confusing, particularly when he is doing something with another character: when Griffin writes, "we entered the disco," we don't know whether Swift is speaking for the angels within, or reporting that he and his friend both entered.
Some good points:
* The opening has that yummy confusion where you're dropped into the action in a strange environment, can't fathom what's going on, and get to come gradually to be able to follow the narrative. Goes on a little too long, in my opinion, but I liked it.
* The whole notion of urban magic is terrific, finding the magic in the city. Swift often, for example, draws power from electric systems; and the organization that arises from people living closely amid infrastructure creates its own peculiar magical enclaves, for example, the spirits of conversations that linger in the lines or the teleportational resonances between suburban streets that seem identical.
Length and Plot. The overall structure of the book is that our protagonist, newly-resurrected urban sorcerer Matthew Swift has to destroy a chief bad guy (gamers will recognize him as a boss) who has rings of protectors and junior bosses to be gotten through first. There are puzzles to solve, preparations to make, setbacks to un-set-back, and then a big fight scene where the preparations pay off and we see cool magic. This cycle happens several times in the course of the book. And—it's just not enough. If you're going 500 pages, you need more. There are interesting digressions, a couple of them, but they are just not really compelling as sub-plots.
Too LushIf nothing else, Griffin can write beautiful, lush prose. The problem is that there's too much description, not just of settings, but also of feelings. Now I like good settings and characterization, and I like lush prose. But it needs to lead somewhere more than it does here. Griffin, for example, strings together long lists of seemingly-disparate lexical nuggets in order to show the complexity of something she is describing. This is a really great device, but it appears over and over, and I got sick of it. The problem is not the particular string of attributions, but that the tenth such string ceases to inform us about the plot or characters. And then there are the similes and metaphors. Again, more than we need.
An example. Our hero summons a spirit, and we get a bunch of description, including:
...His eyes were the amber of traffic lights, his breath the swish of traffic passing on a wet night; his skin has the colour of old chewing gum...
Cool, right? But a couple paragraphs later, we get this, in the midst of some action:
...His teeth weren't even solid, but lumps of pale, half-chewed bubble gum that formed sticky fingers between his blue lips. A wisp of breath that rattled like train wheels across shining new rails, a creak in his bones as he shifted his weight like the sound of a rusted gate banging in the wind...
Me, I just get tired trying to assemble all those images and attach them to the spirit in the scene. He's creepy-looking and rickety, we get that, but how much does it matter that the rails are new?
Then, in my annoyance, I get picky: why use chewing gum twice, huh? Skin and teeth, unless he's a gum spirit, and we have no indication of that. Then those rails. To train wheels really rattle across shining new rails, or do they more generally rattle along them, unless you really mean that our train is passig over switches or crossings, which makes the description of breath far too complicated. Finally, that creak in his bones: the bones can creak like a rusted gate swinging, but if the gate bangs, that's not the sound of bones creaking, is it? Ack.
Finally, because our hero is inhabited by electric blue angels, he goes back and forth between first person singular and first-person plural (I to we) in the narrative. Although this reveals his inner multiplicity, it's too cumbersome and confusing, particularly when he is doing something with another character: when Griffin writes, "we entered the disco," we don't know whether Swift is speaking for the angels within, or reporting that he and his friend both entered.
Some good points:
* The opening has that yummy confusion where you're dropped into the action in a strange environment, can't fathom what's going on, and get to come gradually to be able to follow the narrative. Goes on a little too long, in my opinion, but I liked it.
* The whole notion of urban magic is terrific, finding the magic in the city. Swift often, for example, draws power from electric systems; and the organization that arises from people living closely amid infrastructure creates its own peculiar magical enclaves, for example, the spirits of conversations that linger in the lines or the teleportational resonances between suburban streets that seem identical.
October 27, 2019
Notes from a third read:
Matthew Swift is back, but no one is exactly sure that he is him. He visits the shop of a prophet who once foretold his death:
"'You want to tell me that you're Matthew Swift.'
'Is this a bad thing?'
'You are a dead man, Matthew Swift.'
'You must have customers flocking to hear your predictions.'
'It was a statement of fact, of history.'
'It pays for prophets to be cryptic, particularly in this litigious age,' I wheezed."
The sorcerer Matthew Swift was killed--or at least disappeared, leaving an extremely copious amount of his spilled blood behind--two years ago, and has suddenly reappeared with an apparent personality disorder and more magic than ever at his fingertips. A visit to a nurse at a supernatural hospital sums up the problem:
"'No. We want...no. Please. Help us.'
'Help us, or help me?'
'We are the same.'
'You sure?' she asked nicely. 'Only it seems to me that one of you has blue blood, and one of you has red, and one of you knows about the things that were in the phone line and one of you, probably the clinically dead one, has a better grounding in the personal ego--not that I want to speculate beyond my training, you understand. You may share the same skin and the same voice, but I'm really not entirely sure that you're working on the same track."
So serious, and yet there are flashes of humor here. A temporary removal of the fourth wall made me laugh. After all, we are talking urban fantasy:
"For a ludicrous moment I wondered if there were any air ducts I could crawl through to get inside the office; but life was not like the movies."
And a social statement, and why I consider Kate Griffin's urban fantasies to be something far more substantial than candy bar reads:
"If asked why they did not give charity [to beggars], the standard reply is 'They would only have spent it on drugs.' Unkind as this is, the bastard's reply is even worse: 'It's their fault they're here; why should I waste my money on someone who can't be saved?'
Thus, with a single swoop, the entire population of old, young, black, white, frightened, bold, subdued, cowering, cold, ill, hungry, thirsty, dirty or addicted are classified as self-destructive, and every ignored face, every shadow blotted out of the memory of the stranger on the street can be classified by a single word--failed."
Matthew Swift is back, but no one is exactly sure that he is him. He visits the shop of a prophet who once foretold his death:
"'You want to tell me that you're Matthew Swift.'
'Is this a bad thing?'
'You are a dead man, Matthew Swift.'
'You must have customers flocking to hear your predictions.'
'It was a statement of fact, of history.'
'It pays for prophets to be cryptic, particularly in this litigious age,' I wheezed."
The sorcerer Matthew Swift was killed--or at least disappeared, leaving an extremely copious amount of his spilled blood behind--two years ago, and has suddenly reappeared with an apparent personality disorder and more magic than ever at his fingertips. A visit to a nurse at a supernatural hospital sums up the problem:
"'No. We want...no. Please. Help us.'
'Help us, or help me?'
'We are the same.'
'You sure?' she asked nicely. 'Only it seems to me that one of you has blue blood, and one of you has red, and one of you knows about the things that were in the phone line and one of you, probably the clinically dead one, has a better grounding in the personal ego--not that I want to speculate beyond my training, you understand. You may share the same skin and the same voice, but I'm really not entirely sure that you're working on the same track."
So serious, and yet there are flashes of humor here. A temporary removal of the fourth wall made me laugh. After all, we are talking urban fantasy:
"For a ludicrous moment I wondered if there were any air ducts I could crawl through to get inside the office; but life was not like the movies."
And a social statement, and why I consider Kate Griffin's urban fantasies to be something far more substantial than candy bar reads:
"If asked why they did not give charity [to beggars], the standard reply is 'They would only have spent it on drugs.' Unkind as this is, the bastard's reply is even worse: 'It's their fault they're here; why should I waste my money on someone who can't be saved?'
Thus, with a single swoop, the entire population of old, young, black, white, frightened, bold, subdued, cowering, cold, ill, hungry, thirsty, dirty or addicted are classified as self-destructive, and every ignored face, every shadow blotted out of the memory of the stranger on the street can be classified by a single word--failed."
June 12, 2009
Beautifully-written, snarkily fun, deliciously literary urban fantasy. Can't wait for the next book.
July 14, 2015
I really love this book. The premise is just so different. I love the way magic works, and what it is to be a Sorcerer. The Bikers were really interesting as well. I love the complicated mess that is Matthew Swift, and the Electric Blue Angels. I love how there is no real, clear lines between the two of them, and how often they merge and blend. The plot is well done, and tightly paced. The secondary characters are a varied bunch, and form an integral part of the story rather than just being an afterthought, or a foil for Matthew. For me the stand out of this book is the writing. It's vibrant, alive, and reminds me of what I love about British humor, and style. There was a lot that reminded me of the feel of Doctor Who, Neil Gaiman, and Douglas Adams without ever feeling like the author was copying anything; just that they shared a similar sensibility, and taste. I loved the blend of humor, and darkness. It's not a light read, but it's not an oppressive one either. One of my all time favorite urban fantasy series.
Oh, I can't resist one of my favorite quotes: "'All part of the service,' she said. 'Now-I'm going to get bandages. Please don't evaporate into you constituent parts before I get back.'"
Oh, I can't resist one of my favorite quotes: "'All part of the service,' she said. 'Now-I'm going to get bandages. Please don't evaporate into you constituent parts before I get back.'"
January 3, 2014
Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my FINISHING THE SERIES! list.
I loves me a good series! But I'm terrible for starting a new series before finishing my last - so this reading list is all about trying to close out those series I've got on the go.
My wife and I found our way to A Madness of Angels through Mike Carey’s Felix Castor books. In the blurb at the back is the publisher’s spiel, “if you liked this you’ll love Kate Griffin…” In our house, Castor is up in silver medal position on the Urban-Fantasy podium, second only to the great Harry Dresden (with Peter Grant currently picking up the bronze). So we went hunting for a copy of the book.
My wife started reading it, put it down, whinged about it, picked it up, put it down, whinged about being pregnant, etc – and it took her several months to actually finish the damn thing, by which time I would have been happy to never to have to hear about it again, let alone read it myself!
Her main complaints were:
- self-indulgent, stream-of-consciousness prose
- found it hard/impossible to connect with the main character
- the style of urban magic was too ‘contrived/cute’
My wife and I have similar taste in books –something which drew us together when we met – but every now and again we disagree completely. There are some pretty mixed reviews of A Madness of Angels here on Goodreads. More than a few people agree with my darling wife, but those who praise the book said enough to make me give it a chance.
It took me while to get into, but by the end I was convinced – I’m a Matthew Swift fan!
Kate Griffin goes about her Urban-Fantazy business a little differently to her peers. For one, her hero starts the story dead – kind of (let’s say disincarnated?). For two he’s possessed – kind of (it’s a symbiotic relationship?). For three, Swift is a sorcerer not a wizard (like Dresden or Grant).
