Series: Cities of the Weft #1
Author: Alex Pheby
Publisher: Galley Beggar Press
Released: August 13, 2020
Received: NetGalley

Mordew is the first novel in Alex Pheby’s Cities of the Weft series – a series that combined gothic fiction with fantasy in epic proportions. So it’s really no surprise that I was tempted into picking this one up!

Nathan grew up in the slums, finding ways to stay alive and help his family. Unfortunately, there came a day when his family decided the best way he could help was by selling him off. Thus, Nathan meets the Master of Mordew.

It isn’t long before Nathan, and the Master both learn a thing or two about Nathan’s strength. This fact will potentially save him or put him in further danger. Only time will tell, like magic, gods, secrets, and betrayal rise to the surface.

“A man seems reluctant to live his life and will take any opportunity to disrupt what limited feeling he has for it with whatever happens to be at hand – substances, other people, fighting, procreation – providing that the world becomes blurred to him, reduced”

Well, they certainly nailed it when they called Mordew an epic fantasy. Even before throwing in the characters, plots, and secondary elements, the world itself would have been enough to captivate me.
This novel is hefty, and I’m not just referring to the page count (though for those curious, my copy was 617 pages). There is just so much to this world, as I already hinted at. To somebody that doesn’t read a lot of fantasy, it might seem like an awful lot to pick up on right from the start.

Still, I enjoyed the magical system. Mainly because it went into a fair amount of detail – which you guys know I adore. I wouldn’t have minded seeing even more, though, but that’s mostly because I’m a greedy reader.

The main reason I didn’t love this novel more is fairly simple: Mordew didn’t need to be this long. Now, don’t get me wrong: I love a good long book. The problem here is that there are some tangents in this book. Tangents didn’t seem or feel related or really leave all that much impact at the end of the day. Personally, I found these moments to take something away from the overall wonder of the world and story, so that was a bit disappointing.

Overall though, I did enjoy Mordew, and I’ll probably be adding the rest of the series to my TBR list (which is really getting out of control at this point).

Thanks to Galley Beggar Press and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.