Malarkoi

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Magisterial... A maximalist triumph... Mordew reminds us of Walter Benjamin’s dictum, that '[t]here is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism'.”– Los Angeles Review of Books With one more instalment still to go, not all questions are answered. It is clear that there will be outside forces to contend with, but the roles given to the weft population – few of whom seem to entirely disappear even when killed – will be of interest.

She was so tired, it didn’t matter that this place was strange and dreamlike. Tiredness makes everything seem like a dream, and every dream is as strange as the last. Bear in mind, this gets very weird, and I wont lie - it is weird, even in it's full context. But it is also incredibly exciting, well crafted, and it all builds towards one of the most mind-bending, unnerving and complex pieces of art I have ever had the good fortune to be immersed in. The remaining children have no option but to complete the burglary, but inside they are interrupted by the magical dogs Sirius and Anaximander.Anaximander One of only a very few talking dogs, he has been confined to Mordew all of his life. Now he roams abroad, following Clarissa Delacroix, his new service-pledge. While he is a very faithful pet, his attention is often drawn to the new and interesting things he sees. To these he applies his logics, seeking to understand the world as it is, though perhaps this blinds him to matters closer at hand.

I wish to tell you a little about these characters and perspectives without spoiling anything, so pardon my upcoming vagaries - I simply wish to intrigue you without robbing you of the raw experience that is this book. With the money they have stolen, the gang go to see the gangmaster, Mr Padge, to buy the medicine for Nathan’s father. Bare in mind, this gets very weird, and I wont lie - it is weird, even in it's full context. But it is also incredibly exciting, well crafted, and it all builds towards one of the most mind-bending, unnerving and complex pieces of art I have ever had the good fortune to be immersed in. The Mother of Mordew led them through her place, less dominating in size again now the roofs were low above their heads. When the passages narrowed, she shrank with them, until, rather than giant, she was now a miniature of herself, and the assassins had to go down onto their hands and knees so that they did not become wedged. I told you it was weird! But heed me when I say; this is but the tiniest glimpse of the sheer face that is Pheby's creative and imaginative ability. There is no predicting where we'll go next when we put ourselves in his oh-so-capable hands.

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They bribe the Fetch to take them up the Glass Road, slipping out near the roof of the merchant house. Not often does a book remind one of both Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past and Ellis’ American Psycho, but here we are: immersed in compelling minutiae. Alex Pheby’s Playthings is simultaneously unsettling and fascinating, tragic and hilarious, the sort of novel with an easily-summarized story but a nearly impossible to summarize experience.”– 519 Magazine Pheby said: “Galley Beggar Press is the perfect home for Mordew, and Sam and Elly are the perfect editors. I couldn’t be happier knowing the trilogy is in safe hands.” Weft or warp, long or short, eventually everything reaches an ending. We know this, and need only wait."

Giles The aristocratic owner of the ship on which Nathan and his party left Mordew. He, along with his wife Iolanthe – listed directly below – were bullied into taking intolerable urks, dogs, and dirty renegades aboard their precious vessel. It was the man with the fawn-coloured birthmark who forced them to do it, but where is he now?Nathan, feeling that Bellows has killed his father on the instructions of the Master, vows revenge regardless of any trap.

Playthings gets into the head, with tender attentiveness, of a man having a psychotic breakdown and takes up the story where the Schreber left off.”– The Lancet Deaf Sam came forward, unfazed by the Mother’s voice since his ears couldn’t hear it. His mode of communication was blunt – pounded fists and palms, curves and loops done with a finger, bitten lips, and extrusions of the tongue – but it was effective. He said, though the translation is inexact, that the Mother need come no further, and that he would act as the liaison. Next to Anatole was a pretty-looking person, all ringlets and almond eyes and glistening lips, quiet, shrinking into her chair. On each finger she had rings, and every one had been taken from someone she had killed, all at the direction of Mr Padge, who had recently sequestered himself in his office, having delivered a lunchtime peroration to the gathered that had now concluded. The sequel to Pheby’s universally acclaimed and monumental fantasy epic Mordew, this delves even deeper into the vividly realised world inhabited by assassins, demi-gods, occult weapons and the sinister Master and Mistress.”– WaterstonesReading it becomes a need and a dread, a story you absolutely must finish to find out what terrible things will happen next, knowing that bad dreams will follow.”– Strange Horizons Clarissa Delacroix Unfairly overlooked, in the main, by the plot of the previous volume, Clarissa Delacroix, Nathan Treeves’s mother, has a larger part to play in this one, though perhaps no less mysterious. The dramatis personae of Mordew described her as being made from scraps of cloth, brought to life by the Living Mud. Since that passage was written from the perspective of the storyteller Joes, as a description it is only figuratively correct. In fact, she is a powerful weft-manipulator, survivant of the ongoing Weftling Tontine, and she has been in the slums, gathering Sparklines that will allow her to cast the magics she needs to bring her every desire to life. There are extracts from her diaries at the end of this volume if you require clarification. In its variety of narrative methods and sublime, descriptive language it is a really fine novel.”– The Dublin Review of Books