A Madness of Angels: Or The Resurrection of Matthew Swift [Hardcover]

Kate Griffin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 2009

For Matthew Swift, today is not like any other day. It is the day on which he returns to life.

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

YA fantasy author Catherine Webb (The Obsidian Dagger) makes an ambitious leap to adult urban fantasy under the Griffin pseudonym. Matthew Swift, a young London sorcerer, was brutally killed thanks to the machinations of Robert James Bakker, a superpowerful mage who also targeted several of Matthew's colleagues. Two years later, Matthew revives as a we, sharing his body with an electric angel. While seeking answers, Matthew meets magician Dudley Sinclair, who wants to kill Bakker and crush his group of evil dark arts practitioners—including Matthew's former apprentice, who has become Bakker's lover. Griffin's lush prose and chatty dialogue, modeled after the best work of other modern British fantasy writers, create a wonderful ambience but often diffuse the tension, leaving readers to make their own way through the uncomplicated plot. (Apr.)
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Review

'She writes with assurance and polish, and her grasp of modern mythology - the magic and the poetry inherent in contemporary life - is strong. A very promising start and great things likely to follow' - KIRKUS REVIEWS --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Orbit; 1 edition (April 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316041254
• ISBN-13: 978-0316041256
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.4 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,274,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kate Griffin read History at the London School of Economics, and is now studying at RADA. A Madness of Angels is her first adult fantasy novel, to be followed soon by The Midnight Mayor.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 57 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, gorgeous... chewy. April 20, 2009

By Professor J

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I didn't want to read this book. It was a gift that I almost gave away unread. I'd practically given up on urban fantasy, put off by far too many mediocre books with far too-similar plots and revolting artwork (if I see one more supposedly-attractive woman's butt or bare back, I. Am. Going. To. Scream). Or in the rare UF with a male protagonist, far too many efforts to ape the pulp noir genre that fail miserably.

So I was caught a bit off-guard when this book turned out to be AMAZING.

The story follows Matthew Swift, an "urban sorcerer" in London. Although he can channel electricity from wall plugs and banish demons using trash bins, he was not an especially powerful or ambitious sorcerer -- that was, until somebody killed him and brought him back to life. Now Matthew's eyes are blue (they were brown) and now he has both incredible power and a driving ambition: revenge.

The story follows his quest for vengeance as he stalks and tackles his enemies one-by-one -- but with some fascinating diversions. First, he's being trailed by the Hunger, the same creepy wraithlike creature that killed him the first time. Second, Matthew himself is no longer quite human, as the story gradually reveals -- or wholly sane, really, but this is a minor matter. Griffin reveals all this with dark, dense, chewy prose that reminds me of China Mieville and Storm Constantine at their best. She sandwiches this between devilishly witty humor (as when Matthew weaves a powerful protective spell out of a subway ticket, simply by reading the ticket's fine print) and elegant characterization, and tops it all off with some of the most original magic I've ever seen.... Best of all, she lovingly depicts London in all its multicultural, multilayered glory, from the rush of the Tube to the reek of the Thames, from bustling core to sleepy suburbs. I'm a New Yorker and I love my city, but this book makes me want to emigrate.

(No, seriously.)

(OK, maybe just an extended visit.)

Anyway, I don't give five-star reviews often, but this book deserves them. Buy it, and enjoy. I'm off to go waitlist the second book of the series. Read more ›

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Solid Urban Fantasy April 28, 2009

By Manuel E. Garcia Quevedo

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love novels that take the world I know and present fantastic elements just underneath it's surface. From the good (wisecracking Chicago-based wizards) to the not-so-good (Vampire executioners with poor impulse control), I'll read just about anything. What makes this book special is its rich mythology. The mysteries of what magic is and how it works are inventive and plausible. It takes a little getting used to as the reader, like the protagonist, is dropped into the story without knowing which way is up. If you like books about mystical forces and the people who wield them, you will enjoy getting to know Matthew Swift.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Flawed but Powerful September 12, 2010

By The Evil Hat (evilhatDOTblogspotCOM)

Format:Mass Market Paperback

"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! We be blue electric angels!"

Fantasy's a genre that yearns for the past, and your standard sources of magic include long forgotten ancient deities, long forgotten languages, and long lost artifacts, all generally found while escaping the dreary, wonderless, soul crushing nature of the modern world. A Madness of Angels doesn't do any of that. The otherworldly setting in which we are immersed is nothing but everyday London, and sorcerers summon piping from the walls instead of chains of celestial energy. Kate Griffin doesn't use reality as something to be escaped; she has, instead, found the wonder in every street corner of our everyday lives.

