Characters / Matthew Swift

This character page includes characters from both the Matthew Swift Saga and the Magicals Anonymous sequel series starring Sharon Li. Beware of spoilers for all books.

Characters Introduced in the Matthew Swift Series

Main Characters

Matthew Swift

AKA the blue electric angels, the Midnight Mayor of London

Primary protagonist of the initial Saga and secondary in Magicals Anonymous. A young, poor, urban sorcerer of London studying under the powerful Robert Bakker, he is murdered in a phone booth by a mysterious shadow. Two years later, Matthew wakes up in a house he used to own, with eyes the wrong color, pronoun issues, and unknown forces attempting to hunt him down.

By the end of the first book he has come to terms with the fact that he is now the fusion of himself and the electric blue angels, immortal creatures born of the life humans pour down the telephone lines. He later gains the title of the Midnight Mayor.

• Alien Blood: Can turn blue, writhe with electric blue maggots, and spark. And can be used as an emergency medical aid, a tool to lay down a severe curse, as a summoning tool, and more.
• Back from the Dead: Obviously.
• Badass Boast: He delivers at least one in every book.
• Badass Longcoat: Looks like a dirty, stained, Not-So-Badass Longcoat but it allows him to blend into crowds and travel London unseen.
• Big Eater: Considering all the stuff he usually does, it's no wonder he has to burn other sources than mystical ones. He is also influenced by the angels being Sense Freaks.
• Berserk Button: Harming the defenseless.
• Came Back Wrong: What everyone thinks. The reality is a little complicated. The old Matthew Swift is just fine. He's just brought along some passengers.
• Chaste Hero: Matthew isn't interested in sex, and the angels are utterly confused by it.
• Creepy Blue Eyes: Combined with Occult Blue Eyes after being resurrected at the start of the series. They also glow in the dark.
• Determinator: Comes back from the dead, then survives being thrown off a skyscraper, being thrown out of his body, being scarred by a shadow powered only by hunger and spite, and being thrown into rivers. Some characters think he can't even be killed anymore.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: In addition to being tall and thin.
• A God I Am Not: Matthew does his best to believe this.
  • A God Am I: The Angels after Matthew is forcibly drugged in "Minority Council".
• Good Is Not Nice: Check with Threatening Mediator bellow. The people he is fighting are bastards, but that doesn't make him a Knight in Shining Armor. If he wants you to step aside, you either do that or he will move you... in pieces if needed.
• Meaningful Appearance: Wears a pair of black fingerless gloves to cover the mark of the Midnight Mayor.
• Mental Fusion: With Blue Electric Angels. The only time they don't work together in perfect unison is when Matthew stops the angels from doing something stupid (like unncessary murder). Also, they go between I and we seamlessly.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast The Blue Electric Angels, The Voices in the Wire, The Midnight Mayor.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Matthew gets most of his victories through this.
• Omniglot: Downplayed: his resurrection granted him the ability to understand most if not all languages, but he doesn't speak in anything but English. Justified in that the blue electric angels are all the leftover bits of life in the wire, not just the English-speaking parts.
• Papa Wolf: To his apprentices.
• Passing the Torch: Against his will, how he became the Midnight Mayor. At first, he had shades of being a Reluctant Ruler.
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Penny.
• Shock and Awe: Most urban sorcerers have the power to control electricity. He's pretty good at it.
• Threatening Mediator: He usually ends disputes by convincing both sides that he's the worst option. He usually is.

Blue Electric Angels

The result of humanity accidentally breathing life into the wires.

• Anthropomorphic Personification: while in a human body
• Big Eater: They love food and movies among other things. Matthew is one too.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Human sense of anything is new and alien to them including human sense of morality. Matthew is there to steer them if needed.
• Catchphrase We be light, we be life, we be fire! and Come be we and be free!
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: They are not know for giving coherent, meaningful answers beside their catchphrase and show as much excitement in playing on a swing as executing revenge.
• Heavenly Blue: Arguably.
• Mental Fusion: With Matthew
• Physical God: With Matthew, kind of.
• Power Gives You Wings: They have flaming blue wings.
• Sense Freak:: In human form, they'll try anything once.
• Skilled, but Naive: They can perform apocalyptically destructive magic, but are essentially infants compared to humans.
• Super-Power Meltdown: They've threatened to set the sky on fire, and they totally can.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Matthew keeps them in line, usually.

