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Hello!
I'm excited today because I really just finished a book -- I really mean it,
I finished it last night in bed, just roaring through the pages.
It's called "A Madness of Angels."
A madness of angels? What does that mean? I'll explain later,
but the story itself takes place in London.
And ... the book itself has a strong relationship to the city because
the main character is a magician -- really, a "sorcerer."
The term "sorcerer" means that his magic all comes from the city itself.
Electricity, crowds, traffic, buildings, concrete, everything that makes
a city a city gives him power.
So he's very embedded in the city.
His name is Matthew.
He's had a pretty hard life because for about two years -- well, he spent those two
years dead. Yes, really.
His teacher killed him in a pretty nasty way.
And one day he wakes up on the floor of his house and looks around. He knows
he was dead, so why is he now alive again?
He also has another problem: he has new voices in his head. Why? I'll explain that later.
Anyway, he looks around his house and realizes that it's not his house anymore, so
escapes to get his bearings.
He gets into trouble right away, getting chased by a monster made of garbage.
Really, that tells you right away that this is not your normal story.
It's not really a Halloween story either; I wanted to broaden it to more supernatural
creatures and people with abilities beyond what's normal for most.
This book is still pretty scary in some parts!
Anyway, so he's back to life, figuring things out, and he's mad, so he decides to find
the person who brought him back, and the teacher who killed him in the first place,
so he can exact his vengeance -- it's a revenge story.
He has one, two, thr -- uh, well, two problems to keep it simple.
The first problem is that his teacher has set up "The Tower," made of many different
companies with many people to protect him.
Most of those people are very powerful in their own right, so he has to fight
through them all and ally with other magical people and go to war within London.
It's all hidden from most normal people but it's still war, with buildings torn
down and landmarks overturned and all sorts of crazy things.
It's a really good book in general.
So that's the first problem, all the folks he has to fight through to get to his teacher.
The second problem is the "angels."
Part of the book's rules is that life is magic, meaning that where life emerges,
there's magic too, which means that ever since the invention of the telephone and
its evolution into the Internet and cell phones, all of that interaction, all
of the words, feelings, ideas, and thoughts have all come together into a sort of
spirit that lives in the wires and can travel the world in seconds.
And it's now stuck in his body.
It's confusing -- is he an "I" or "we?"
It's just a complicated issue, heh.
In general, most books about the supernatural must accomplish three things to be good.
First it has to be believable. If it's ridiculous, it's a waste of time.
Second, it has to create a good system, a universe with rules that are followed consistently.
The third thing is that it has to have a good story! That's basic and very important.
Most books usually have two out of three, not the entire set, but this book has it all!
I strongly recommend it. And I am serious about it.
Thank you and see you next week!