Those first two points are strongly connected – and lead directly to the first two complaints my wife had with the book.
Swift is an urban sorcerer, but he was murdered a couple of years ago by forces unknown. With his last breath Swift poured his dwindling life-force into the telephone lines where his spirit was sheltered by the equivalent of an urban elemental-spirit – the electric angels (born of telephone conversations). When someone summons Swift back to the mortal plane the angels come along, tangled up with him.
Because the story is told first-person, the narrative voice is… odd. Mathew Swift himself is disorientated from death and reincarnation – the electric angels have never been corporeal before, and take a childlike delight in every fresh sensory revelation. Because every sight and sound his hitting the angels so hard, and Mathew is in such a mental muddle, the first couple of chapters are vivid and intense, but also a little tricky to get a handle on. It seems like some readers who don’t gel with this beginning, never really click with the book and don’t enjoy it. I was a little sceptical, but some of the prose is delightful so I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Next, we move onto the fact that Swift is a sorcerer not a wizard – these two words may seem interchangeable (if you’re not a fantasy aficionado) but they represent two very different mind-sets. Wizards (like Harry Potter, Harry Dresden, Peter Grant, Gandalf the Grey, etc) increase their power and abilities through study, they come from a schools and traditions with systems of magic. Their magic is rule bound, often using set tools and techniques (wands, staffs, broomsticks, spell books, potions, etc). Sorcerers are a very different kettle of fish – to steal a Discworld definition – a sorcerer is a source of magic. Sorcerers fly by the seat of their pants, taking inspiration from their surroundings to create their magic on the spur of the moment. To compare magic and music - wizards are like orchestra musicians, working with others to learn and perform famous compositions, but sorcerers are like jazz artists, improvising on their own. Or maybe wizardry is the science of magic, sorcery the art.
A good sorcerer needs to be aware of his surroundings. A good sorcerer needs to see the potential in the world before him. These qualities give Swifts narration a strongly lyrical quality, a somewhat tangential train of thought and stream of consciousness – again, I can see why some readers didn’t gel, but I found the positives outweighed the negatives comfortably.
Matt Swift is an urban sorcerer, so the powers he’s tapping into are the ebb and flow of city life. Graffiti. Cash machines. Wheelie bins. Tube stations. Pigeons. I love London and found it all delightfully evocative, there are some wonderfully imaginative scenes and concepts. Because Matt is now twinned with the electric angels, he’s now regarded by the magical big wigs of the city as something of a power-player, opening some interesting doors.
My only complaint really, is that come the end, the final antagonist is a little underwhelming. It’s a gradual build up – Matt has to figure out what’s happened while he’s been dead, why he’s been brought back (and by who) and then work his way up through various henchmen to fight the big-bad. I was right there, every step of the way, until the final showdown, which left me all ‘meh’. I loved the badass dragon though!
Overall, I enjoyed A Madness of Angels a great deal and I’m very much looking forward to the next in (and the rest of) the Matthew Swift series.
After this I read: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
September 18, 2016
This book is interesting and has tasty bits like folklore, a very typical example of UF, interesting character interaction, a little bit of humor and fighting scenes. It could have worked and I confess, there were times when I enjoyed reading this book, but the whole picture lacked a sharp hook enough to hook me entirely.
The beginning was quite good, but after30 pages I got tired of detailed sentences: I did this, then I did that, I went there, then there. Oh those wanderings and memories! The remarks to run, run, run had almost worked for me and I had a thought to run, run, run from this book, but I guess it was a test ‘cause after that I got interesting stuff with thrill, magic, secrets and intrigue :D And then I found out that untasty things have a tendency to return as the writing felt excessively or unreasonably aimless sometimes. Some dialogues or descriptions had no value for the story or the character.
On the other hand, this book has tasty things too. It definitely has some interesting characters: magicians, deadly killing machines. Combined with mythic background, urban fantasy and action it’s not so bad. I quite liked Swift and his double personality (though at first it annoyed me to read the I-we interaction). Swift is not a badly written character. He is hard to kill, he has no home and no friends. Though, the author didn’t provide much about his personality or likes. Of course Swift is arrogant, but caring for the living and morality.
It’s strange but the evil master's four human chiefs-helpers made a bigger impression on me. I felt that their characters were more developed and had more interesting background and magic powers. I loved how the author created and presented the necromancer (with some hints to the history of Golems) and the one, who was close to Swift in the past (their dialogues added spices and fun to the story).
Magic plays a great role in the story and it was presented in an engaging way. Also I liked how the author presented London (It’s definitely the longing for Peter Grant :D). The ending was also very good, in fact I didn’t expect such a gripping clash. Ech, and now I’m thinking, why oh why, the author didn’t make Swift more appealing in a magical and character way.
To sum up, this book has tasty bits to hook me for some time, but I think the story and the main character need to be fortified for their background. I’m leaving Mr. Swift to recuperate his powers of mesmerism.
May 15, 2020
Matthew Swift wakes up on the floor of his apartment--two years after he was brutally murdered. Now he has no money, no clothes, and an otherworldly presence in his head. Luckily, Matthew Swift is not your typical Londoner--he is an urban sorcerer, and he has a few tricks up his sleeves...
I loved loved LOVED the magic systems in this book. This book is one of the few with thoughtful, exciting, non-traditional magic--others that spring to mind are Hellblazer, Night Watch, Neverwhere, and the Books of Magic. Another thing that surprised me was how much I liked Matthew. Unlike pretty much every urban magician I can think of (I'm looking at you, Dresden and Constantine), he's not a jaded asshole. He has a sense of wonder and delight in his city that translates to the reader. The battles are exciting, the characters interesting, and if the climactic battle is a little less climactic than I expected, well, it was still an enthralling read. I recommend this to anyone looking for an urban fantasy fix!
I loved loved LOVED the magic systems in this book. This book is one of the few with thoughtful, exciting, non-traditional magic--others that spring to mind are Hellblazer, Night Watch, Neverwhere, and the Books of Magic. Another thing that surprised me was how much I liked Matthew. Unlike pretty much every urban magician I can think of (I'm looking at you, Dresden and Constantine), he's not a jaded asshole. He has a sense of wonder and delight in his city that translates to the reader. The battles are exciting, the characters interesting, and if the climactic battle is a little less climactic than I expected, well, it was still an enthralling read. I recommend this to anyone looking for an urban fantasy fix!
September 2, 2014
I really wanted to like this book more (especially since a friend here recommended it...sorry). It's not that it's a bad book. The idea is fairly original, based on the concept that "urban settings" cities etc. will or have developed their sort of "magic" (Charles de Lint for example has worked with similar ideas). The story is a pretty good one and the writing contains some very nice prose. Somehow the book just never appealed to me however. I couldn't get involved with him/them. I would recommend that if you like Urban Fantasy you might try this one for yourself. Where I felt it was a bit meandering and possibly the writer liked his own prose a bit too much (the opening sequence struck me as a bit "stream of consciousness" but not quite the best) you might be drawn in. As I said, this may be simply a matter of taste..try it yourself. Not my cup of tea really, though not bad.
July 5, 2022
Part loving panegyric to cities and the electric buzz of life they generate, part 200 page revenge story buried within a 458 page novel, A Madness of Angels is one frustrating read. I think Kate Griffin / Claire North / Catherine Webb works best for me in short form, in which the ratio of story to literary digression is more favorable. For a revenge story with a cat-and-mouse structure (ah, but which one is the cat?), this book is startlingly slow and putdownable.
Case in point: dinner was ready right before the climactic battle scene ten pages before the end. I put the book down, had dinner, went for a walk, then remembered about an hour later that I hadn't actually finished reading.
The good: the London setting is so immersive, detailed, and seamlessly worked into the magic of the story that only a Londoner could have written it. I haven't spent all that much time in London, but I was transported back to the Underground, its, erm, aromatic currents, the roar of the approaching train. Kate Griffin is a skilled writer of phrases and descriptions that sizzle on the brain:
Note to self: stick to banh mi, you spice wimp.
Also good: the system of magic is unusual, convincingly urban, and doesn't devolve into the omnipotence that urban fantasy main characters tend to pull out at convenient moments.
But: the writing is not quite enough to make up for a rather thin mystery-ish plot that flounders when it hits philosophical or sociological patches of thought (even when they are interesting, which they sometimes are), a main character possessed by non-human forces whose having-flesh-is-novel! perspective doesn't actually add up to character depth, intimacy, or relatability, and a frustrating lack of urgency to what should be a snappy story of peril and betrayal.
I got really annoyed at the book's wordy digressions toward the end (though they occur throughout the book). Suspense is finally building; our hero is heading up the stairs for a final rendezvous with the enemy, and then this:
Pfffftttt...there goes the tension. All this verbose setup to emphasize a concept that has been repeatedly emphasized throughout the book at the cost of all forward momentum.
An editor should have red-inked the shit out of that and maybe 1/3 of the book. This book was a solid 3 before I noticed the pattern of deliberate suspense deflation (why??), but I'm finishing it with mingled relief (time to move on to a different book) and frustration, so 2.5 it is.
Case in point: dinner was ready right before the climactic battle scene ten pages before the end. I put the book down, had dinner, went for a walk, then remembered about an hour later that I hadn't actually finished reading.
The good: the London setting is so immersive, detailed, and seamlessly worked into the magic of the story that only a Londoner could have written it. I haven't spent all that much time in London, but I was transported back to the Underground, its, erm, aromatic currents, the roar of the approaching train. Kate Griffin is a skilled writer of phrases and descriptions that sizzle on the brain:
The effect was like eating hot Vietnamese curry: for the first few strokes of the spatula, there was no sensation beyond that of thick soap bubbles moving on the skin, or of sticky flour being washed off the fingertips. Only when the mind had been fooled into thinking that it wouldn't be so bad did the burning hit. It started as a dull itch, quickly rising to an intense, fiery pulse that went right down to the bone and shot up past the elbow joint and into the shoulder blade
Note to self: stick to banh mi, you spice wimp.
Also good: the system of magic is unusual, convincingly urban, and doesn't devolve into the omnipotence that urban fantasy main characters tend to pull out at convenient moments.
