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

As unusual and ambitious an epic fantasy as its predecessor…the situations are grotesque and unrelentingly grim, creating the sense of being trapped in a nightmare… Pheby is an undoubted original, turning the standard tropes of modern fantasy into something much weirder and more disturbing.”– Lisa Tuttle, The Guardian

Professor Alex Pheby

Then there is death. It happens, regularly, but what comes next may be better given the lives so many have no choice but to live. This message – obvious propaganda – enables the powerful to obtain willing sacrifices, necessary for their magic. It’s not just that it’s everything I wanted from a sequel; it’s that it somehow feels like more than I deserve. An absolute triumph.”– Infinite Speculation Time passed, as it must, and to alleviate our boredom let us turn to an illustration of what manner of people these assassins were. My writing focuses on the creative intersections between fiction and non-fiction, biography, philosophy, critical theory, and identity. Playthings was shortlisted for the 2016 Wellcome Book Prize and has gone on to be published in North and South America. Lucia examines the erasure of James Joyce’s daughter from public life, won the 2019 Republic of Consciousness Prize, and was published in North America in 2021. I’m currently working on a novel about Sylvia Makles, the actor married to both Georges Bataille and Jacques Lacan. I also publish short stories, prose poetry and essays.

He had given them the contract to sign, and they would sign it in blood, as was customary. The quiet, pretty assassin was called Sharli – on that day at least – and she cleared her throat to reply to Anatole. ‘We must honour our pledges since our livelihoods depend on them.’ To know things only magically, and from books, he thought, is to scarcely know them at all, except for the purposes of recognition. Recognition is only the beginning of knowledge and is no substitute for comprehension." There, within a version of the county of her upbringing, was a hill that had been hollowed out, and in it a tribe of strange people lived. Where a person has a human head, these had the heads of cattle, and they were all naked.From the relatively mindless cattle-headed people that are overbreeding, and religious human-headed snakes than are on the brink of a civil war/jihad, to a realm of dying dragons, and one of druids trapped in endless death by the wolves that have taken over their forested world... Weft or warp, long or short, eventually everything reaches an ending. We know this, and need only wait." Hard to understand and full of the fantasy equivalent of technobabble. A markedly less strong follow up to Mordew, despite some evocative scenery and concepts While reading I was also reminded of a weird and less clear version of His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman and of Ada Palmer her baroque and also very imaginative way if storytelling. Just less well executed. oh my goodness, this novel. It is amazing. And that is not a thing I say lightly… it takes what we understand by fantasy at the moment and pushes it to a different level altogether.”– Interzone

Reading 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 The world-building, the new perspective (and better understanding) of the magic, and the answers to certain mysteries left unanswered in the first book was a superb way to start Malarkoi and it got me engaged immediately. Bath Spa masters course visit, April 2016 - readings, discussion, and Q A re. Playthings for Creative Writing Masters students 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.” From the relatively mindless cattle-headed people that are overbreeding, and religious person-headed snakes than are on the brink of a civil war/jihad, to a realm of dying dragons and of druids trapped in endless death by the wolves that have taken over their forested world...Pheby is an incredible talented artist and these books are now some of my all time favourites, there is no question about it. In its variety of narrative methods and sublime, descriptive language it is a really fine novel.”– The Dublin Review of Books Grisly in subject matter, gorgeous in language, and distinctive in execution, Lucia is arguably among the best of this year’s experimental novels.”– Helsinki Review Portia whispered to the cattle-headed women, ‘This child will be to you as a daughter is, precious and worthy of love. Take her, and care for her, returning her to me after seven days.’