Mordew

Narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
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Pub Date 4 Mar 2021 | Archive Date 18 Mar 2021

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Description

Experience this critically acclaimed masterpiece, perfect for fans of Philip Pullman and Ben Aaronovitch. Performed by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.

Welcome to Mordew - the first in a fantastic new trilogy from the Wellcome Book Prize-shortlisted writer Alex Pheby. 

God lies defeated, his corpse hidden in the catacombs beneath Mordew. On the surface, the streets of this the sea-battered city are slick with the Living Mud and the half-formed, short-lived creatures it spawns - creatures that die and are swept down from the Merchant Quarter by the brooms of the workers and relentless rains, where they rot in the slums.

There, a young boy called Nathan Treeves lives with his parents, eking out a meagre existence by picking treasures from the Living Mud - until one day his mother, desperate and starving, sells him to the mysterious Master of Mordew.

The Master derives his power from feeding on the corpse of God. But Nathan, despite his fear and lowly station, has his own strength - and it is greater than the Master has ever known. Great enough to destroy everything the Master has built. If only Nathan can discover how to use it.

So it is that the Master begins to scheme against him - and Nathan has to fight his way through the betrayals, secrets and vendettas of the city where God was murdered and darkness reigns....

“Brilliant… Extraordinary… An extravagant and unnerving marvel.” —The Guardian

“Beautifully rendered… Immersive, tense, full of action.” —The Irish Times

“A treat… The world of Alex Pheby’s fourth novel is dizzying… a beguiling splicing of Dickensian social satire and rackety steampunk fantasy. Written with combustible verve.” —The Spectator

“Shades of Gormenghast… and with a wild magic all of its own.” —The i, summer picks

“An incredible opening to an exciting new epic fantasy trilogy.” —Locus Magazine

“Impressively ambitious, vividly imagined… [Mordew] takes the reader on a memorable journey, filled with delicious, unexpected twists.” —The Express

“Brilliantly written. … And as to the sequel? Write quickly, Mr Pheby. Write quickly.” —Book Munch

"This beautifully produced book is an absorbing and inventive addition to the genre.” —The Irish Examiner, best books for autumn

“Pheby infuses [Mordew] with a crackling, animating magic. Charismatic, delicious... This is a serious book, for serious people.” —The Big Issue

“Think Great Expectations meets Gormenghast, with a cliffhanger ending that hints at a dynamic sequel.” —Literary Review

Experience this critically acclaimed masterpiece, perfect for fans of Philip Pullman and Ben Aaronovitch. Performed by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.

Welcome to Mordew - the first in a fantastic new trilogy...


Available Editions

EDITION Audiobook, Unabridged
ISBN 9781004032228
PRICE £26.24 (GBP)
DURATION 18 Hours, 29 Minutes

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (AUDIO)

Average rating from 12 members


Featured Reviews

Mordew is a wondrous, richly crafted and grimly set first in a new series that surpassed my expectations in everyway possible. It’s the marvel of Guerdon in the Gutter Prayer and the oddity of His Dark Materials mixed into one. To say that it was full of original wonder would be an understatement, it truly took me through a fever dream, a hallucination of new ideas moulded together by Nathan, Gam, Prissy, Joses, Anaximander and Sirius, and the Master; it’s the start of an absolutely stunning new fantasy trilogy that you just won’t want to miss.

The story, in short, is about Nathan Treeves, a boy who lives in the slums surrounded by living mud and the dead life that crawl out of it; his father’s got the lung worm and his mother is trying to make ends meet as a lady of the night, but that isn’t enough. Though, there’s one option left for them, the Master of Mordew takes in boys, so he’ll be sent there to earn his keep and get medicine for his father. Only, along the way he manages to owe the nastiest person in Mordew a favour, Padge, and he won’t let that go unnoticed. So, Nathan joins the gang headed by Gam and they set out thieving. Now, this is only perhaps the premise – this is a book of four parts. Just when you think you know what the plot’s about, it takes a turn for the magical in a massive way. It’s really an exploration of the unexpected and, well, the grim. Mordew is not a book that’s afraid of stabbing you in the gut, of showing you the underside of the city. The struggle, the coming to terms with who Nathan is and how he goes about this even with he doesn’t have the strength to change anything, and even when he does. I really can’t say much other than that as Mordew is a book you really need to go in blind, and the plot’s something you really need to give a chance; every original bit of this world takes the view that you’ve grown up in it. So, there’s no real explanations for a lot of it, but don’t try to figure out what everything means, just go along with it. That’s part of the wonder and I promise it’ll pay off.

The character dialogue is something damned special; if you read me dialogue excerpts from the book, even one-liners, I could tell you exactly which character was talking. Each one has mannerisms and speech patterns as unique to them as our voice and way of speaking are to us. The way the characters talk and interact to each other is a work of art I wasn’t quite ready for (and in the audiobook so kindly provided to me as an ALC, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith brings this to life in a magical way.)

From living mud, to dead life, and the weft, the Master and the Mistress, Anaximander the talking dog, magical lockets and demons, the Spark, and the Itch – a very mysterious magic Nathan can call upon that turned a bit of dead life into a real rat, that then bites and poisons him – there’s a smorgasbord of inventive and new ideas that only belong in Mordew. I know this review sounds like a lot of gushing, but this book inspired the same sense of wonder in me as perhaps the first time I went to a carnival as a child, or the first time I entered a boutique festival, it is quite the sensual experience. And trying to piece all the weird and wonderful into coherent sentences is very much an impossibility. If you’d just been on an extended visit into Mordew, you’d have the trouble too. It’s like that moment when Charlie first goes into the chocolate factory.

The weft is an odd magic. One loosely, if at all, defined. I don’t usually enjoy soft magic systems, but this one really worked. Without setting limits to the power, there was visible flaws in its usage (I mean, turning your arm into an insubstantial ghost-arm is a flaw to it isn’t it?) But this is one of the things Pheby does best, shows you something new and unexplained, and strange and weird, but then convinces you subtly that you don’t need to know what it is and to just trust and continue to read. Anyhow, it’s the power that keeps the waves from taking Mordew into the sea, it’s the power than gives life to the dead life and those children not womb born, and the power than keeps away the Mistress and brings to life books and lockets. It’s very, very strange.

A special mention goes to Anaximander, the talking dog whose name is Bones, but he decided to choose his own; the POV of a dog is not normally one that I’d say works but it did here. He is very well-spoken, intelligent, and dangerous, but he will explain to you why he needs to eat your face off and challenge any rebuttal to that matter with a carefully worded argument – he’s a dog of culture, so he will hear your side, too.

Overall, just go buy it. Ignore my raving if you like but pick up the book. There’s a lot more I should or could have said about it but just didn’t quite know how to; It’s like nothing you’ve read before. It is undoubtedly my favourite book of the year so far, and no doubt will end up being in my top books of the year

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