But: the writing is not quite enough to make up for a rather thin mystery-ish plot that flounders when it hits philosophical or sociological patches of thought (even when they are interesting, which they sometimes are), a main character possessed by non-human forces whose having-flesh-is-novel! perspective doesn't actually add up to character depth, intimacy, or relatability, and a frustrating lack of urgency to what should be a snappy story of peril and betrayal.
I got really annoyed at the book's wordy digressions toward the end (though they occur throughout the book). Suspense is finally building; our hero is heading up the stairs for a final rendezvous with the enemy, and then this:
There is a magazine, published irregularly in the UK, and distributed occasionally in the US, Australia, South Africa and among a specialist English-speaking market, whose imaginative founding editor dubbed it Urban Magic. Students sometimes read it when they're bored and listless, in case they can get useful hints about sex out of it; fluffy ladies who care about gardening sometimes read it in case it can advise them on how to read their own palms; sinister men with an unhealthy interest in rabbit's blood sometimes read it, in case they can find clues in its pages to a conspiracy. All of these people tend to be disappointed. If you ignore the occasionally garish covers designed to entice readers of just this sort into paying the £1.60 required per issue, the contents tend to be rather dry [...] It is the magazine of the professional urban magician.
Pfffftttt...there goes the tension. All this verbose setup to emphasize a concept that has been repeatedly emphasized throughout the book at the cost of all forward momentum.
An editor should have red-inked the shit out of that and maybe 1/3 of the book. This book was a solid 3 before I noticed the pattern of deliberate suspense deflation (why??), but I'm finishing it with mingled relief (time to move on to a different book) and frustration, so 2.5 it is.
May 7, 2022
I wanted to like this book more than I did. It ticked many of the right boxes for me and I loved many of the elements, a powerful sorcerer, Matthew Swift brought back from the dead, urban magic derived from the city itself, a struggle between good and evil. It was original and imaginative but, for me it was overly long and slow. The descriptive prose is wonderfully colourful but often it is too much and holds back the momentum of the plot.
I also felt the basic plot was a bit too linear. For Matthew to destroy the evil threatening the world he has to first destroy the evil men protecting and aiding the big boss in charge before the final battle to destroy him. This all felt a bit predictable, even though the system of magic was new and original and I loved the blue, electric angels that are part of Matthew and I enjoyed the people of the streets that Matthew is able to recruit to help. I loved that the novel was set in London where the features and underground are are familiar to me and I loved the imaginative way in which Matthew is able to use the magic of the city from the buildings, the wires, the trains and the traffic. However, I would have liked to have got to know the characters a bit better, especially given the size of the book. Most of them went through the motions but gave away little personality. Matthew, as the narrator was the most easy to get to know as his thoughts and motives are constantly on show, but I didn't feel that I got to know any of the other important players, such as the sorcerers he fought, Dana his ex-apprentice and the main members of the various groups.
So this is a hard book to rate. On one hand there is much I liked about it, on the other hand there were elements I disliked. If you like urban fantasy you should give it a try.
3.5 ★
I also felt the basic plot was a bit too linear. For Matthew to destroy the evil threatening the world he has to first destroy the evil men protecting and aiding the big boss in charge before the final battle to destroy him. This all felt a bit predictable, even though the system of magic was new and original and I loved the blue, electric angels that are part of Matthew and I enjoyed the people of the streets that Matthew is able to recruit to help. I loved that the novel was set in London where the features and underground are are familiar to me and I loved the imaginative way in which Matthew is able to use the magic of the city from the buildings, the wires, the trains and the traffic. However, I would have liked to have got to know the characters a bit better, especially given the size of the book. Most of them went through the motions but gave away little personality. Matthew, as the narrator was the most easy to get to know as his thoughts and motives are constantly on show, but I didn't feel that I got to know any of the other important players, such as the sorcerers he fought, Dana his ex-apprentice and the main members of the various groups.
So this is a hard book to rate. On one hand there is much I liked about it, on the other hand there were elements I disliked. If you like urban fantasy you should give it a try.
3.5 ★
January 28, 2010
I loved the depth of this book, the intensity of the language, and the inside view of London. The love came through, the magic was logical, and the disconnected order of the revelations was just plain perfect. It was so much what I'd been looking for that I didn't know until I finished reading it, and I'm delighted.
If you love urban fantasy in the truest, "love of the city" sense, this is a wonderful book for you. I'd recommend it to any Tim Powers fans without reservation, and also to fans of Gaiman's Neverwhere.
If you love urban fantasy in the truest, "love of the city" sense, this is a wonderful book for you. I'd recommend it to any Tim Powers fans without reservation, and also to fans of Gaiman's Neverwhere.
Read
October 11, 2021Rereading this for no particular reason, holds up well. Wonderfully imaginative magic system, genuinely remarkable.
Read
December 22, 2022This is it. This is my absolute favorite urban fantasy. This is everything I want in this genre.
* * * * *
I love this book. Love everything about it from the strange magical London, to the city coming to life, to the many magical underground factions, to the blue electric angels, to Matthew Swift, especially Matthew Swift. One of the best urban fantasy hero there is.
The writing is superb and the action and pacing are relentless. The whole book is so well put together.
I need to reread this book.
* * * * *
Such a satisfying read. There isn't anything about this book I don't like. London, action, adventure, urban magic, turf wars, and revenge. A lot of fun.
Review moved to https://covers2covers.wordpress.com/2...
* * * * *
I love this book. Love everything about it from the strange magical London, to the city coming to life, to the many magical underground factions, to the blue electric angels, to Matthew Swift, especially Matthew Swift. One of the best urban fantasy hero there is.
The writing is superb and the action and pacing are relentless. The whole book is so well put together.
I need to reread this book.
* * * * *
Such a satisfying read. There isn't anything about this book I don't like. London, action, adventure, urban magic, turf wars, and revenge. A lot of fun.
Review moved to https://covers2covers.wordpress.com/2...
Read
September 10, 2020I DNF this after 94 pages so no star rating for this one.
This wasn't really my sort of story. It's too slow and the subject didn't really grab me.
There were a number of instances where the main character kept referring to himself as 'I' and then 'we' in the same paragraph, and that began irritating me. I get the reason for it but I just didn't like it.
I'm sure it's a perfectly good book if you like this sort of thing, and the author is talented but being in a reading-slump it wasn't for me.
Thanks for reading.
This wasn't really my sort of story. It's too slow and the subject didn't really grab me.
There were a number of instances where the main character kept referring to himself as 'I' and then 'we' in the same paragraph, and that began irritating me. I get the reason for it but I just didn't like it.
I'm sure it's a perfectly good book if you like this sort of thing, and the author is talented but being in a reading-slump it wasn't for me.
Thanks for reading.
June 1, 2025
The cold intruded like a great hungry worm into every joint and inch of skin, my bones suddenly too long for my flesh, my muscles suddenly too tense in their relaxed form to tense ever again, every part starting to quiver as the full shock of sensation returned. I lay on the floor naked as a shedding snake, and we contemplated our situation.
runrunrunrunrunRUNRUNRUNRUN! hissed the panicked voice inside me, the one that saw the bed legs an inch from my nose as the feet of an ogre, heard the odd swish of traffic through the rain outside as the spitting of venom down a forked tongue, felt the thin neon light drifting through the familiar dirty window pane as hot as noonday glare through a hole in the ozone layer.
Matthew Swift was dead, and now he's not, and he's looking for revenge on the people who orchestrated both of those events. I am blown away by how great this was, and (as usual) very glad to have listened to carol and Mir, who wrote excellent and very persuasive reviews.
This book could stand next to in media res in the dictionary, and for a little while it's confusing - but that glorious, lyrical writing kept me entirely hooked and happy to wait to have meaning revealed. It's almost poetic, but not flowery; more in the sense that it feels like it has a rhythm, and that every word was chosen for their meaning.
If I had to choose something to compare this to it would be Kill Bill, but gender-flipped, moved to London, and filled with the kind of magic I love the most - the magic of mundane places, liminal spaces, and life in all it's moments of glory and sorrow. And all of it is wrapped in that beautiful writing.
Honestly, I'm doing a horrible job with this review, because all I want to do is tell you to read it. Let yourself sink into it like I did, until you resent interruptions and try to find excuses to keep reading like you're ten years old again and hiding with a torch under the covers. It's just that good. I'd be gutted that I waited this long to read it, but now I've got so many to catch up on that I just can't even pretend not to be excited.
2025 reread - this time I'll space this series out, but it's just SO GOOD.
runrunrunrunrunRUNRUNRUNRUN! hissed the panicked voice inside me, the one that saw the bed legs an inch from my nose as the feet of an ogre, heard the odd swish of traffic through the rain outside as the spitting of venom down a forked tongue, felt the thin neon light drifting through the familiar dirty window pane as hot as noonday glare through a hole in the ozone layer.
Matthew Swift was dead, and now he's not, and he's looking for revenge on the people who orchestrated both of those events. I am blown away by how great this was, and (as usual) very glad to have listened to carol and Mir, who wrote excellent and very persuasive reviews.
This book could stand next to in media res in the dictionary, and for a little while it's confusing - but that glorious, lyrical writing kept me entirely hooked and happy to wait to have meaning revealed. It's almost poetic, but not flowery; more in the sense that it feels like it has a rhythm, and that every word was chosen for their meaning.
If I had to choose something to compare this to it would be Kill Bill, but gender-flipped, moved to London, and filled with the kind of magic I love the most - the magic of mundane places, liminal spaces, and life in all it's moments of glory and sorrow. And all of it is wrapped in that beautiful writing.
Honestly, I'm doing a horrible job with this review, because all I want to do is tell you to read it. Let yourself sink into it like I did, until you resent interruptions and try to find excuses to keep reading like you're ten years old again and hiding with a torch under the covers. It's just that good. I'd be gutted that I waited this long to read it, but now I've got so many to catch up on that I just can't even pretend not to be excited.
2025 reread - this time I'll space this series out, but it's just SO GOOD.
July 22, 2021
Dnf 163
Kitapta mi çeviride mi sıkıntı bilmiyorum kitaba asla giremedim ne olay ne işleyiş ne başka bir şey boş okudum resmen🤷♀️
Kitapta mi çeviride mi sıkıntı bilmiyorum kitaba asla giremedim ne olay ne işleyiş ne başka bir şey boş okudum resmen🤷♀️
June 25, 2010
Two years ago, Matthew Swift died.
Our story begins when he comes back to life. A stranger has rented his apartment, he has no money or identification, and it turns out that all his friends have been horribly murdered in the interim.
