#matthew swift

[evenaturtleduck]

We do not understand why people who watch the workings of the washing machine are mocked. Meditation classes and serene chants have nothing on the slow turning of socks in soapy water.

[texaschainsawmascara]

Knife Angel - Alfie Bradley / Matthew Swift / Walter Oltmann / Andrew Groves x / Marliène Oliver / Siberian bear hunting armor 1800s

[maddiesflame]

Wallflowers layouts

like/reblog if saved © maddiesflame

[ilovedthestars]

Hello Tumblr friends, apropos of nothing, I have a book recommendation for you.

If You Think You Would Enjoy:

First person narration that Does Something Cool With It

Urban fantasy that really leans into the urban aspect. The mundane beauty of the city made magical

London Man Investigates His Own Murder While Committing Several More Murders, more at 8

A protagonist who is just an absolute wet pathetic paper bag of a man and knows it

A protagonist(s) who are the exuberant and unhinged personification of telecommunications technology with an unparalleled zest for life and also sometimes murder

Both of those characters are technically the same person

The most breathtakingly gorgeous prose that has ever been used to describe a magically animated pile of garbage

A tone that I feel can reasonably be described as “gritty,” with its refusal to shy away from the blood and grime of reality, but that is also suffused with a deep unflinching love for everything that humanity is

A supporting cast that includes many of the world’s weirdest and most badass women

The protagonist getting beat up and/or stabbed and/or shot and almost dying at least twice per book

A reading experience not quite like any you have seen before or since

Then You Should Read:

The Matthew Swift series by Kate Griffin, starting with A Madness of Angels

If you love the city of London, you will love this book. If you have never been to the city of London, this book will show you what it looks like through the eyes of someone who loves it.

(And also what it looks like when embodied as a giant dragon made of street signs.)

I cannot emphasize enough the gorgeousness of this prose, the geniusness of the urban magic system, and the amount of love for London and for humanity that oozes out of this book. I am also fully convinced that Matthew Swift would be a tumblr blorbo if his books were not mostly out of print and very niche.

It can be a bit hard to get your hands on a physical copy—try thriftbooks or another online used bookseller, or call your friendly neighborhood bookstore and see if they can order it for you. Or just go for an ebook (maybe your library has it on Libby). It is absolutely worth the trouble.

Brief content note while I have you here: There is a fair amount of violence and it is sometimes very lovingly described. Also...don’t get too attached to side characters.

Go read it and then join the approximately 3 people on tumblr who know this book exists and are obsessed with it!!

[bane-of-technology]

I apologize for the person I become when I remember the Matthew Swift series

it will happen again

[elexuscal]

come be we and be free

that's the inherent tragedy of Matthew Swift, right? at its core?

the angels were multitude, and more than that, they were free! go anywhere, everywhere, be everything, unfettered! they asked Matthew to join them, and Matthew ceased to be Matthew, was the blue electric angels

and then they are summoned, resurrected. they are the blue electric angels, but they are also Matthew Swift, human, mortal.

and to be mortal is to inherently be constrained. to have a physical body. a body that needs to eat, to drink, sleep, be maintained.

and if it was just that, the electric angels would be happy. they like to eat, to drink, to experience, to be. but being human is so much more than that. it's to be in a social network; to have friends and enemies and people in between; to have morals and duties and responsibilities. 'freedom' is antithetical to mortal existence.

come be we and be free but freedom isn't possible anymore

[demondarakna]

Make me a shadow on the wall. A Madness of Angels, Kate Griffin

[uovoc]

It's got a 50/50 chance

... if Hacq had succeeded in what he was actually trying to do (angels in the wires, Swift in the body) ... whose body is it anyway? Best case scenario it's just 100% Matthew 2.0. Problem solved. But it's also implied that it was reconstructed by the angels out of their electricity. Maybe it's just running on pure magic. So if that's the case and you rip the angels out of there, does the body just... disintegrate? Glass God kept the angels in the body, so we never got to see what would happen the other way around. Disintegration does not bode well for the human consciousness. Hopefully Swift had time to name an heir. WORSE case scenario is that he doesn't, Midnight Mayor is annihilated forever, London engulfed by mystical darkness, etc. WORST case scenario is that the office of mayor is attached to the angels

[essegigi]

Some graffiti caught my eye today... what is Matthew Swift doing in Cagliari, Sardinia...?!?

[somaticknitter]

This might be the sleep deprivation talking but Matthew Swift was so right that life is magic is the lifeblood of thousands flowing through the city streets feet pounding pavement like a heartbeat individual and unified all at once :) 🩵

[loiterer87]

Remember when I said that Kate Griffin's A Madness Of Angels had some great visuals in it and I drew Matthew Swift hiding from the Litterbug? Yeah, I decided to try another...

Here's Matthew facing off against the dragon made of bits of the City of London. I included some concrete to break up the metal bits, but tried to stick to the description best I could. Think it turned out alright...

[evenaturtleduck]

My students are doing testing so I opened my new emotional-support-totebag-book (you know, something I've bought--usually secondhand--instead of checking out from the library so it can ride around in my bag for possibly weeks at a time that I don't have to worry if my water bottle leaks on it or a fancy rock Youngest Child tossed in there scrapes up the cover) and so far we are off to a Very Promising Start.

[ironbean23]

anyone remembers about the potential tv adaption because i surely hell do

not that it would've saved this series from small fandom woes but at least it would be *something*

[ilovedthestars]

i am attempting, for the first time in a while, to write Matthew Swift fanfic. this means dealing with the ever-present anxiety of trying to avoid writing Penny like an American and also avoid writing her like what an American thinks a British person sounds like, when i am, in fact, an American who does not know what a British person sounds like

[blowfliesorangeeyes]

local man can't find audiobook version of book series, has to actually sit down and read

8 million injured 20 bajillion dead