For Matthew Swift, today is not like any other day.
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.
— Anonymous spam mail, source unknown
The Matthew Swift saga is a series of Urban Fantasy novels written by Kate Griffin (a pen name for Catherine Webb).They begin with urban sorcerer Matthew Swift waking up mysteriously in a house he used to own, two years after his violent death, with different-colored eyes and an internal narrative that thinks of himself as "we" about half the time.The novels include:
A Madness of Angels, or, The Resurrection of Matthew Swift (2009)
The Midnight Mayor, or, The Inauguration of Matthew Swift (2010)
The Neon Court, or, The Betrayal of Matthew Swift (2011)
Afterlife Express: More like Afterlife Bus: the Night Bus collects the spirits of those who died alone in the dark.
All Women Love Shoes: Inverted, as women buy more shoes but men emotionally invest on them.
Ambition Is Evil: Kayle, Oda's brother: he wanted power, and menaged to get the attention of the Midnight Mayor. To the point he sent Aldermen after him, out of London..
Art Initiates Life: During the battle against Lee, the paintings on the walls came to life and fight.
Awesome McCoolname: The bikers tend to change their names: Dave to Blackjack; Laslie to Halfburn. Also, Jeremy the Troll wants to be called the Mighty Raaaarrggh!.
Back from the Dead: Matthew Swift, who quickly tires of explaining why he isn't dead and eventually just answers "I got better."
Backstory: How Matthew met Bakker, how Matthew met Dana, how Oda became part of the Order, how Blackout was defeated...
Badass Adorable: Matthew: channeling beings of pure energy, and forging alliances eating pancakes and ice-cream.
Badass Boast: The Midnight Mayor has a couple of these:
"I was the apprentice of Robert James Bakker. I'm sure you've heard of him. I am a sorcerer. I was there when Bakker died. We... made it happen. I too have met death, and did not have to peel the bones away from my chest to survive the encounter. I am also, and incidentally, the Midnight Mayor, the blue electric angels, the fire in the wire, the song in the telephones, and we are having a bad week. Be smart; fear us." ... "We are the blue electric angels! We were born from the leftover breaths of humanity, by the fears and the thoughts and the ideas and the truths and the lies you poured into the telephone lines. We were created by you bigger and brighter and more alive than any mortal could aspire to be! Do not think to tell us what we can or cannot do! Where is her hat?!"
In The Neon Court too:
"We are the Midnight Mayor, protector of this city, carrier of its secrets and bearer of its shadows. The shadows watch us as we pass, the pigeons turn away at our passage, the rats scurry beneath our feet and shudder at the sound of our footsteps on the stones. We are the blue electric angels, the telephones sing at the passage of our voice, our blood is blue fire, our soul carries a pair of angel wings. We are the killer of Robert Bakker, sorcerer, master of the Tower; we destroyed the death of cities; we came back from the dead, Swift and the angels, two minds became one, two souls in one flash, in one form, in one voice. We are me and I am we. And we're frustrated."
And The Minority Council:
"My name is Matthew Swift. I"m a sorcerer, the only one in the city who survived Robert Bakker's purge. I was killed by my teacher's shadow and my body dissolved into telephone static and all they had left to bury was a bit to blood. Then we came back, and I am we and we are me, and we are the blue electric angels, creatures of the phones and the wires, the gods made from surplus life you miserable excuse for mortals pour into all things electric. I am the Midnight Mayor,the protector of the city, the guardian of the night, the keeper of the gates, the watcher on the walls. We turned back the death of cities, we were there when Lady Neon died, we drove the creature called Blackout into the shadows at the end of the alleys, we are light, we are life, we are fire and, would you believe it, the word that best describes our condition right now is cranky. Would you like to see what happens when you make us mad?"
