This is the kind of book you'd get if Charles Dickens and Mervyn Peake got together to write a story! It was weird and wonderful and I really enjoyed it. It tells the story of Nathan, a young boy living in the slums of Mordew and struggling to keep things afloat as his father lays dying from lung worms. Given the chance to meet the mysterious Master, Nathan discovers a world he could never have imagined. What I loved the most about this book was the characters and more specifically, the way in which they got under my skin. A rogues gallery of horrid individuals, but lovingly captured and beautifully detailed. My particular favourite was Bellows, who was such a mournful figure. I also thought that the narrator did a fabulous job with bringing all of the characters to life. The plot itself is somewhat meandering, and at times, a bit hard to follow, but I think that if you just embrace the weird and allow yourself to be swept along, you'll enjoy the ride immensely.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I absolutely adored this book - a fresh take on the overcrowded fantasy genre at present. Alex Pheby's writing is up there with Robin Hobb and his weird world-building is on par with greats such as China Mieville. Gutted that this is only the first and the rest of the series isn't out yet!

A world built by a master worldbuilder. The details are so rich, evocative and so damn interesting, Clues layer on clues. The textual detail for this world and its social, historical and politcal background is so well thought-through and strong. There's a growing sense of the ominous, an unease - it made me anxious just listening to it.We are really sucked into the world. The narrator is mostly fabulous, crafting unique voices and leading us through this labyrinthine world with ease.
I think my only reservations are that this is a LONG, LONG audiobook. I think I would prefer reading this book to listening to it, because it just took so long to get through and I know I can read through it much quicker. I also found the characterisation of the few female characters, including Prissy, problematic. It might have been how the narrator voices her, but she doesn't sound brave and bold, she sounds naggy and unlikeable. The narrator uses the voice legions of men use to mock women and their supposed superficiality or vanity when narrating her lines. The outcome is that a character who could have been really interesting, falls flat. I think the motivations of the characters feel a bit inconsistent at times but I also feel like that's a problem with listening to such a long epic - you can't get an overview or arc very clearly because it takes so long to get through it.
This is an uncomfortable book to listen to at times - the poverty, the despair, the betrayal, the lack of hope - does become a bit much at times. The saving grace of the book is the world that is created - one rife with magic, secret societies, ghosts, underground clubhouses, DeadLife and more. I was willing to put up with the misery in order to appreciate the multi-faceted glory of the worldbuilding.

Unfortunately I was unable to review this book because there were contstant downloading issues. It's a real shame as I really loved the extract and the book has been so intriguing that I plan to buy it anyway although I might go for the hard copy as there's a map and some interesting other things in the book which Id love to look at. I'm leaving a neutral 3 stars as my feedback ratio is damaged if I don't leave any review, but thank you to the publisher anyway.

The advertising blurb claims that Mordew is the first in a monumental new trilogy, and let me tell you, the book is definitely monumental above all else.

I am just not sure it offers enough to warrant it’s monumentousness (that should really be a word).
There really is some great world and character building, along with unique magic that drives it all, but it just seemed to lack substance where it really mattered, and had too much substance where it perhaps didn’t matter. I would like to have liked some characters more, to have been more invested in their outcome than I was, and definitely be less disappointed with some character revelations than I was.

As for the narration, definitely no complaints there.
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith was enjoyable indeed.

Thank you NetGalley and W.F. Howes Ltd for a review copy.

In my younger days I really used to enjoy fantasy books, but I stopped reading them some time ago, as life and age re-shaped my reading tastes. Lately I have been trying to get back in to them but everything I read just seems long-winded, bloated and dull, when compared to the fantasy books I have read in the past. I thought that Mordew might prove different but in many ways, it was much worse!

Firstly, I find it hard to believe that this is actually a book written for adult readers. I do tend to associate child-protagonists with books aimed at children and as a rule-of-thumb this is usually the case, but not always. The fact of a 13-year-old main protagonist did give me pause initially in the case of Mordew, but as no mention was made in the description of this being a book for children, nor yet teens, I plunged ahead. I was half right. This is a book that clearly seems written for children, despite the lack of any such claim. After all, what adult can take seriously such characters as a talking book and a talking dog, even within the Fantasy genre? While reading, I could not help recalling my experiences with the Harry Potter books, namely that all the way through, I was very aware that I was reading a book meant for children. In the case of Mordew, I very much had the same sense. Although the book is ostensibly for adults, it's tameness, for example in terms of the euphemistic description of Nathan's mother's obvious profession or what likely lay in store for Prissy if her sister had her way, spoke of a book that pulled it's punches in deference to the immaturity of its readers which, since these readers were ostensibly adult, struck a discordant note.

Reading other reviews of this book, one will come across oft-mentioned comparisons with Gormenghast - and not without some basic foundation - but this is but a pale shadow of that book. The world building is interesting in concept, but somehow it lacks solid substance when one attempts to immerse oneself into it. Much of it appears to be more an attempt to shock (the living mud and the squalor of the slums) rather than to actually describe the environment that the characters are living in, and again this appears puerile to adult minds. Most of us have read a lot worse!