A lot of this book is descriptive, and although this sometimes dragged from a readerly point of view it fit perfectly with the way magic is envisioned by Griffin. Also, her love of London was obvious, which gave appeal to what would otherwise have been tediously extensive passage of urban description. Griffin really captures the energy of cities; in fact, this book actually made me rather sad because I miss living in the city.
Our story begins when he comes back to life. A stranger has rented his apartment, he has no money or identification, and it turns out that all his friends have been horribly murdered in the interim.
A lot of this book is descriptive, and although this sometimes dragged from a readerly point of view it fit perfectly with the way magic is envisioned by Griffin. Also, her love of London was obvious, which gave appeal to what would otherwise have been tediously extensive passage of urban description. Griffin really captures the energy of cities; in fact, this book actually made me rather sad because I miss living in the city.
May 13, 2016
This book contains one truly fantastic conceit: magician Matthew Swift is brought back from the dead, but he doesn't come back alone; he contains within him entities known as the Blue Electric Angels, and so parts of his story are narrated in the first person singular, I, and parts in the first person plural, we. I love the shifts between Matthew's perspective and that of the otherworldly Angels; I love how throughout the book they start to come together a bit, to merge. There is such a fascinating book to be written with this premise!
Unfortunately, this book isn't it. The actual plot is dull, dull, dull, and the characters didn't entrance me, either. Griffin's magical London is just the kind of fantasy setting I usually adore, in which the urban landscape is infused with the same kind of mysticism the countryside is usually granted in fairy stories. But in this book, I felt more like Griffin had simply chewed up the best aspects of Neverwhere and a bunch of Hellblazer comics and spat them out wetly onto the pavement. The novel's opening left me intellectually tantalized but I was never emotionally engaged.
Unfortunately, this book isn't it. The actual plot is dull, dull, dull, and the characters didn't entrance me, either. Griffin's magical London is just the kind of fantasy setting I usually adore, in which the urban landscape is infused with the same kind of mysticism the countryside is usually granted in fairy stories. But in this book, I felt more like Griffin had simply chewed up the best aspects of Neverwhere and a bunch of Hellblazer comics and spat them out wetly onto the pavement. The novel's opening left me intellectually tantalized but I was never emotionally engaged.
May 16, 2011
Putting this back on the shelf after about 100 pages. I feel like the writing is trying too hard to be literary, and is getting in the way of the story. I'm not opposed to the heavy use of similes - I like Michael Chabon and Neal Stephenson - but here they are distractingly bad.
"A noise like the slurping of thick cake mixture being slopped up from the bottom of the bowl."
"The one who spoke had a heavy, breathless voice like the deep snorts of a walrus."
"A quick slap like being hit with a thin slice of uncooked meat."
Also, and possibly I'm just not in the right mood, but the magical system isn't working for me. It's urban fantasy, all right - there's a litterbug monster composed of urban trash, which is defeated by the magic of dustbins. Later the protagonist takes shelter in the London Underground, another monster held at bay by the magic of the legalese on the back of an Oyster card. This sounds pretty cool, and maybe if there were a touch of humor in the book - but it's completely deadpan. Maybe Harry Dresden and Felix Castor have ruined me for this kind of thing. I kept waiting for a snarky comment, or at least a tacit admission of the absurdity.
I did love the London setting, and I was almost tempted to keep reading just for that.
"A noise like the slurping of thick cake mixture being slopped up from the bottom of the bowl."
"The one who spoke had a heavy, breathless voice like the deep snorts of a walrus."
"A quick slap like being hit with a thin slice of uncooked meat."
Also, and possibly I'm just not in the right mood, but the magical system isn't working for me. It's urban fantasy, all right - there's a litterbug monster composed of urban trash, which is defeated by the magic of dustbins. Later the protagonist takes shelter in the London Underground, another monster held at bay by the magic of the legalese on the back of an Oyster card. This sounds pretty cool, and maybe if there were a touch of humor in the book - but it's completely deadpan. Maybe Harry Dresden and Felix Castor have ruined me for this kind of thing. I kept waiting for a snarky comment, or at least a tacit admission of the absurdity.
I did love the London setting, and I was almost tempted to keep reading just for that.
January 21, 2019
TL;DR ~4.5 stars, definitely makes the list for favorite urban fantasies, but an exhausting read.
So I believe I stumbled on A Madness of Angels while browsing carol's GR shelves looking for some good urban fantasy, and in that this is a definite success. A Madness of Angels is very much the sort of thing I want out of urban fantasy, and had I encountered it when it came out nearly ten years ago there would likely be much more UF on my shelves than you see now.
Griffin is an excellent writer, the prose is quite good in my opinion.* [more on this later] I thoroughly enjoyed Matthew and the "angels", and the supporting characters were interesting also. And while I generally regard "magic" as the machine guns of the fantasy genre and have no interest in it in and of itself, I very much liked Griffin's urban spin on magic. The focus is tightly on Matthew and the "angels", and there's no annoying relationship garbage for Matthew to wallow in instead of focusing on the problem at hand. Basically, this is pretty much everything I could ask for in a UF novel, with the exception that it's rather less of a whodunit than I would like.
One thing that could have been clearer going in was that the angels of the title, the blue electric angels are not and have no relation to the angels of christianity. That's the sort of potential misunderstanding that can very definitely screw with your sales, though whether it's net positive or negative sales-wise, I'm unsure.
So, scored on the merits, an excellent showing. But somehow despite all the awesome, I found myself exhausted while reading this. I'm going to spend the rest of this review speculating on why.
Perhaps the most superficial of contributors to the perceived effort of the read, is the lack of chapters. There's no generally agreed upon definition of what constitutes a "chapter" it's really just an arbitrary division of a longer text into chunks.
The only divisions we get in A Madness of Angels are five parts. An 84 page "Prelude", three numbered "Parts", and a short "Epilogue".
This isn't the first book I've read without chapters, why does this matter? Well, while it may be a small thing, (I'm fumbling in the dark here, people), in my experience, books with a lot of short chapters feel like they read faster. It's an obvious feedback marker to the reader that they're making progress. And it's also reassuring that an obvious stop point is coming up soon if you want to take a break, or perhaps need to sleep. This might be even more significant in ebooks than it is in print given that you can't physically feel the progress on a kindle.
The second thing I can point to that I'm sure had the hamster wheel in the back of my brain spinning extra hard is an issue with the timeline.
The book starts with Matthew Swift coming back from the dead two years after being murdered. (At one point he says it's close to two and half years, but that's not enough difference to matter.) Matthew soon learns the magical community of London is now under the thumb of "The Tower", a weird hybrid corporation / criminal organization headed by none other than Matthew's teacher, the kind, wealthy gentleman who trained him in sorcery, Robert Bakker.
And I'm like, what?!?!
Because Bakker's top lieutenants / enforcers are people Matthew seems to have never heard of before. It's completely unclear whether this entire organization is meant to have sprung up in the two years since Matthew's death, or it was there all along and Matthew is a clueless moron, or what. And I really had a problem with the idea that Bakker's top lieutenants would be people that were not even in his orbit a mere 2 years prior. It strains credulity. This could have, should have, been resolved quickly and easily, Griffin just leaves it out there, festering for most of the book.
Much later, like, much closer to the end than the beginning, we learn Matthew completed his training at age 24, and picked up his own apprentice at 28, (still not sure how old he was supposed to have been at the time of his murder), so it's plausible he was less close with Bakker in the years before his death. We also learn very late, that part of corporate structure of The Tower was formed very close to Matthew's death, so it is arguable that at least two of those people weren't in Bakker's inner circle before that. But omg this drove me nuts for most of the book.
The third thing...
I was definitely feeling the effort of this read by the one-third mark, where "Part 2" (3 if you count the prelude) starts. But part 2 is where I actually began to feel like it was slow. Initially part 2 felt like a bit of a rinse and repeat of part 1 to me, but objectively, looking at a list of events, it was not, and neither did the pacing slow down much if we're to judge by a checklist of events. I think now this was me becoming disengaged, and that comes down to the writing.
Contrary to what you'd think from reading some GR reviews, "well-written" is extremely subjective. Not only in the sense that some people like flowery ornate prose, and some people prefer spare, unobtrusive prose, but ask ten people about the quality of the "writing" in a piece of text and none of them are even going to be considering the same aspects of the text in their mental definition of "writing".
As for my own taste, on the one hand you have (sadly little) stuff like P.G. Wodehouse, whose sentences are so delightful they practically demand to be read aloud, and on the other, well, I don't know. But the point is when I say Griffin's an excellent writer, among other things, this means I'm not being slapped in the face by unparsable grammar and her sentences and word choice generally fall within the realm of what I consider aesthetically pleasing.
Apart from an odd flashback we get late in the book, where the cadences are wonderful and the sentence structures clearer and much easier going than the voice the rest of the book is written in, the prose is pleasing though not effortless to read. The issue for me might be the description, it isolation it's pleasing enough, but it might just be spread on a bit too think for me. Sixteen words where twelve would do, so to speak. Not that any particular ones are bad, just the overall mass being a bit too much. Not an infodump type problem. Not pages of description of a setting, the sort of trash that made me DNF The Lies of Locke Lamora. Griffin never does that. But where you can skim or skip over a lump, it's hard to bypass when it's distributed evenly.
The other aspect of the writing which could result in an engagement problem is the handling of voice and point-of-view.
First person, my least favorite person that we need consider as I will slap the fool who hands me second, can be handled in a variety of ways. In one, the narrator, the I of the story, speaks directly to the reader, as if having a conversation, or relaying a story to a friend. It's intimate and the personality of the the narrator shines through. See K.J. Parker. In another you've essentially got third person with the names and pronouns sanded off and replaced with "I". In A Madness of Angels Griffin is much closer to the second.
This is significant for multiple reasons:
1. I think it's much easier to accept the narrator withholding information from or deceiving the reader when using the intimate style.
2. I actually think it's a huge missed opportunity in this book specifically. Matthew did not come back from the dead alone. As a consequence of that fact he's suffering a significant identity crisis.
More interiority would have let the reader share in that. The identity crisis would have been fascinating in it's own right, but could have added suspense and deepened the emotional connection with Matthew. More interiority could also have increased suspense if we were allowed into his doubts and conflicted feelings about Bakker.
