A Madness of Angels

Matthew Swift is awake. While this may be run of the mill to most of us, it isn’t if you have been dead the past two years. Mr. Swift is an urban magician who was brutally attacked by a shadowy creature known only as Hunger. We meet Matthew Swift without knowing anything about him, but through his actions and occasional hints in his dialogue, we piece together what he is. Matthew has come back with funny case of pronoun confusion: he replaces I and me with we and us, which has to do with his talent to hear the “electric blue angels” in the telephone lines. His former mentor has built a massive organization called the Tower, and Matthew begins to dismantle it, brick by brick, in the search for the truth. Essentially, A Madness of Angels is a story about vengeance and retribution. It is also Kate Griffin’s debut from her usual YA category writing into writing for adults.

As an urban magician, Matthew pulls magic from the mundane: the city streetlights, the fumes of cars, etc. He is able to weave spells by simply reading a railway ticket and lay curses with just a touch (if that). Kate Griffin’s world has so many new twists on “Urban Fantasy”, such as the clan of bikers and the Beggar King, all of whom have very excellent (and sometimes scary!) passages.

There are also some lighthearted moments, like when Matthew meets a troll:

“You’re a troll,” I said.

“Well, give the man a prize.”

“What the hell are you doing in a jar?”

“I got fucking caught; what the hell do you think I’m doing in a jar?!” it wailed.

However, the writing is so unlike anything I have read it took some time to get acclimated to it. In fact, I’m not sure if I ever did. While I did enjoy the book, I had a hard time reading it. I simply couldn’t always follow the odd writing style, nor did I feel as though I “got” anything out of it. It lacked character development and felt formulaic: Swift finds enemy one: he dispatches of him. He searches for Enemy #2: he dispatches of him. And so on. The main character being partially schizophrenic was simply confusing to me, but I suppose it’s all a matter of taste. Overall, there are some very cool elements in this book, but I did not feel richer for the experience.