The 'young adult' (I do hate that term) feel was reinforced by the fact that many of the central characters were children. There was an attempt at an undercurrent of menace with the odious Mr Padge, but it failed to inject any real grit to the proceedings. Nathan, the main protagonist, was way too lack-lustre and dull to carry the story. Yes, he is still a child but such a 'chosen one' should at least have a modicum of character, whereas Nathan is, in a word, a wimp. While reading about Nathan and his 'sparking' magic I prayed that he would himself show a bit of a spark personality-wise, but sadly this failed to happen. None of the characters were engaging in any way at all, which made the story difficult to stick with, since any sympathy, nor yet empathy with any of the characters was difficult to garner. It got to the point where I couldn't care less about any of them, least of all Nathan. Kobna Holbrook-Smith did an amazing job of imbuing a dull book with the only life it had, but even his sterling performance failed to add sparkle to Nathan's character. In fact, the voice he gave Nathan could not have been more perfect - it was deadly dull!

All in all, there seemed a lot of potential with the world Pheby has created, but little of this potential was realised in Mordew, although whether this will be redressed with the publication of the next two instalments of the trilogy remains to be seen. The writing was extremely grandiose in style, which I did enjoy. However, certain things were described at tedious length, while others were sketched over with startling brevity. Unfortunately, large sections of the book were extremely slow and very dull - bordering on boring - with one or two incidents that had me stopped in my tracks, waiting to hear what happened next. I confess, I did skip forward through several exposition passages that clearly did not advance the plot nor add to the story in any way (such as the over-long scene where Nathan takes a bath), in a bid to get to some action, but sadly Nathan is such a lifeless character that there is very little action to be had from him and even when he does flare up, he boils down again equally as quickly. He is a frustrating protagonist in that he never seems to see anything that happens to him coming, even though there are clues aplenty. However, he is only 13 years old so perhaps he can be forgiven. Even when his erstwhile friends show themselves to be wholly unworthy of his trust, he still pines after them and deplores their loss. One might understand this had they been childhood friends of long standing, but since he had only known them for a short time, and he had been virtually forced into taking up with them against his will and better judgement in the first place, it seems odd that they should seem to have won such a place in his heart. They had been a criminal gang, and most of their interaction seemed based around taunts, bullying, coercion, greed and self-interest. No loss Nathan - believe it.

Much of the talk surrounding this book seems to be centred around the Dramatis Personae at the beginning and the Glossary at the end, and how these are both integral parts of the book and not to be missed if full understanding of the story is to be gained. Indeed, it is this unusual format and structure that gives the book much of it's laudability. However, the audiobook version does not contain either of these sections, so it appears that those listening to the story on audiobook (as I did) will perforce only receive part of the Mordew experience. This seems oddly remiss, since the publishers merely needed to have the narrator read these sections as well as the main sections in order to provide the audiobook listener with exactly the same experience as those reading the physical book (although perhaps not exactly the same, since the physical attributes of the book are also somewhat sumptuous, by all accounts). I do feel that I have missed out on an important aspect of the book, which may or may not have enhanced my enjoyment (I am inclined to the latter, myself), and I hope that the publishers of the audiobook version will rectify this unaccountable omission with later editions.

I can't say it wasn't a fight to get through this book. Reading the blurb, it sounded like an amazing tale of fantasy, set in a new world.
Each day, I struggled through a bit more. It wasn't until about 80% of the way through that it felt like the book even touched upon what was mentioned in the blurb. At this point, I began to enjoy it more. It's just a shame that it was almost over at this point.
Would I read the rest of the trilogy? I doubt it.

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

My thanks to W.F. Howes Ltd for an unabridged audiobook edition via NetGalley of ‘Mordew’ by Alex Pheby in exchange for an honest review. It is narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and has a running time of 18 hours, 29 minutes at 1x speed.

‘Mordew’ is the first in Pheby’s Cities of the Weft trilogy. It’s quite a complex plot and as a result almost impossible to summarise. At heart it is a coming-of-age story focused on Nathan Treeves, a young boy living with his parents in the slums of the sea-battered city. After his desperate mother sells him to the mysterious Master of Mordew adventures ensue and secrets are uncovered.

Pheby has created a phenomenal setting: a Dickensian world with Gothic elements that reminded me of Gormenghast. It is peopled with a variety of eccentric characters as well as magical creatures.

The audiobook contains the core story though I was pleased to have its ebook edition to hand as aside from being able to read alongside listening, it contains extra material: a map, a character list, a list of the unusual things found in the book and following the main text a glossary and a final section titled: ‘Fragments Towards A Natural Philosophy of the West’. Quite a rich offering.

Because of its complexity it did take me a short while to feel engaged. Yet once I did I was completely hooked!

In terms of the audiobook, I have enjoyed Kobna Holdbrook-Smith narration of the Peter Grant series so it was lovely to have him narrate this novel. He does more than read the text but brings his considerable acting skills to the narrative and utilises a wide range of voices. I thought his narration was excellent and thoroughly entertaining.

I certainly will be looking forward to reading the next in the trilogy and hope that W.F. Howes releases an audiobook edition alongside it.

