Mordew

Mordew is a 2020 fantasy novel by British author Alex Pheby. It is the first novel in the City of the Weft trilogy.

Premise
God is dead, his corpse hidden in the catacombs beneath Mordew.

In the slums of the sea-battered city, a young boy called Nathan Treeves lives with his parents, eking out a meagre existence by picking treasures from the Living Mud and the half-formed, short-lived creatures it spawns. Until one day his desperate mother sells him to the mysterious Master of Mordew.

The Master derives his magical 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.

Publication and composition
Mordew is the first novel of a planned trilogy. The second instalment, Malarkoi, was published in September 2022, and was positively received. The planned third instalment is named Waterblack. Galley Beggar Press will publish the remainder of the trilogy.

Reception
The novel has received mostly positive reviews from critics. In a review for The Guardian, Adam Roberts referred to it as "[...] a darkly brilliant novel, extraordinary, absorbing and dream-haunting."

The novel's style and content have garnered comparisons to the works of Charles Dickens, as well as the Gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake. Reviewers have likened its the works of Ursula K. Le Guin, Terry Pratchett, and China Miéville.

Writing for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Alexandra Marraccini praised the novel as a departure from other books of "[...] British import literary fantasy".

The book was included on The Guardian's and Tor.com's lists of the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2020. It was also selected as a Book of the Year by The Guardian, The I, Tor.com and Locus.