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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
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 [b:The Midnight Mayor|6465697|The Midnight Mayor (Matthew Swift, #2)|Kate Griffin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1305862077l/6465697._SY75_.jpg|6656169].
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 [b:The Midnight Mayor|6465697|The Midnight Mayor (Matthew Swift, #2)|Kate Griffin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1305862077l/6465697._SY75_.jpg|6656169].
I love this book series, this is my second time rereading this book and I still loved every minute of it, am also kind of glad it took me as long as it did to reread this book because I had actually forgotten some details.
So possible SPOILERS AHEAD.
This book has probably everything I really want from a book, from an unravelling mystery, to magic, to really great character developement (which if I remember progresses even further in the next few books).
I loved that we went on this journey with the Blue Electric Angels and Matthew, that when you were reading as the Angels they were discovering everything for quite literally the first time and then you could see the subtle shift when it was Matthew again. There was a nice tone towards the end of being acceptance of yourself, of almost joining two sides of yourself into one and being okay with that, knowing that it is okay to be as mad as the angels were at one point and to be okay with being as sad as Matthew was in the next. That's its okay to feel these things.
Onto the magic side of it, I loved that the author took everything normal and gave it some magic, from the last train, The Bag Lady with the shopping cart full of stuff, all the things that are what we see now, and the author gave it magic. I love urban magic stories, I like to see how the author twists something normal into magic and this author does a pretty damn amazing job of that.
The mystery side of things, I remember when I read the book the first time around I didn't figure out who The Shadow/Hunger was at first, but this time around knowing who it was, I could see the hints dropped throughout the book more. See where the author actually twisted something to make it work this time around.
Still a fantastic read, now am off to book 2.
So possible SPOILERS AHEAD.
This book has probably everything I really want from a book, from an unravelling mystery, to magic, to really great character developement (which if I remember progresses even further in the next few books).
I loved that we went on this journey with the Blue Electric Angels and Matthew, that when you were reading as the Angels they were discovering everything for quite literally the first time and then you could see the subtle shift when it was Matthew again. There was a nice tone towards the end of being acceptance of yourself, of almost joining two sides of yourself into one and being okay with that, knowing that it is okay to be as mad as the angels were at one point and to be okay with being as sad as Matthew was in the next. That's its okay to feel these things.
Onto the magic side of it, I loved that the author took everything normal and gave it some magic, from the last train, The Bag Lady with the shopping cart full of stuff, all the things that are what we see now, and the author gave it magic. I love urban magic stories, I like to see how the author twists something normal into magic and this author does a pretty damn amazing job of that.
The mystery side of things, I remember when I read the book the first time around I didn't figure out who The Shadow/Hunger was at first, but this time around knowing who it was, I could see the hints dropped throughout the book more. See where the author actually twisted something to make it work this time around.
Still a fantastic read, now am off to book 2.
Look past the cover art and that a tout elaborates the price (Only $19.99) as if low price was the defining factor of a good novel and it's really a good book that, for all the fantasy nature of, makes some great points on perspective and recognition of the beauty of even grubby urban environments.
This is the story of how Matthew Swift, sorcerer, came to be we, came to be free, blue electric angels.
Matthew wakes up in his own home to find that he’s been dead for a couple of years and his brown eyes are now very blue. The city has been overrun by sorcerers bent on power at any cost, headed by Matthew’s old master. Can he help stop the madness? Why has everyone betrayed him - who killed him 2 years ago? And most of all, can Matthew contain the telephone gods or will they destroy him completely? ......
Kate Griffin has a magical way with words, this was 613 pages of wondrous description and amazing imagination.
Matthew wakes up in his own home to find that he’s been dead for a couple of years and his brown eyes are now very blue. The city has been overrun by sorcerers bent on power at any cost, headed by Matthew’s old master. Can he help stop the madness? Why has everyone betrayed him - who killed him 2 years ago? And most of all, can Matthew contain the telephone gods or will they destroy him completely? ......
Kate Griffin has a magical way with words, this was 613 pages of wondrous description and amazing imagination.
RATING: 3 stars
Liked it, but ultimately it dragged a bit too much and the final was not as spectacular as I'd hoped.
Great worldbuilding, though!
Liked it, but ultimately it dragged a bit too much and the final was not as spectacular as I'd hoped.
Great worldbuilding, though!
This was really interesting. I liked how the resurrected Matthew-Angels used I/we. I found it a bit strange at first, but by the end of the book I didn't notice it.
Overall though, this book just didn't grab me. I enjoyed the story, but I also never really cared what happened one way or the other. I was able to put the book down 15 pages from the end, in a lull in the big final ending event and go to sleep without any trouble.
Overall though, this book just didn't grab me. I enjoyed the story, but I also never really cared what happened one way or the other. I was able to put the book down 15 pages from the end, in a lull in the big final ending event and go to sleep without any trouble.
I gave up. The premise is interesting, but this author goes waaay overboard on descriptions. Of everything. Over and over.
I rarely fail to finish a book when I've already invested time in it. But this one -- life's too short.
I rarely fail to finish a book when I've already invested time in it. But this one -- life's too short.
Inexplicably long-winded. If you like heavily descriptive prose — so much so that the book is 524 pages long when it could have easily been half of that — you'll love A Madness of Angels.
And don't get me wrong. I thought the prose was essential in the nature of Matthew and the angel's personalities. Especially given the concept of urban magic and the important of everything around us.
But really, it dragged. It took me quite a while to finish this novel, but I was satisfied with the plot, characters, and ending well enough.
And don't get me wrong. I thought the prose was essential in the nature of Matthew and the angel's personalities. Especially given the concept of urban magic and the important of everything around us.
But really, it dragged. It took me quite a while to finish this novel, but I was satisfied with the plot, characters, and ending well enough.
The beginning was a little hard to follow but by the middle everything made more sense.
& it's damn good.
& it's damn good.
I am not a person who normally reads fantasy - Tolkien, yeah. But I found this on my Overdrive Library Ebook collection, figured I had nothing to lose over Christmas break and spent an entire day curled up polishing this off. The author built an incredibly fascinating world that is both unique and understandable - where Tube Stations have their own magic, words matter, and the power of the collective mind manifests our worst nightmares and our better dreams. I am half way through the second book and am annoyed the library doesn't have the remainder in the series so will likely end up buying them.