London is omnipresent in the narrative. We are told that the lifeblood of sorcery is the feeling and movement of the city itself, and the story pulsates with the rhythms of the city. The oddities and intricacies of urban life are perfectly rendered here, yet so bizarre as to be almost unrecognizable, while the magic flows from every pore of the landscape around it and feels like such a part of city life that you'll probably find yourself looking for it next time you're on the bus.

Griffin's prose is well suited to the tale and to the city that surrounds it. This is a book of little things, and atmosphere is built with a menagerie of details:

"The lift was clear glass, on the outer wall of the building, so I could see the city drop away beneath me.... As on the London Eye that night, I was astounded by the beauty of its multicolored spectrum: not just the sodium orange of the suburban sprawl, but the white interiors of office blocks, green traffic lights, red aircraft beacons on the taller towers, purple floodlights washing over high walls, pooling beams of silver on enclosed courtyards, shimmering blues on fountains, or in the doors of clubs, the moving snakes of traffic, defined only by headlights, brakes, or indicators flashing on and off like an endless slithering column of eyes, and the reflected pinkish glare across the ceiling of the sky, except for where an aircraft's guiding light sent out a cone of brightness, through the black scudding clouds heavy with rain as the wind carried them toward the sea." (p. 134)

The worldbuilding, and our grasp of it, is well balanced throughout the novel, something all the more remarkable because it's the first in a longer series. This falls more to the wondrous side of the magical spectrum, rather than the heavily rule based, and the occasional explanation does take the form of: "'Are you really going to ask such inane questions all the time? Mystic bloody forces, just accept them and cope!'" (p. 283) All the same, magic is never used cheaply or incomprehensibly here, and, though we never know the true intricacies of the system, we soon know enough to understand the mechanics of the supernatural duels and confrontations and can even try to predict the character's tricks, rather than just being along for a flashy but incomprehensible ride.

The opening scenes here are similar to your standard: gosh, it's a magic world! introduction...with the slight exception that the main character is not only aware of the world, not only knowledgeable about how it works, but just so happens to be ferociously competent in it. That character's head - Mathew Swift's, to be precise - is a very interesting place to be, in large part because it's such a confused one. As the book begins, Swift is resurrected, after being deceased for two years. Swift isn't the only thing that comes back, though. The electric blue angels of the telephone wires come too, and their myriad, flamboyant, and innocent consciousness is great when it is - quite literally - splitting headspace and narrative duties with Swift. The angel's naivety, and their lack of knowledge as to what it means to be, well, human, leads to some of the novel's best moments:

"We were not exactly surprised; nevertheless I didn't know what to do, what to say, how, exactly, I should behave. So we did nothing, waited to see if an emotion would strike, curious how we would respond to such news, whether we cry, or shouted or became angry or felt nothing at all. We hoped we would cry; it was the most human response. My eyes remained firmly dry, my mouth empty of any words." (p. 51)

Mathew Swift's mind is a logical one, so his war against the Tower takes the form of individual acts of destabilization. Instead of going for the agency as a whole, he targets the Tower's four lieutenants, planning to leave Bakker, the leader, defenseless and alone. Each of these mini quests is fully realized and engrossing. The lieutenants are menacing and interesting to function as great villains, and Griffin uses the one-thing-at-a-time nature of Swift's plot to explore the world of her creation, from magical gladiators, to graffiti-guarded and bomb proof installations, and to phantom subway cars. The battles between Swift and his adversaries, particularly San Khay, were gripping and, most of all, ingenious in their use of the magic system.

And yet, the lieutenants alone never quite add up to a convincing Tower. When compared with the organizations that it's trying to destroy, or the rest of the city, or even its own sub agencies, the Tower is woefully underdeveloped. Now, it could be argued that the entire novel is an exercise in using the parts to illustrate the whole (magical creatures are, after all, described by their ordinary building blocks), but the Tower fundamentally doesn't fit into that system, because it's standing in direct opposition to it. The Tower is all about centralizing magic, uniting all those disparate magicians and warlocks and sorcerers into one system, but the Tower itself feels as loose as anything it's trying to destroy, just a collection of seemingly redundant agencies with an absolutely clueless figurehead on top.

The Tower's leader, Bakker, is decently fleshed out as a character, but why he established the Tower, how he did it, why he believes it's a force for good...none of these things are ever mentioned. The Tower is simply there, and it simply needs to be destroyed. Because. So, while the quest for that end is filled with interesting events, it's hard to really throw yourself behind the journey without really caring a whit about the Tower itself and without ever seeing the characters really question the rightness of their actions.