Anyway, I noted that part of my issue in "Part 2" (aka 3) was that we didn't seem to learn anything more about Matthew for that 146 page chunk of the book. A more intimate POV could have overcome that.
Issues aside, this definitely earned the next book in the series a slot on my to-read pile, though I think I need to recuperate a bit before tackling it.
As for the rating, a refresher on my rating system:
3 - meh...
4 - I liked it!
5 - I liked it so much I might read it again!
This definitely tilts toward a five, but I'm not sure yet, and because I seem to have enough to grumble about I'm rounding down for now.
And thank you for reading my long as the book review! :)
So I believe I stumbled on A Madness of Angels while browsing carol's GR shelves looking for some good urban fantasy, and in that this is a definite success. A Madness of Angels is very much the sort of thing I want out of urban fantasy, and had I encountered it when it came out nearly ten years ago there would likely be much more UF on my shelves than you see now.
Griffin is an excellent writer, the prose is quite good in my opinion.* [more on this later] I thoroughly enjoyed Matthew and the "angels", and the supporting characters were interesting also. And while I generally regard "magic" as the machine guns of the fantasy genre and have no interest in it in and of itself, I very much liked Griffin's urban spin on magic. The focus is tightly on Matthew and the "angels", and there's no annoying relationship garbage for Matthew to wallow in instead of focusing on the problem at hand. Basically, this is pretty much everything I could ask for in a UF novel, with the exception that it's rather less of a whodunit than I would like.
One thing that could have been clearer going in was that the angels of the title, the blue electric angels are not and have no relation to the angels of christianity. That's the sort of potential misunderstanding that can very definitely screw with your sales, though whether it's net positive or negative sales-wise, I'm unsure.
So, scored on the merits, an excellent showing. But somehow despite all the awesome, I found myself exhausted while reading this. I'm going to spend the rest of this review speculating on why.
Perhaps the most superficial of contributors to the perceived effort of the read, is the lack of chapters. There's no generally agreed upon definition of what constitutes a "chapter" it's really just an arbitrary division of a longer text into chunks.
The only divisions we get in A Madness of Angels are five parts. An 84 page "Prelude", three numbered "Parts", and a short "Epilogue".
This isn't the first book I've read without chapters, why does this matter? Well, while it may be a small thing, (I'm fumbling in the dark here, people), in my experience, books with a lot of short chapters feel like they read faster. It's an obvious feedback marker to the reader that they're making progress. And it's also reassuring that an obvious stop point is coming up soon if you want to take a break, or perhaps need to sleep. This might be even more significant in ebooks than it is in print given that you can't physically feel the progress on a kindle.
The second thing I can point to that I'm sure had the hamster wheel in the back of my brain spinning extra hard is an issue with the timeline.
The book starts with Matthew Swift coming back from the dead two years after being murdered. (At one point he says it's close to two and half years, but that's not enough difference to matter.) Matthew soon learns the magical community of London is now under the thumb of "The Tower", a weird hybrid corporation / criminal organization headed by none other than Matthew's teacher, the kind, wealthy gentleman who trained him in sorcery, Robert Bakker.
And I'm like, what?!?!
Because Bakker's top lieutenants / enforcers are people Matthew seems to have never heard of before. It's completely unclear whether this entire organization is meant to have sprung up in the two years since Matthew's death, or it was there all along and Matthew is a clueless moron, or what. And I really had a problem with the idea that Bakker's top lieutenants would be people that were not even in his orbit a mere 2 years prior. It strains credulity. This could have, should have, been resolved quickly and easily, Griffin just leaves it out there, festering for most of the book.
Much later, like, much closer to the end than the beginning, we learn Matthew completed his training at age 24, and picked up his own apprentice at 28, (still not sure how old he was supposed to have been at the time of his murder), so it's plausible he was less close with Bakker in the years before his death. We also learn very late, that part of corporate structure of The Tower was formed very close to Matthew's death, so it is arguable that at least two of those people weren't in Bakker's inner circle before that. But omg this drove me nuts for most of the book.
The third thing...
I was definitely feeling the effort of this read by the one-third mark, where "Part 2" (3 if you count the prelude) starts. But part 2 is where I actually began to feel like it was slow. Initially part 2 felt like a bit of a rinse and repeat of part 1 to me, but objectively, looking at a list of events, it was not, and neither did the pacing slow down much if we're to judge by a checklist of events. I think now this was me becoming disengaged, and that comes down to the writing.
Contrary to what you'd think from reading some GR reviews, "well-written" is extremely subjective. Not only in the sense that some people like flowery ornate prose, and some people prefer spare, unobtrusive prose, but ask ten people about the quality of the "writing" in a piece of text and none of them are even going to be considering the same aspects of the text in their mental definition of "writing".
As for my own taste, on the one hand you have (sadly little) stuff like P.G. Wodehouse, whose sentences are so delightful they practically demand to be read aloud, and on the other, well, I don't know. But the point is when I say Griffin's an excellent writer, among other things, this means I'm not being slapped in the face by unparsable grammar and her sentences and word choice generally fall within the realm of what I consider aesthetically pleasing.
Apart from an odd flashback we get late in the book, where the cadences are wonderful and the sentence structures clearer and much easier going than the voice the rest of the book is written in, the prose is pleasing though not effortless to read. The issue for me might be the description, it isolation it's pleasing enough, but it might just be spread on a bit too think for me. Sixteen words where twelve would do, so to speak. Not that any particular ones are bad, just the overall mass being a bit too much. Not an infodump type problem. Not pages of description of a setting, the sort of trash that made me DNF The Lies of Locke Lamora. Griffin never does that. But where you can skim or skip over a lump, it's hard to bypass when it's distributed evenly.
The other aspect of the writing which could result in an engagement problem is the handling of voice and point-of-view.
First person, my least favorite person that we need consider as I will slap the fool who hands me second, can be handled in a variety of ways. In one, the narrator, the I of the story, speaks directly to the reader, as if having a conversation, or relaying a story to a friend. It's intimate and the personality of the the narrator shines through. See K.J. Parker. In another you've essentially got third person with the names and pronouns sanded off and replaced with "I". In A Madness of Angels Griffin is much closer to the second.
This is significant for multiple reasons:
1. I think it's much easier to accept the narrator withholding information from or deceiving the reader when using the intimate style.
2. I actually think it's a huge missed opportunity in this book specifically. Matthew did not come back from the dead alone. As a consequence of that fact he's suffering a significant identity crisis.
More interiority would have let the reader share in that. The identity crisis would have been fascinating in it's own right, but could have added suspense and deepened the emotional connection with Matthew. More interiority could also have increased suspense if we were allowed into his doubts and conflicted feelings about Bakker.
Anyway, I noted that part of my issue in "Part 2" (aka 3) was that we didn't seem to learn anything more about Matthew for that 146 page chunk of the book. A more intimate POV could have overcome that.
Issues aside, this definitely earned the next book in the series a slot on my to-read pile, though I think I need to recuperate a bit before tackling it.
As for the rating, a refresher on my rating system:
3 - meh...
4 - I liked it!
5 - I liked it so much I might read it again!
This definitely tilts toward a five, but I'm not sure yet, and because I seem to have enough to grumble about I'm rounding down for now.
And thank you for reading my long as the book review! :)
May 8, 2022
In the heart of London, in the area defined by Wigmore Street to the north and Oxford Street to the south, there is a network of little, weaving, half-hearted roads and tiny, crabbed alleyways, the remnants of a time when almost every street snuggled up to its neighbours like fleas to a skin, compressing the people between its walls into ever tighter and darker corners…
It’s rare that a book changes your life, and while this one didn’t, it did alter my perception of all I see, hear and believe. Urban sorcerer, Matthew Swift is resurrected two years after a horrible death, his body never found, waking in the bed of a home that is no longer his. Friends are dead or disappeared, and with only a few borrowed clothes and little money he takes to the streets of London, thwarting an attack by a “litterbug”, using dustbins and harnessing power from street lights in his fingers.
Fantasy is not my usual reading fare, and at over 600 pages the Mass Market Paperback edition, the font mercifully not too challenging, grabbed my attention from the early pages – Matthew a wonderful anti-hero, fighting the ultimate villain, bringing a totally new perspective to the London I worked in several years back. A fan of Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant series, with its mix of magic and realism, author Kate Griffin's character is Peter Grant on steroids.
There are no chapters, just a prelude that lasts 100 pages and sets the scene, parts 1, 2 and 3 which carries the plot and ultimate battle, and a short epilogue. Peopled with warlocks, wizards, werewolves, zombies – even the ordinary here is extraordinary: how was it I walked over Hungerford Bridge each day, saw the homeless nestled under cardboard underneath, and lacked the insight to see street beggars, bikers, and Madam Dorie?
Madam Dorie – The Bag Lady – the queen of all those who scuttle in the night, gibbering to themselves, and the voices only they can hear. She is the mistress of the mad old women in their slippers who ride the buses from terminal to terminal.
In author Kate Griffin’s hands we get a Cook’s Tour of London from its most famous monuments, such as St Pauls’…
In that place, that strange place where the sharp bite of racing magic met with the ponderous stones of the cathedral, sluggish with its own history, every shadow contained a ghost; and that night, with no one else around and the clouds busy overhead, the ghosts watched us.
…to the very ordinary delivered with sardonic wit.
I arrived early, around 2 a.m. in the maze of tunnels underneath the roundabouts, one-way systems and sprawling circular roads on the edge of Aldgate, where the City becomes simply the city, and the signs point to The North as well as to Bow and Whitechapel. In London, places beyond its boundaries are always called The North or The West, too big, too vague and too Not London to merit anymore detailed descriptions.
For the most part I was taken by the sheer whimsy of it (what was the author on???) but paced myself, the battle scenes riots of colour and mayhem, the intensity leading to fatigue in this reader. In between, incidental characters drew a wry smile.
She was of average height, and unusual width - being not so much fat as all present, so that even in the largest of rooms there was never quite enough space for the crowd and Mrs Mikeda to coexist peacefully.
5★ for that line, ditto the description of Dover.
Blackjack took things easily down the long, steep road cut into the cliff’s edge below the castle. Dover sat below all that chalk like a stubborn stain on a perfect white tablecloth, caught between cliff and sea, a thin beady line of orange glow that mixed a history longer than the sea wall around the ferry port with 1950s lumps pretending to be architecture, from when much of the town had been levelled during the war.
