‘A Madness of Angels’ – Kate Griffin (Orbit)

It’s hard for me to describe what makes London such a magical place to live in, mainly because there are so many things that make it magic. If I had to pick a couple of things then top of the list would be all the little windy alleyways (I’m talking about the ones off Charing Cross Road) that probably lead to the back of a restaurant but could lead absolutely anywhere... Second on the list are London’s parks, places where you can sometimes almost believe that you’re not in the city at all...
Well, I think I’ve proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am not suited to writing an urban fantasy novel about how magical London can be. It’s a good job then that there are authors out there who are doing just that and doing a great job of it at the same time. Kate Griffin is about to join these ranks with her forthcoming novel ‘A Madness of Angels’ (to be released in April) and I reckon it’s well deserved...

There is power in London that ebbs and flows with the rhythms of the city. It’s in the alignments of ancient streets and it’s in the rattle of London transport (although you wouldn’t believe it if you had to commute in every morning...) It takes a special breed of magician to access this power and one such person is Matthew Swift, dead for the last two years and suddenly back in London with a lot of questions that he wants answering. Swift is out for revenge as well, someone made a real mess of him before he died... Revenge and answers will all come together in a journey through a London that we live in but don’t realise. A London where magicians ride the Last Train, soar with the pigeons and listen to blue electric angels that live on the telephone wires...

Although there are moments in ‘A Madness of Angels’ where the firepower is very much in evidence (and people look cool in long dark coats) this isn’t the kind of urban fantasy where feisty women kick ass whilst agonising over a hot looking vampire at the same time. What the reader gets instead is a trip into London’s identity in very much the same way that Neil Gaiman did with ‘Neverwhere’. One of my first thoughts, in fact, was ‘this book is just like Neverwhere’... It’s always a shame when you write a book and someone had the idea for the initial concept first! Luckily for Kate Griffin, ‘A Madness of Angels’ becomes very much its own story both through the concept of ‘Urban Magic’ and it’s examination of what life and identity actually mean. More about that later...

‘A Madness of Angels’ starts off in rather a confusing manner but stick with it for a few pages and it will all start to make a lot more sense. No matter how confused you think you are it’s nothing compared to the confusion that Swift is encountering... From here on in a plot emerges and Swift is propelled along it to a conclusion that really grabbed me by the eyeballs and forced me to read. There are plenty of other moments throughout the course of the book that also have the same effect making it a fast paced affair with moments where things get really explosive!

‘A Madness of Angels’ is a chilling read as well. If you think the litterbug is scary (right at the beginning) then wait until you meet Hunger, a shadow whose whole purpose is to feed... Hunger strikes just when you least expect it (no pun intended!) with a speed that never failed to make me jump! Without giving too much away it’s also interesting to see Hunger’s relationship with one of the main characters (not Swift) and how that develops over the course of the book. It’s also good to see how Griffin sometimes mixes humour into the proceedings, both to make the scary bits even scarier and also to keep things fresh and interesting. Swift’s encounter with the troll is a good example of this...

In some ways the story itself takes second place to the ‘London setting’ that Griffin places it against. Griffin doesn’t hold back with the descriptive prose, painting a picture of London that will be immediately familiar to anyone who has visited (or lives there) and will give those who haven’t a very good idea of the locations in which Swift finds himself. However, I did think there was a little too much over emphasis on the using of place names (and the travel in between these places). I knew that the story was taking place in London; I didn’t need to have it rammed home as much as it was...

Having said that though, there's a point in the book where Swift says what sorcery is and it is just what Griffin has done with this book,

"... that's what sorcery is. The ability to see something wonderful, magical, where other people see just mundane and boring nothing."

Griffin shows us London in a different light and leaves us in no doubt as to what we've been missing all this time.

I really liked the concept of ‘urban magic’, not something that I’d encountered before so it felt really fresh. It was also a good way to keep the concept of ‘the city’ in the foreground and adding that ‘otherworld twist’ to a familiar setting. I also liked the way that this tied into the questions raised over Swift’s true identity. Again, I don’t want to give too much away here but I ended up really feeling for Swift and the questions he had to deal with as he tried to work out what he really was. If that wasn’t bad enough there’s everything else to deal with as well...

If it wasn’t for the fact that Mike Carey has a couple of books coming out this year then I would say that, without a doubt, ‘A Madness of Angels’ could be the best urban fantasy that I read in 2009. As it is, I’m sure it will be high up there.
Highly recommended.

Nine and a Half out of Ten