Break the Haughty: Oda: her backstory is a Break the Cutie reaching Despair Event Horizon, with her older brother killing their little sister. She becomes part of the Order and devotes her life to it. She uses magic once, to save her (and Matthew's) life and basically has an Heroic BSOD. She finds out her little sister was alive all along but the Order had lied to her to make her their weapon, and that her sister is The Chosen One. When she refuses to kill the kid the Orders kills her, forcing Oda over her Despair Event Horizonagain and ultimately resulting in her being possessed by by Blackout. Then Matthew doesn't kill her, which indirectly causes her sister to be Killed Off for Real. In the end she is utterly broken and just wants to die.
Bullying a Dragon: Played straigh with Chaigneau, who had the brilliant idea of kidnapping Matthew, beat the crap out of him and blackmailing him (yes, the guy who happens to be a sorcerer and to channel beings of pure energy. It's not like he can curse him). Averted with Matthew: people consider his plans to destroy the Tower Bullying a Dragon, while Matthew knows he can do it.
Came Back Strong: Matthew. Not that Matthew Swift the brown-eyed sorcerer was a weakling, but Matthew Swift the blue-eyed sorcerer-possessed-by-angels is something else again.
Captured Super Entity: What Bakkir's original intentions for the Electric Blue Angels was.
Cassandra Truth: Khan told Matthew he was going to die, but Matthew didn't believe him. To be fair the prophecy was "You're... gonna die. It's after when it gets complicated."
Church Militant: Oda. And Chaigneau. The whole Order, actually.
Cloud Cuckoo Lander: The Angels in the first book are drunk on life. When Mathew decides to take a day off from slowly but surely destroying the Tower, he lets the Angels go to a movie theater, play on a kids playground, and eat ice cream, all to their amazement and extreme pleasure. The (very) few times Mathew and them do (very subtly) disagree on something, it's usually a throwaway line along the lines of "We wanted to -insert doing something not particularly appropriate to the situation at hand- but I didn't think it was the time."
Dead Person Conversation: in the third book, with Bakker, though it's unclear how much of it is really him and how much is just a projection of Matthew's mind. Also counts as a Spirit Advisor.
Doctor's Orders: Dr. Seah cheerfully accepts that Matthew probably isn't going to stop showing up broken, bruised, and bleeding on her doorstep, so to make up for it she gives him stern orders to take it easy (whoch she knows he won't do) and pain meds. Lots of pain meds.
Does Not Know His Own Strength: In The Midnight Mayor Penny accidentally summoned the Death of Cities because she was pissed.
Matthew: On the other side, it might be exactly what it says on the cover. A walking talking thing in a pinstripe suit who is, quite literally, the death of cities.
Also the Midnight Mayor, protector of the city. The city, not the citizens.
Fantastic Drug: Fairy dust in Minority Council is a super-addictive drug that enhances the magical talent of the user ten fold. It's also made out of the ashes of previous users, as prolonged use turns you into dust.
The Fair Folk: An updated version with the Neon Court.
Fire-Forged Friends: Matthew and Oda zig-zagged it most of the time (mostly because Oda kills sorcerers to make the world a better place) but their friendship is confirmed in The Neon Court, in the most traumatic and heart-breaking way ever.
Intoxication Ensues: In Minority Council, while the angels are super charged from the fairy dust and destroying everything in sight, Matthew's narration is him giggling in the back of his head, going off on tangents about furniture and unaware as to what is actually going on.
The Angels: This is glorious! this is freedom, this is a drug of lava, a pit without end, liquid heaven, this is majestic!
Matthew So, yes, I think I might be a little stoned. I mean, not in a bad way, just you know. . . a little bit. . .
Chaigneau: You... blue eletric angels... you are children with the power to kill, destroy and burn. You know nothing about life, its rules, norms, laws and understanding, and probably care less. Why should you not set the field of fire for the prettiness of its burning; why should you not kill wherever you go, simply because you can; why should you understand anything that the rest of humanity can?
Master-Apprentice Chain: Bakker trains Matthew, who trains Dana and Penny; as of the end of The Minority Council, it's suggested that Penny might be getting an apprentice of her own.