Oda Ajaja

A religious extremist with a tragic past, she's also bent on the eradication of all magic.

• Action Girl: Always carries a gun, knows multiple ways to efficiently dispose of a body, and kicks some of the most ass, despite knowing absolutely no magic.

• Demonic Possession: In Neon Court, by Blackout.
• Magic Is Evil As a result of her Dark and Troubled Past ( her brother became a sorcerer and went mad with power, eventually killing her sisters and mother.)
• Scary Black Woman: Described as having skin the color of dark coffee.

Penny Ngwenya

Matthew's apprentice and powerful sorceress-in-training.

• The Apprentice: Matthew's second.

• Platonic Life-Partners: With Matthew.
• Sassy Black Woman: Downplayed.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot
• Unskilled, but Strong: She's working on it.
• Wild Hair: Has been described as halo-like around her head.

Kelly Shiring

Matthew's PA and one of, if not the only, honestly nice Aldermen.

• Beleaguered Assistant: She's one of the only people who can get Matthew to do paperwork, and even then he usually gets out of it as soon as possible.
• Beware the Nice Ones: While usually cheerful and sweet, do not hurt or try to hurt Matthew. Kelly just might take your daughter hostage and kill her in front of you when you refuse to back down.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Not necessarily a moron, but extremely peppy and upbeat.
• Good Is Not Nice: She's a kind, perky, cheerful woman, but that won't stop her from shooting Templeman repeatedly as he lay dying, among other distinctly un-nice things.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Much better at the mayoral part of the office of Midnight Mayor than Matthew. Averted in that he deals with most of the city's actual problems, and she deals with the paperwork that follows.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: Implied, but she may just be that nice.

• Supreme Chef: Downplayed.

Enemies

Robert Bakkar/ Hunger

Killer of sorcerers and Matthew's old teacher.

• Handicapped Badass: A stroke left him in a wheelchair and with a murderous, life-thirsty shadow.
• Parental Substitute: Implied to be this in place of Matthew's father.

The Death of Cities

"A walking talking thing in a pinstripe suit who is, quite literally, the death of cities."

Blackout

A demon of darkness and rage that prevents the sun from rising and erases parts of the city from memory bit-by-bit.

The Fairy Godmother

The controller of fairy dust, a Fantastic Drug that kills its users by turning them into the very same.

• Humans Are Bastards: Moreso than the other villains in that he's the only actual human.

Characters Introduced in Magicals Anonymous

Main Characters

Sharon Li

A shaman-in-training and leader of Magicals Anonymous, a support group for the magically inclined.

• Ambiguously Brown: Described as having "pine colored" skin, but is ethnically Chinese. She may be biracial.

• Perception Filter: What her "invisibility" actually is: she's not necessarily gone from the visible realm, but she's so much a part of the city that there's no reason for anyone to notice her.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: Downplayed— she's 5'5" and pretty strong.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Her tribe is made up of a sneezy almost-druid, an OCD vampire, a necromancer with skincare issues, a banshee with a fondness for modern art, an extremely rude goblin, and a seven-foot wall of a troll (who really likes human food.)
• Rousing Speech: Not so much.
  "So, yeah, guys. Basically, we're in so much shit until we sort this shit out, so I know it's not really your problem, but it kind of is, which is cool, because it's also everyone's problem, but kind of groovy that we're standing up to deal with it, so I guess you can all feel proud and that."
• Spirit Advisor: A reality TV host named Dez Cliff Junior.
• Staring Down Cthulhu: She not only matched Matthew's stare, but he actually backed down.

Sammy the Elbow

A cranky and rather rude goblin, and, incidentally, the second greatest shaman in the world.

• Berserk Button: Blistering Steve and who, exactly, is the second greatest shaman.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Well, maybe a spray-painted bronze.
• The Master: To Sharon. He's the only fully-trained shaman in the city.
• Noodle Incident: How he managed to piss off the Beggar King, the Seven Sisters, the Bag Lady, and most of the other spirits of the city.

Rhys

An almost-druid with allergy issues.

• Geek Physiques: Very skinny.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When a) he takes antihistamines and b) Sharon is in extreme danger.
• Redheads Are Uncool