A Madness of Angels

February 23, 2009
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.

March 1, 2009
YA author Catherine Webb (The Obsidian Dagger, 2008, etc.) takes a pen name for her first adult fantasy.

In a contemporary London rife with magic for those who know how to seek it, power can be drawn from the scuttling of rats and the daily rhythms of commuters. Two years ago, Matthew Swift was a sorcerer attuned to these urban magics. Attacked by a mysterious shadow-creature and on the verge of death, Matthew escaped through a pay-phone receiver and joined the blue electric angels, the sentient bits of voice and data inhabiting the telephone wires. Now, Matthew and the angels have returned to his body, and as one multiple being, they search for his murderer and the one who summoned him/them into life. The broad outlines of the plot—a man seeking justice and revenge against a great evil/corrupted father figure—have been utilized many a time, but here they offer an opportunity to display superlative world building. Webb's urban fantasy is authentically gritty, down to the detailed descriptions of restaurants and street corners. 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 seem likely to follow.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 15, 2009
Awakening from a death that happened two years earlier, Matthew Swift finds that he shares his consciousness with a powerful yet naive composite being drawn from the magical impulses of electricity pulsing through London's telephone wires. Griffin, the pseudonymous YA author Catherine Webb, explores the nature of magic in a world of technology in her first novel for adults. Her prose style reflects the fiery synapses of the energy powering her protagonist, who must shape his new, shared awareness to accept a morality foreign to its former existence. Persistent readers should enjoy the unfolding layers of plot and counterplot. For most libraries.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.