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Mordew

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Mordew

By: Alex Pheby
Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
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About this listen

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....

Experience this critically acclaimed masterpiece, perfect for fans of Philip Pullman and Ben Aaronovitch.

©2020 Alex Pheby (P)2021 W F Howes
Action & Adventure Dark Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Paranormal City
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Critic reviews

"Brilliant.... Extraordinary.... An extravagant and unnerving marvel." (The Guardian)

"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)

"Weird and wonderful, bleak and beautiful...[Mordew] is an extraordinarily vivid piece of world-building." (The Sunday Express)

What listeners say about Mordew

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The brilliant narrative

This is a wonderful book if a little too 'wordy" in places. I mainly started listening because of the always fantastic narration by KHS (Rivers of London!!) but thought the story was brilliant. Im off to listen to the NXT book in the series. Thanks Amazon for putting it in your sale.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

amazing reader

found this to be a very entertaining and well preformed story by the reader.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

ok

This book could of been so much better, started off really good but ending was poor.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Brilliant narration, avoid spoilers!

Ultimately I finished this and will probably now move on to the sequel so I can't exactly complain. I'm going to complain (a little) though because it didn't quite feel the book I wanted it to be despite the outstanding narration.

Whoever you do, don't read the blurb on the sequel either as it gives a MASSIVE spoiler to this book. I made that mistake and spent the entire book knowing something crucial about the ending and that was just from one accidental glance at a blurb.

As I say, on the one hand I found the whole thing 'not quite' but I also finished it and plan the sequel so it must be okay.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great reading, an amazing range of voices

This is really great audio acting. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is, in my view, the pre-eminent voice actor of our times. He reads with care and accuracy, and is clear but also natural. And he's exceptionally good at characterisation through voice, always making it clear who is speaking. His command (and I mean *command*) of a range of accents is truly impressive and, unlike a lot of male actors, he is able to voice female characters realistically without it sounding like some kind of caricature (in this, he is as good as e.g. Timothy West).

Basically, I loved this performance, my favourite voice being that of Anaximander the dog, who sounds like a highly competent American bureaucrat. Holdbrook-Smith is, to my ear, flawless and highly recommended.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Enthralling adventure in Mordew

Wonderfully narrated by Kobna, so many different, strong voices making the story easy to follow. Great story, based in the fantasy and mystical world of Mordew.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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exceptional narrator

exceptional narrator, interesting world creation looking forward to the rest of the series dd gg hh nice to hear a new author with such skill

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

excellent narration

Sections, not in chapter form for forwarding. Just too much descriptive of place for me.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

I don’t know how I feel

The narrator was perfect I thought. His character voices were seamless and his tone for narration was subtly dreamlike - which was so well matched to the nightmarish imagery .

Some of that imagery was visceral and I felt confused early on as I was under the misapprehension that this was a coming of age story . It’s not .

I am just not sure whether I liked it or not. We’re the book a date I wouldn’t suggest meeting for dinner next week. As it isn’t I plan to listen t the next n the series in a couple of weeks.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

OK but more YA than I expected

Excellent voice performance. The book was OK. I mostly felt that it lacked depth and nuance.

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3 people found this helpful