Overall, engrossing, and pigeons, rats and foxes will never seem the same again, but I’ll need a few months before I take on anymore of Matthew Swift.
It’s rare that a book changes your life, and while this one didn’t, it did alter my perception of all I see, hear and believe. Urban sorcerer, Matthew Swift is resurrected two years after a horrible death, his body never found, waking in the bed of a home that is no longer his. Friends are dead or disappeared, and with only a few borrowed clothes and little money he takes to the streets of London, thwarting an attack by a “litterbug”, using dustbins and harnessing power from street lights in his fingers.
Fantasy is not my usual reading fare, and at over 600 pages the Mass Market Paperback edition, the font mercifully not too challenging, grabbed my attention from the early pages – Matthew a wonderful anti-hero, fighting the ultimate villain, bringing a totally new perspective to the London I worked in several years back. A fan of Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant series, with its mix of magic and realism, author Kate Griffin's character is Peter Grant on steroids.
There are no chapters, just a prelude that lasts 100 pages and sets the scene, parts 1, 2 and 3 which carries the plot and ultimate battle, and a short epilogue. Peopled with warlocks, wizards, werewolves, zombies – even the ordinary here is extraordinary: how was it I walked over Hungerford Bridge each day, saw the homeless nestled under cardboard underneath, and lacked the insight to see street beggars, bikers, and Madam Dorie?
Madam Dorie – The Bag Lady – the queen of all those who scuttle in the night, gibbering to themselves, and the voices only they can hear. She is the mistress of the mad old women in their slippers who ride the buses from terminal to terminal.
In author Kate Griffin’s hands we get a Cook’s Tour of London from its most famous monuments, such as St Pauls’…
In that place, that strange place where the sharp bite of racing magic met with the ponderous stones of the cathedral, sluggish with its own history, every shadow contained a ghost; and that night, with no one else around and the clouds busy overhead, the ghosts watched us.
…to the very ordinary delivered with sardonic wit.
I arrived early, around 2 a.m. in the maze of tunnels underneath the roundabouts, one-way systems and sprawling circular roads on the edge of Aldgate, where the City becomes simply the city, and the signs point to The North as well as to Bow and Whitechapel. In London, places beyond its boundaries are always called The North or The West, too big, too vague and too Not London to merit anymore detailed descriptions.
For the most part I was taken by the sheer whimsy of it (what was the author on???) but paced myself, the battle scenes riots of colour and mayhem, the intensity leading to fatigue in this reader. In between, incidental characters drew a wry smile.
She was of average height, and unusual width - being not so much fat as all present, so that even in the largest of rooms there was never quite enough space for the crowd and Mrs Mikeda to coexist peacefully.
5★ for that line, ditto the description of Dover.
Blackjack took things easily down the long, steep road cut into the cliff’s edge below the castle. Dover sat below all that chalk like a stubborn stain on a perfect white tablecloth, caught between cliff and sea, a thin beady line of orange glow that mixed a history longer than the sea wall around the ferry port with 1950s lumps pretending to be architecture, from when much of the town had been levelled during the war.
Overall, engrossing, and pigeons, rats and foxes will never seem the same again, but I’ll need a few months before I take on anymore of Matthew Swift.
July 23, 2020
Tropey urban fantasy, in which a resurrected sorcerer Comes Back Strong seeking justice and revenge against his sorcerer Archnemesis Dad figure who is a magical London Gangster with Mortality Phobia. First book in a series.
My paperback, dead tree incarnation of the book was a doorstopper of 632 pages. It also contained an additional 20-pages of author interview and a next book teaser. It had a 2009 US copyright.
Kate Griffin is the nom de plume of Catherine Webb, a British author of young adult novels. She writes adult fantasy under Kate Griffin and science fiction under Claire North. She has written more than twenty (20) novels. This was her first adult, fantasy novel. It is the first book in her Matthew Swift series. It was also the first novel I have read of hers under any of her several different names.
The book had several good points. For example, the world building, magic system, and large cast of characters were very good.
The London setting was very descriptive and somewhat gritty. I'm familiar with London. Early in the story, Webb achieved the elusive atmosphere. In one page there was both a reference to the Iceland chain of grocers and Mills & Boon novels. I have not thought of either of them in years, more or less in terms of creating atmosphere. I noted scenes set in The City were less well rendered than the Outer London boroughs. However, as the book got long, description devolved into London geography pr0n to the detriment of the story.
Note that the story contained no: sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. So it was not gritty in that sense. For example, in the 90's when the story was set, about a third of Brits smoked. None do in the story. It was moderately violent and gory with almost a genocidily high-body count. (That must be why this is an adult fantasy?) Otherwise, this had the look 'n feel of a YA read, which is Webb's core-genre.
The magic system fared better. Although, I’d have liked it to have been a tad less whimsical in its monster creations.
There was a very large cast of characters. Unfortunately, too many of the: sorcerers, warlocks, witches, magicians, shapeshifters, trolls, fairies and City Spirits were world building in disguise. They were there to support the series’ long-term plotline magic system. These characters were used disposably like Kleenex™. Major main character development, including the love interest only occurs at the end, but it was too late.
Several more important factors adversely affected this book. The story was not an original concept, and the voice and style of it were oddly cringeworthy in places. In particular the author’s choice of voice and style made for a slow read.
Webb’s style introduced major pacing problems. Her style was to write by ear, which is to say write the way you speak. Writing ‘by ear’ is a quick and easy way to put words on a page. However, it bloats a story’s page count with extra words whilst not guaranteeing reader comprehension. (It’s hard and time consuming to write concise sentences.) Very long sentences, run-on sentences and comma-spliced sentences bogged-down the narrative. I also could not help noticing there were many grammar errors in the prose. This included misused homophones. These should have been caught with proofreading prior to the hardback edition. This lack of attention-to-detail on both individual words and sentences was worrisome from the beginning.
The last 200-pages of the final third section of the story, and the first 100-pages of the Prelude were the best in the book. However, between them lies 300-pages of drivel. Those middle sections were a spew of words. They could easily have been whittled down to 200-hundred pages, if the author could have imagined herself as her audience and written better prose.
So, this was an unoriginal story, with a good magic system and mostly good world building. Unfortunately, the story failed in its implementation. As a writer, I don't think she had the skillz for what she was attempting? Webb’s chosen style conjured a bloated, 600-page wordy monster of an urban fantasy. With greater effort, and attention-to-detail she could have written a much better 400-page start to her series.
I likely won't be reading the next book in the series The Midnight Mayor.
My paperback, dead tree incarnation of the book was a doorstopper of 632 pages. It also contained an additional 20-pages of author interview and a next book teaser. It had a 2009 US copyright.
Kate Griffin is the nom de plume of Catherine Webb, a British author of young adult novels. She writes adult fantasy under Kate Griffin and science fiction under Claire North. She has written more than twenty (20) novels. This was her first adult, fantasy novel. It is the first book in her Matthew Swift series. It was also the first novel I have read of hers under any of her several different names.
The book had several good points. For example, the world building, magic system, and large cast of characters were very good.
The London setting was very descriptive and somewhat gritty. I'm familiar with London. Early in the story, Webb achieved the elusive atmosphere. In one page there was both a reference to the Iceland chain of grocers and Mills & Boon novels. I have not thought of either of them in years, more or less in terms of creating atmosphere. I noted scenes set in The City were less well rendered than the Outer London boroughs. However, as the book got long, description devolved into London geography pr0n to the detriment of the story.
Note that the story contained no: sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. So it was not gritty in that sense. For example, in the 90's when the story was set, about a third of Brits smoked. None do in the story. It was moderately violent and gory with almost a genocidily high-body count. (That must be why this is an adult fantasy?) Otherwise, this had the look 'n feel of a YA read, which is Webb's core-genre.
The magic system fared better. Although, I’d have liked it to have been a tad less whimsical in its monster creations.
There was a very large cast of characters. Unfortunately, too many of the: sorcerers, warlocks, witches, magicians, shapeshifters, trolls, fairies and City Spirits were world building in disguise. They were there to support the series’ long-term plotline magic system. These characters were used disposably like Kleenex™. Major main character development, including the love interest only occurs at the end, but it was too late.
Several more important factors adversely affected this book. The story was not an original concept, and the voice and style of it were oddly cringeworthy in places. In particular the author’s choice of voice and style made for a slow read.
Webb’s style introduced major pacing problems. Her style was to write by ear, which is to say write the way you speak. Writing ‘by ear’ is a quick and easy way to put words on a page. However, it bloats a story’s page count with extra words whilst not guaranteeing reader comprehension. (It’s hard and time consuming to write concise sentences.) Very long sentences, run-on sentences and comma-spliced sentences bogged-down the narrative. I also could not help noticing there were many grammar errors in the prose. This included misused homophones. These should have been caught with proofreading prior to the hardback edition. This lack of attention-to-detail on both individual words and sentences was worrisome from the beginning.
The last 200-pages of the final third section of the story, and the first 100-pages of the Prelude were the best in the book. However, between them lies 300-pages of drivel. Those middle sections were a spew of words. They could easily have been whittled down to 200-hundred pages, if the author could have imagined herself as her audience and written better prose.
“I didn't have time to write a shortletterbook, so I wrote a long one instead.”
― Mark Twain
So, this was an unoriginal story, with a good magic system and mostly good world building. Unfortunately, the story failed in its implementation. As a writer, I don't think she had the skillz for what she was attempting? Webb’s chosen style conjured a bloated, 600-page wordy monster of an urban fantasy. With greater effort, and attention-to-detail she could have written a much better 400-page start to her series.
I likely won't be reading the next book in the series The Midnight Mayor.
August 2, 2014
5 Stars
Holy crap am I wiped out after this amazing adventure. Let me catch my breath. A Madness of Angels sits now easily among my very favorite reads. This book, like the Angels portrayed within, was so many things to me. Sorcery and necromancy, love and death, mystery and revelation…Damn, I want more…
Books like this are so very rare..