Everything leaps into a sharper, more immediate focus when Hunger, a malevolent creature made of shadow that stalks Swift and is obsessed with experiencing life at all costs, comes on stage. The contrast between Hunger and the angels is a very interesting one. Hunger perpetually yearns for life and tries to learn and live by cataloging and consuming the blood and the chemistry of the living, attempting to build a whole out of the details of treasured possessions. The angels, on the other hand, live in a state of never ending joy, insatiable in their desire for media and new experiences, but strangely uninterested in the generalities of humanity or interaction, leading to a Swift that views all of his relationships with a degree of naďve perplexity. Unfortunately, Hunger's strengths are dulled with repetition, and he's lost some of his impact by the novel's conclusion. The revelations about his identity and creation, slowly doled out throughout the climax, are also far easier to piece together dozens of pages before they're given than they should be.

Getting into the home stretch of A Madness of Angels, I'll admit that I was distinctly worried. As part one of a series, the book seemed poised to have the major villain dash off into the night so we could repeat the entire exercise again. I needn't have worried. This is, as far as I'm concerned, exactly how book one of a series should end. The world is more than interesting enough that I want to go back to it, but there's no missing crucial plot point that makes me think I've only gotten half the book.

The prose that is so good at describing the city at large occasionally runs into problems with action. The more supernatural confrontations flow very well, often, but when more traditional combat begins, wordiness can sap the urgency of the events:

"'Duck!'

I ducked. I can respect formidable magical talent when I see it, and Old Madam Dorie, the old lady who smelt of curry powder and car fumes, had it in spades. She exuded skillful manipulation of primal forces just like her bags gave off the smell of mold, and if she'd said hop, I would have hopped. She, like my gran, had the look of a woman who talked to pigeons; and in the city, no one sees more than the pigeons.

I ducked, which is why the bullet from the sniper rifle..."(p. 84-85)

It is, after all, hard to really get your blood up while you're musing on exactly why you bothered to duck the sniper's bullet.

A Madness of Angels's flaws are all significant, and they prevent me from hailing the book itself as truly great. What was good about it, however, was more than enough to convince me that Kate Griffin was an absolute must read author. A Madness of Angels alternates between an engrossing gallop and a stuttering walk, but the book's strengths carry it over the finish line with ease. I went into New York City a few days ago (London, sadly, was a bit too far) and walked around. As I did, I felt like I was viewing the same blocks through different eyes, the crushes of people and the roaring of the subways and the towering buildings infused with new life, all a change of perspective away. Are you interested in seeing the same sights, just with a tad more dazzle and quite a bit more jaw dropping magic coursing through them? Read more ›

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully imaginative multi-layered fantastical dialog-full fantasy April 29, 2010

By S. Kaploe

Format:Hardcover

with subtle wit and layer upon layer of life and sorcerers, magic, London, the underground tube and telephones. We are first treated to a mish-mash of thoughts, feelings, terror and wonder in the beginning of the book. Much is written in third person of "We and Our". However you soon realize that Ms. Griffin is merely painting a picture with words of what it would be like to awaken after being dead for two years and having a new life form inside of you - the blue electric angels. The story is revenge against The Hunger that murdered Matthew and good vs. evil. Perhaps more importantly it is about Matthew's resurrection and his new life. He makes alliances and enemies and alliances out of enemies. Eventually he unites a group of like minded people (except for a group of a radical religious group) and unites them against a common enemy. The world has greatly changed since his death and The Tower intimidates and kills dissidents. Fear rules the magical world and even The Order (religious group)want it eliminated. There are skirmishes, battles, trators, spying, and Run RUN RUN and NEVER STOP running to and from life and it's experiences.

What I truly liked was how Ms. Griffin continually painted pictures with her dialog and descriptions. She brings Matthew to life quite like you might expect from one recently dead, and one never having physically lived sharing the same body. Those subtle sounds and voices you hear on telephones becomes the electric blue angels and live a symbiotic life within Matthew. They are electricity and remember all. They can go to the moon and back in a nano-second. They are the thoughts and lost words of everyone on the telephone. They are all of us - our energy made the magic that made them.... The simple wonders of our physical world by an alien being help shape the resurrection of Matthew Swift. As the book progresses the "I's" and the "We's" start blending more and more and we see Matthew growing to accept and understand what he has become even tho no one else knows what to make of him. Finally, he is shaped by the basic goodness that Matthew used to be.

It takes a bit of staying power to get through the beginning (of the book) but it is well worth it. I wasn't used to read books in the third person, but it serves the story well.

I highly recommend this book because it is, indeed, a new fantasy world different from the mundane we hear about every day. Read more ›