Highly recommended.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to access the audiobook for reasons unknown to me. I've left a five-star rating as I don't want to affect the book's success, but this will be one I pick up in paperback sometime in the future. Hopefully, I'll remember to update my review here then, but sadly Netgalley audiobooks seem to be out of the question for me. Thank you to the publisher for very kindly gifting me a copy of this - do feel free to reach out if you have any ebook or audio files that you can send directly. I'm more than happy to provide a full review if so.

Mordew era un libro que me intrigaba desde que tuve conocimiento de su existencia. Ese aire a fantasía clásica, acompañado de cierto espíritu macabro y retorcido se sale de lo que suelo leer habitualmente, así que cuando tuve la oportunidad escucharlo en audiolibro no la dejé pasar.


Lo primero que me gustaría destacar es la espectacular labor del narrador. Increíble la gama de voces que es capaz de desplegar Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, una para cada actor perfectamente distinguible y asociada a la personalidad definida por el escritor. Es capaz de utilizar hasta las pausas para respirar y la propia respiración para definir cada párrafo. Me he quedado maravillada por su labor y esta valoración de la obra está muy influida por ella.

Mordew comienza de una forma muy dickensiana, con la vida diaria en los suburbios de la propia Mordew. Nos centraremos en el protagonista, Nathan Treeves, que a duras penas logra sobrevivir entre la miseria de los arrabales con un padre enfermo y una madre resignada a vender su cuerpo para mantener a la familia. Las estampas de hambre y desesperación son el impactante comienzo de la novela, pero pronto se empezarán a desvelar detalles sobre el trasfondo mágico de la novela. El barro que cubre el barrio está insuflado de vida y es capaz de crear criaturas mágicas de corta existencia. Además Nathan es capaz de utilizar magia y esta es una de las características por la que su vida se ve entrelazada con la del señor de la ciudad.

El libro está plagado de detalles muy curiosos, como las historias de origen de algunos de los compañeros de la banda a la que acabará uniéndose Nathan en busca de fondos para conseguir la medicina que podría curar a su padre. También es cierto que el tono macabro no dejará en ningún momento la narración, así como cierta crueldad respecto a los estratos más bajos de la sociedad. Hay magia de sangre, sacrificios, y una atmósfera en general lúgubre y desalentadora. La novela se puede considerar como el rito de madurez del propio Nathan, que vemos evolucionar conforme van pasando los capítulos, pero con muchas historias secundarias que dan más empaque a la propia novela.

El ritmo en ocasiones es bastante parsimonioso, parece un efecto buscado por el autor, por ejemplo en alguna de las peroratas que suelta Anaximandres (un personaje de lo más peculiar que no describiré en detalle pero que es uno de los mayores aciertos del libro) se puede ver como Alex Pheby se recrea en el uso del lenguaje para ralentizar la acción.

En algunas de las reseñas que he leído sobre el libro se hace hincapié en la especial importancia del glosario que acompaña el libro, pero en la versión que yo he escuchado esta parte no está incluida, por lo que no puedo juzgar si realmente complementaría de forma adecuada la lectura. El audiolibro se sostiene por sí mismo aunque me queda la curiosidad sobre qué nueva información podría aportar esta inclusión.

Al tratarse de la primera entrega de una trilogía resulta muy difícil evitar la sobreexposición al mundo que el escritor ha construido y parece que Pheby no intenta mitigar los efectos de este infodumping. Espero que en las continuaciones, con un mundo y unas reglas ya establecidas, el autor pueda centrarse más en la historia en sí y menos en el escenario.

Brilliantly baroque, darkly gothic.

Born on the wrong side of the Glass Road, Nathan Treeves lives in the slums of Mordew, with his ailing father and mother who receives gentlemen callers. But Nathan harbours a secret. It’s there, crackling at his fingertips, and it threatens to overpower the shadowy Master.

Mordew is peopled by an eccentric and well defined cast of urchins, prostitutes, obsequious servants and the darkly powerful. The city stagnates in Living Mud, from which gloop biological monstrosities - living flukes - emerge briefly, only to sink once more in aimless recombination.

The novel’s midpoint signals a shift from the Dickensian to out and out maximalist. The ride might be bumpy in places, the horrors of a visceral nature, but it is brim-full of energy and wit and sharp dialogue.

Pheby’s worldbuilding is intricate and astonishingly inventive. There is a sense of the author enjoying the mythopoeia and genre.

The print edition comes complete with a map, indices, dramatis personae and a glossary, adding to the magic of the whole. With this paratext, Pheby benignly draws attention to the importance of the writer-reader relationship in the creative process, and invites the reader to approach the novel in different ways. Some glossary entries emphasise the themes of power and of history written by the winner.

Audiobook
The audiobook lacks the extensive front and back matter and as a result is a more conventional – start at the beginning, end on the last page – kind of read.

Narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, the performer captures all the menace of the whispered threat. He injects the dialogue with comedy and pathos, and presents a virtuosic range of British and Irish regional accents.

The first of a trilogy. I am itching to know where it will all lead.

My thanks to NetGalley and W F Howes for the audiobook ARC.

Rococo!