Medusa: Nabeela in Minority Council. Running with the series' theme of modernized magic, instead of traditional snakes, she has a headful of living wires and cameras.
Necromancer: A few pop up. Their MO is that they tend to try their hand at immortality by swallowing papers with the traits they wish they had in a golem-esqe way. They die as soon as the paper is taken out, but it in the meantime, they "live" exactly to the constraints of the paper (meaning if you forget to, say, write down that you still want to see colors or actually feel things, you're life undead won't be very pleasant).
Never Found the Body: After Matthew died, his body disappeared; he was only known to be dead because his coat was found in a giant puddle of his blood. It turned out that his body had been absorbed along with his soul by the blue electric angels, making his/their later resurrection possible.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Turns out destroying the Tower was this, as Bakker was the only thing keeping Death of Cities away.
Mr Pinner: When you killed Bakker, you made my life so much easier. I would not have come here had he still be alive. I should thank you for that, sorcerer.
No Man Should Have This Power: This is what the Order thinks about magic. It's also what most people think about the angels.
Powered by a Forsaken Child: Quite a few of the more clandestine services offered by the Tower are like this, including San Khay's offered "experience of a dying addict's final high."
Power Source: Cities, for urban magicians: take one of them to the country and his powers will be severely weakened, or nullified.
Power Tattoo: San Khay's magical tattoos, which afford him considerable stamina.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Averted in The Midnight Mayor, as Matthew delivered one and run away. Given the situation, however, menaging to escape alive was a victory.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Nair, the previous midnight mayor, was apparently one of these to the point where, even after his death, the Aldderman ultimately decide not to kill Matthew out of sheer respect for Nair's decision.
Reluctant Ruler: Matthew spends most of his time as Midnight Mayor trying really hard to avoid the Aldermen and the Mayor's work. And when he gets involved in something, it's usually not his duty.
Straight Edge Evil: San Khay, who lives a fiercely regimented lifestyle, exercises hard, always eats healthily, and never partakes in smoking or drugs. However, his well-planned routine does permit him a one-night-stand every week...
Stuffed into the Fridge: Dana Mikeda. Matthew even says that Hunger/Bakker killed her to hurt him.
Switching P.O.V.: A slightly odd example. Everything seemingly takes place from Matthew's perspective; however, the narrative switches back and forth between "I" and "we" to signal the distinction between the thoughts of Matthew and the blue electric angels who are possessing him. (Though they rarely if ever seem to disagree on anything.)
Unequal Rites: Though wizards (who control magic through rules) and sorcerers (who draw on raw magical power) get along reasonably well, they both have very little respect for warlocks, who earn magical powers by bargaining with the various spirits in the area.
Unexpected Successor: Matthew wasn't even in line to became the next Midnight Mayor.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Templeman. In the end, he wanted the Alderman to evolve and Matthew to uderstan what means to be Midnight Mayor
Templeman: What does it take? What does it take to make you do it? How many more must I kill, how much worse things must become, before you do what has to be done? What is the point of you?!
What the Hell, Hero?: In A Madness of Angels Matthew gets a few of this about the casualties his revenge is going to cause.
Whodunnit To Me: The plot of the first book has aspects of this, though Matthew figures out the "who" pretty quickly and moves on to "how", "why", and "what can I do to get revenge".
Willing Channeler: Both Matthew and the angels are perfectly content to share a body, though the original combination was largely accidental.
Wound That Will Not Heal: Matthew suffers minor injuries by Hunger, and the wounds keep bleeding until he goes to the magical hospital.
X Marks The Hero: The Midnight Mayor always has two cross carved in the palm of his hand.
X Meets Y: In universe Matthew is described with these words: "The Swift-angel creature, while appearing almost entirely human, is at its core a combination of a traumatised dead sorcerer and infantile fire.". Then there's Matthew definition of dragon: "Dinosaur meets flamethrower with wings".
You Do Not Have To Say Anything: In The Minority Council, used in an incantation to catch a monster (along with a roll of police tape and similar paraphernalia).
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