I was entranced from the very first page all the way until the long coming end. It captivated my heart, my imagination and ensorcelled me through and through. I am cheering even now shortly after finishing this wonderful ride. A Madness of Angels is a magical masterpiece that shows how good Urban Fantasy can really be. Oh how I wish I could touch that world…
Kate Griffin has written a poetic, lyrical, and word driven story. It is in the structure, the rhythm, and the pulse of her words that the story is really felt. I felt this book, I felt for our hero Matthew, I felt the magic and the poetry. It is amazing how a simple story of revenge is really about so much more. The book centers on death, on killing, on the vendetta, but it is really about life, about living, and about the magic of just being…
““And we said, We be fire, we be light, we be life! We dance electric flame, we skim sense, we be the ocean and the burning and the sunrise and the sunset on the edge of the world, we chase moonlight and sunlight and we do not stop, we cannot be tamed, we be free!”
Kate Griffin has thrown absolutely everything magical into this book. From scary beasts, to cool ass bikers, from sorcery and necromancy, to healing and protecting, and to shadows so cold and dark and hungry that they steal more than just the show…The story is frenetic, syncopated, and never slows down. It is action filled with magic without end. This is a world where Muggles would respect the wizards.
Funny that I should mention Potter in my review. It is not since the funeral scene of The Half Blood Prince that I felt so in touch with a novel and with its hero. As I completed this book, I a grown man sat there leaned over my Kindle devouring the words on the page. I sat there shaking, pounding my fist. I was not aware of anything going on around me, so focused at the plot at hand. Heck, I even shouted out loud and wanted to scream. After completing this book I am left feeling that even though I wish to read more about Matthew and the Angels, I feel selfish in that I do not want anything to taint this book.
It is funny that I am gushing so much about this book because as it really is a straightforward plot of revenge. There are no big turns, or sudden twists along the way. No pieces or points that have not been done before. But, it is so much more. Come with me…be free…Come be we…
Kate Griffin did not hold anything back in the lyrical structure and telling of Swift’s story. A long snippet of show off:
“The man tapped away at his computer. The human mind, when it works, is a marvellous thing. With all its attention diverted onto the task at hand, it becomes an abstract other, performing beyond the usual realms of self-awareness. When humans work, they frequently become unaware of their own body, their own senses, are surprised to find that their wrists ache or their backs are sore or their friend has left the building. It’s as close to an out-of-body experience as can be achieved short of fifty volts, a circle of warding, a pigeon’s claw cut from an albino female of purest white feathers, or a lot of mushrooms. In such a state, not only does the process of their thoughts play across their face, but the observant listener can also trace the sense of their feeling in their mind. More than just the flicker of an eye, the mind, usually such an insensitive object, opens itself, drifts, even while the conscious, controlled aspect – a tiny part of the human brain at any moment – is focused.””
The combination of a gifted writer with a magical story is one not to be missed. I will revisit this book later on, but I cannot see it being beat this year. Even if you are not a fan of the Urban Fantasy genre, but want to read a story about life from a different spin, than please read this book.
“…I stretched my arms out, fingers turned towards the floor, and pushed every inch of power I could get from that room, every trace of snatched breath left lingering in the air, every hum of electricity, every remnant of warmth from human skin, every smell of sweat, every half-forgotten lingering sound of shouting, all the detritus of left-over life that makes magic what it is, for life is magic, magic is life, the left-over life we don’t even notice we’re living; I drew it into me, and pushed it into the floor.”
5 SUPER STARS
Holy crap am I wiped out after this amazing adventure. Let me catch my breath. A Madness of Angels sits now easily among my very favorite reads. This book, like the Angels portrayed within, was so many things to me. Sorcery and necromancy, love and death, mystery and revelation…Damn, I want more…
Books like this are so very rare..
I was entranced from the very first page all the way until the long coming end. It captivated my heart, my imagination and ensorcelled me through and through. I am cheering even now shortly after finishing this wonderful ride. A Madness of Angels is a magical masterpiece that shows how good Urban Fantasy can really be. Oh how I wish I could touch that world…
Kate Griffin has written a poetic, lyrical, and word driven story. It is in the structure, the rhythm, and the pulse of her words that the story is really felt. I felt this book, I felt for our hero Matthew, I felt the magic and the poetry. It is amazing how a simple story of revenge is really about so much more. The book centers on death, on killing, on the vendetta, but it is really about life, about living, and about the magic of just being…
““And we said, We be fire, we be light, we be life! We dance electric flame, we skim sense, we be the ocean and the burning and the sunrise and the sunset on the edge of the world, we chase moonlight and sunlight and we do not stop, we cannot be tamed, we be free!”
Kate Griffin has thrown absolutely everything magical into this book. From scary beasts, to cool ass bikers, from sorcery and necromancy, to healing and protecting, and to shadows so cold and dark and hungry that they steal more than just the show…The story is frenetic, syncopated, and never slows down. It is action filled with magic without end. This is a world where Muggles would respect the wizards.
Funny that I should mention Potter in my review. It is not since the funeral scene of The Half Blood Prince that I felt so in touch with a novel and with its hero. As I completed this book, I a grown man sat there leaned over my Kindle devouring the words on the page. I sat there shaking, pounding my fist. I was not aware of anything going on around me, so focused at the plot at hand. Heck, I even shouted out loud and wanted to scream. After completing this book I am left feeling that even though I wish to read more about Matthew and the Angels, I feel selfish in that I do not want anything to taint this book.
It is funny that I am gushing so much about this book because as it really is a straightforward plot of revenge. There are no big turns, or sudden twists along the way. No pieces or points that have not been done before. But, it is so much more. Come with me…be free…Come be we…
Kate Griffin did not hold anything back in the lyrical structure and telling of Swift’s story. A long snippet of show off:
“The man tapped away at his computer. The human mind, when it works, is a marvellous thing. With all its attention diverted onto the task at hand, it becomes an abstract other, performing beyond the usual realms of self-awareness. When humans work, they frequently become unaware of their own body, their own senses, are surprised to find that their wrists ache or their backs are sore or their friend has left the building. It’s as close to an out-of-body experience as can be achieved short of fifty volts, a circle of warding, a pigeon’s claw cut from an albino female of purest white feathers, or a lot of mushrooms. In such a state, not only does the process of their thoughts play across their face, but the observant listener can also trace the sense of their feeling in their mind. More than just the flicker of an eye, the mind, usually such an insensitive object, opens itself, drifts, even while the conscious, controlled aspect – a tiny part of the human brain at any moment – is focused.””
The combination of a gifted writer with a magical story is one not to be missed. I will revisit this book later on, but I cannot see it being beat this year. Even if you are not a fan of the Urban Fantasy genre, but want to read a story about life from a different spin, than please read this book.
“…I stretched my arms out, fingers turned towards the floor, and pushed every inch of power I could get from that room, every trace of snatched breath left lingering in the air, every hum of electricity, every remnant of warmth from human skin, every smell of sweat, every half-forgotten lingering sound of shouting, all the detritus of left-over life that makes magic what it is, for life is magic, magic is life, the left-over life we don’t even notice we’re living; I drew it into me, and pushed it into the floor.”
5 SUPER STARS
January 24, 2015
That's a tough one. Such a complicated book to rate. I seem to have loved it and hated it in an equal measure. I liked the story. It's not very original but it's good enough to keep you reading. I loved the main character and his switching personalities. It was a bit confusing at the start but once you've got the idea it was awesome. I thought the concept of urban sorcery was original and interesting.
Unfortunately the prose got in the way. It is no doubt inteligent, lyrical and lush but so over the top. There were moments I could actually enjoy the beauty of writing - but more often than not I found it overbearing, repetitive and distracting... It would start of good, you'd think 'Wow, this is most amazing, vividly detailed description of garbage I've ever read'. 3 pages later you'd say 'But wait a minute - our hero was being chaised by a scary monster - this is all good and pretty but I would like to know what actually happened to him'.
There were few sparks of humor in the dialogs and I loved it. But I felt it could 've done with much more to balance out the darkness of the story.
Unfortunately the prose got in the way. It is no doubt inteligent, lyrical and lush but so over the top. There were moments I could actually enjoy the beauty of writing - but more often than not I found it overbearing, repetitive and distracting... It would start of good, you'd think 'Wow, this is most amazing, vividly detailed description of garbage I've ever read'. 3 pages later you'd say 'But wait a minute - our hero was being chaised by a scary monster - this is all good and pretty but I would like to know what actually happened to him'.
There were few sparks of humor in the dialogs and I loved it. But I felt it could 've done with much more to balance out the darkness of the story.
June 24, 2011
"We be light, we be life, we be fire!
We sing electric flame, we rumble underground wind, we dance heaven!
Come be we and be free!"
This is quite a weird sort of book, probably a bit "marmite" in its style - you'll either love it or hate it. I loved it. I liked the fact that it was just so different to everything else I'd read. I also liked the fact that, having visited London a good many times, I was familiar with a lot of the areas that were being described in the story.
Lots of lovely twists on old magic - the London Underground sign as a symbol of powerful magic, the license to travel on an underground ticket as a warding spell - unique, quirky and fun.
After waking up two years after he died, Matthew finds he has to hunt down his old magic teacher and his teacher's evilly powerful shadow. Urban magic, taken from the streetlights and gas mains, fighting Litterbugs (giant rubbish-based constructs) with summoned bin-lorries. It's fascinating, it's desperate, it's about two types of being living in one body and trying to get used to it.
We sing electric flame, we rumble underground wind, we dance heaven!
Come be we and be free!"
This is quite a weird sort of book, probably a bit "marmite" in its style - you'll either love it or hate it. I loved it. I liked the fact that it was just so different to everything else I'd read. I also liked the fact that, having visited London a good many times, I was familiar with a lot of the areas that were being described in the story.
Lots of lovely twists on old magic - the London Underground sign as a symbol of powerful magic, the license to travel on an underground ticket as a warding spell - unique, quirky and fun.
After waking up two years after he died, Matthew finds he has to hunt down his old magic teacher and his teacher's evilly powerful shadow. Urban magic, taken from the streetlights and gas mains, fighting Litterbugs (giant rubbish-based constructs) with summoned bin-lorries. It's fascinating, it's desperate, it's about two types of being living in one body and trying to get used to it.
November 28, 2011
Ceci n'est pas une revue
This isn't going to be anything lengthy or profound; I just wanted to join my voice to the chorus saying how good this book is. Yes, it's probably about 100 pages too long, and the three drawn-out climactic confrontations with the Big Nasty could have been condensed into one, and the various betrayals and setups and alliances are explained very plainly (a number of times). The pacing is much slower than it could be, and I spent about the first twenty pages growling "If Our Hero doesn't figure out some of what's going on, I'm ditching this."* (I think also we're meant to be more ambivalent about the hero's, and his ultimate opponent's, motives than I wound up feeling.)
