This is the first of a themed set of books for this month. I will be doing a few Theme months this year. This month it's Galley Beggar Press books. Expect to see a few more of these understated yet rather handsome black covers.
This is the sequel to Mordew which I read when it came out in November 2020 and I've been waiting impatiently for this ever since, Mordew ended on one hell of a cliffhanger and this has been one of my most highly anticipated books.
It doesn't pick up the action immediately. It starts by recapping the story so far (with some expansions) from the points of view of several of the secondary characters from book 1. It does this for a whole 150 pages until it moves on with the story properly.
It also introduces a lot of complex ideas into the story and it's fair to say that some sections (especially in the recap) were quite confusing.
However, I've never felt so entertained by a novel where I had no idea what was going on as I did in the opening section of this.
Pheby's prose is an absolute delight to read. And when he eventually does move on with the stories of the survivors from the ending of Mordew, the book moves at a cracking pace and it was a struggle to put this down at night. I've had more 2am finishes where I can barely keep my eyes open and I absolutely have to put the book down with this book than anything I read last year (or the year before).
Imagine if Mervin Peake wrote a high fantasy set in an alternate Earth - possibly far future - with an exceptionally complex magical system, twisted realities, buried dead gods, talking dogs, and bull headed men and human headed snakes thrown in just to add to the general surrealism and you're partway to this book. I genuinely don't think there's anything quite like it.
This is not a standalone novel. You absolutely have to have read Mordew for this to make a lick of sense. I think the character of Nathan's mother might have had a bit of an unplanned retcon in this book, but it's so skillfully done I forgive Alex Pheby completely.
This is one of those books that will divide opinion. The prose will be too verbose for many, but I love the rhythms of it and the moods he creates. The dark heart of the first book continues to beat through this one. There are character deaths I would never have guessed and that hit me right where it hurts. Some of them may be reversed in the next book, as the magic system does allow for that, but these books are hugely unpredictable.
The ending on this one isn't as much of a hammer blow as the first book's was, but it's a great set up for the final book in the trilogy. Sadly, I now have possibly another two years before I can read how he's going to tie up all the floating threads.
I'm still annoyed that I never saw the pun in the title of Mordew until it was pointed out at the end of the that book. A city built over the body of a dead god. OK so the pun is in French, but I still should have spotted it. There are a couple of explanations for the title of Malarkoi offered on the final pages. They're not quite as satisfying as the Mordew pun, but amusing enough.
Edit - after a quick look at the glossary from Mordew, the expansion on the character of Nathan's mother was planned all along and it's my faulty memory that made it seem like she had been retconned for this book.
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