But the magical system in this book is really wonderful, and well worked-out, the double narration is very well-done (in another author's hands it could have become irritating within about five pages), and you are practically in London, just sitting turning the pages. If Le Guin's magic system depends on names and essences, this one depends on places and identities. I don't think I've ever before read a convincing fantasy book so firmly (often grimly, always realistically) rooted in the here-and-now. All too often, "urban fantasy" means "fantasy characters in an urban setting" -- like the elves bopping around in Charles de Lint. The magic grows out of London, is London, and it's just beautifully done. There are also great little homages here and there; one I spotted instantly was a beautiful riff on Odysseus calling the shades with blood. While the dialogue can get a little fake-tough, Matthew makes a lot of wry throwaway observations that are genuinely funny, and all the more effective for not being highlighted. I kept thinking "This is the book Neverwhere could have been, if it hadn't been overwritten and subtly sexist and if the homeless had actually meant anything rather than being exoticized extras from Oliver."
Alas, it does have one thing in common with Neverwhere. The women, although strongly drawn, are all secondary characters, and It was totally predictable and grating. If not for that, I would have given this book 3.5 or even 4 stars.
*Sadly this seems to be an authorial trait: the second book opens with the hero in the exact same condition, badly damaged and totally unaware of whatever might have happened to get him in such a pickle. The book manages to overcome it, but that's a pretty big stile to put in front of the reader right at the start -- "the first step's a lulu," as Bugs says. (And yes, I know it's a noir convention, and this is more noir fantasy than urban fantasy -- but in most noir the confusion's cleared up a lot more quickly.)
This isn't going to be anything lengthy or profound; I just wanted to join my voice to the chorus saying how good this book is. Yes, it's probably about 100 pages too long, and the three drawn-out climactic confrontations with the Big Nasty could have been condensed into one, and the various betrayals and setups and alliances are explained very plainly (a number of times). The pacing is much slower than it could be, and I spent about the first twenty pages growling "If Our Hero doesn't figure out some of what's going on, I'm ditching this."* (I think also we're meant to be more ambivalent about the hero's, and his ultimate opponent's, motives than I wound up feeling.)
But the magical system in this book is really wonderful, and well worked-out, the double narration is very well-done (in another author's hands it could have become irritating within about five pages), and you are practically in London, just sitting turning the pages. If Le Guin's magic system depends on names and essences, this one depends on places and identities. I don't think I've ever before read a convincing fantasy book so firmly (often grimly, always realistically) rooted in the here-and-now. All too often, "urban fantasy" means "fantasy characters in an urban setting" -- like the elves bopping around in Charles de Lint. The magic grows out of London, is London, and it's just beautifully done. There are also great little homages here and there; one I spotted instantly was a beautiful riff on Odysseus calling the shades with blood. While the dialogue can get a little fake-tough, Matthew makes a lot of wry throwaway observations that are genuinely funny, and all the more effective for not being highlighted. I kept thinking "This is the book Neverwhere could have been, if it hadn't been overwritten and subtly sexist and if the homeless had actually meant anything rather than being exoticized extras from Oliver."
Alas, it does have one thing in common with Neverwhere. The women, although strongly drawn, are all secondary characters, and It was totally predictable and grating. If not for that, I would have given this book 3.5 or even 4 stars.
*Sadly this seems to be an authorial trait: the second book opens with the hero in the exact same condition, badly damaged and totally unaware of whatever might have happened to get him in such a pickle. The book manages to overcome it, but that's a pretty big stile to put in front of the reader right at the start -- "the first step's a lulu," as Bugs says. (And yes, I know it's a noir convention, and this is more noir fantasy than urban fantasy -- but in most noir the confusion's cleared up a lot more quickly.)
October 30, 2014
**edit 11/27/13
Two years after bleeding to death in an unfriendly alley, Matthew Swift wakes up in his old apartment, blinking open eyes that have transformed from muddy brown to electric blue. He-- and the entities who possess him--have only one thought in his/their mind: revenge against those who killed him and brought them back.
Madness of Angels captures the essence why I keep coming back to urban fantasy. When I read UF, I want to enter a world both alien and familiar, where the mundane touches the sublime, where the everyday rules and patterns and flow of life take on new meaning and shape. For me, Griffin's London exemplifies this delicate balance of wonder and absurdity. It is a world where the ebb and flow of the trains beneath the city creates a rhythmic heartbeat of magic, where familiarity and belief create genius loci: deities of bag ladies and beggars, trains and towers. And then there is the life blood of the city itself, the power from which light and noise and movement and life are born.
...
Due to my disapproval of GR's new and rather subjective review deletion policy, the rest of my (rather verbose) review is posted over at Booklikes.
*********WARNING: PROGRESS UPDATES MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**********
Two years after bleeding to death in an unfriendly alley, Matthew Swift wakes up in his old apartment, blinking open eyes that have transformed from muddy brown to electric blue. He-- and the entities who possess him--have only one thought in his/their mind: revenge against those who killed him and brought them back.
Madness of Angels captures the essence why I keep coming back to urban fantasy. When I read UF, I want to enter a world both alien and familiar, where the mundane touches the sublime, where the everyday rules and patterns and flow of life take on new meaning and shape. For me, Griffin's London exemplifies this delicate balance of wonder and absurdity. It is a world where the ebb and flow of the trains beneath the city creates a rhythmic heartbeat of magic, where familiarity and belief create genius loci: deities of bag ladies and beggars, trains and towers. And then there is the life blood of the city itself, the power from which light and noise and movement and life are born.
...
Due to my disapproval of GR's new and rather subjective review deletion policy, the rest of my (rather verbose) review is posted over at Booklikes.
*********WARNING: PROGRESS UPDATES MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**********
August 7, 2015
Rating: 3.5 stars
It’s difficult to rate A Madness of Angels, since there were 2 star moments and 5 star moments riddled throughout the book. I settled somewhere in between and rounded up for my overall enjoyment.
Without getting into the thickness of plot, I’ll just say that this urban fantasy world was definitely a refreshing remix of familiar concepts, but with a very creative result. Among a world of very magical beings, Matt Swift is a sorcerer – a person able to sense magic in the artificial. It’s a strange sort of concept that works: magic in the streets, the pipes, in the sounds of car exhaust. The city itself is brought to life through this concept of urban magic that can be sensed and manipulated by the sorcerers.
And just like Mr. Swift, I found myself lost in the weaving of magic as well.
But there was another sense of being lost that wasn’t so pleasant. While I applaud this author for her craftsmanship in stringing concepts together, she seemed to have overdone it when it came to descriptions. Paragraphs and paragraphs, and even pages of so much description that I’ve literally dozed off when reading post-dinner, only to wake up and realized I got nothing out of the last two pages of nonsense. My goodness, it was almost like listening to someone who loves the sound of his or her own voice giving a speech. In this case, less would have been more. And sometimes, the walls of text worked when something truly interesting was happening. But for the most part, I literally felt my eyes glazing over while I skimmed these pages and forced myself to stay awake.
There was also a moment where I wanted to DNF this book. In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t. But it was probably around the 40 percent mark – during almost half of the book, Swift was pretty much working solo. Granted, he met people and such, but he never really interacted with these characters until later. While Swift himself is an interesting guy/sorcerer/etc, his character doesn’t really shine until he makes allies/friends. You see a different side of him asides from his mumbo-jumbo of thoughts. And so for much of the first 40 percent, it was nothing but pages of way too much description over the most mundane of things, and him doing a solo act of sorts until he actually interacts more with others.
So I’ve probably made this book sound really bad. But by the end of it, I was so happy to have continued on. The plot, while not that original (i.e. beat the big baddie), had a great execution. The world building is phenomenal, and the concept of magic was very refreshing and was the palate-cleansing I needed from the books I’ve read prior to this. The characters all had a certain shine to them once you really got to know them and see Swift’s interactions with them.
While I’m not sure if I’ll pick up the sequels, I can say for certain that A Madness of Angels was a very entertaining foray into the magical streets of London.
It’s difficult to rate A Madness of Angels, since there were 2 star moments and 5 star moments riddled throughout the book. I settled somewhere in between and rounded up for my overall enjoyment.
Without getting into the thickness of plot, I’ll just say that this urban fantasy world was definitely a refreshing remix of familiar concepts, but with a very creative result. Among a world of very magical beings, Matt Swift is a sorcerer – a person able to sense magic in the artificial. It’s a strange sort of concept that works: magic in the streets, the pipes, in the sounds of car exhaust. The city itself is brought to life through this concept of urban magic that can be sensed and manipulated by the sorcerers.
And just like Mr. Swift, I found myself lost in the weaving of magic as well.
But there was another sense of being lost that wasn’t so pleasant. While I applaud this author for her craftsmanship in stringing concepts together, she seemed to have overdone it when it came to descriptions. Paragraphs and paragraphs, and even pages of so much description that I’ve literally dozed off when reading post-dinner, only to wake up and realized I got nothing out of the last two pages of nonsense. My goodness, it was almost like listening to someone who loves the sound of his or her own voice giving a speech. In this case, less would have been more. And sometimes, the walls of text worked when something truly interesting was happening. But for the most part, I literally felt my eyes glazing over while I skimmed these pages and forced myself to stay awake.
There was also a moment where I wanted to DNF this book. In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t. But it was probably around the 40 percent mark – during almost half of the book, Swift was pretty much working solo. Granted, he met people and such, but he never really interacted with these characters until later. While Swift himself is an interesting guy/sorcerer/etc, his character doesn’t really shine until he makes allies/friends. You see a different side of him asides from his mumbo-jumbo of thoughts. And so for much of the first 40 percent, it was nothing but pages of way too much description over the most mundane of things, and him doing a solo act of sorts until he actually interacts more with others.
So I’ve probably made this book sound really bad. But by the end of it, I was so happy to have continued on. The plot, while not that original (i.e. beat the big baddie), had a great execution. The world building is phenomenal, and the concept of magic was very refreshing and was the palate-cleansing I needed from the books I’ve read prior to this. The characters all had a certain shine to them once you really got to know them and see Swift’s interactions with them.
While I’m not sure if I’ll pick up the sequels, I can say for certain that A Madness of Angels was a very entertaining foray into the magical streets of London.
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