The monumental conclusion to Alex Pheby's Cities of the Weft trilogy.

One thousand million infants are dead, and Nathan Treeves is back. He’s become the Master of Waterblack, the City of the Dead.

And Sharli, once a sacrifice, then an assassin, is now a trained God-Killer. She has killed many — but failed in killing Nathan Treeves years ago.

Soon she, and the Women’s Vanguard, will have another chance, even as The Master, The Mistress and the Atheistic Crusade hurtle toward their final confrontation.

The world of Mordew returns in the epic conclusion to the Cities of the Weft trilogy. Welcome to Waterblack.

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Praise for this book

Praise for Mordew:

“The future of fantasy starts here.”—Marlon James, author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf

“Extraordinary . . . An extravagant and unnerving novel.”—The Guardian

“Immensely vital—it is indeed about vitality, in both its creative and cancerous form. It’s an extravagant and unnerving marvel. I eagerly await more Mordew.”—Adam Roberts

“There are shades here of Philip Pullman, T.H. White, China Miéville, Susanna Clarke, Michael Moorcock and even Lewis Carroll...You finish desperate to read more.”—The i, Summer Fiction Picks

“Mordew is a Chosen One narrative, but it’s one that packs in a trilogy’s worth of plot while presenting us with a working-class hero who, unlike many Chosen Ones, never enjoys a moment of agency.” —Ian Mond, Locus

“Yes, Mordew seems to say, you could write a straightforward novel with lots of pensive dialogue and normal people, a nouveau Jamesian or Woolfian meditation on the nature of the urban poor, and leave it at that — but why would you, when you could also astound, delight, and warp the very fabric of the text as part of fantasy-making?”—Los Angeles Review of Books

“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

"Gormenghasty in the best way, and bursting with invention and joyous grotesquery." —The Bookseller

“Pheby again brings Dickensian sensibilities to bear in the novel’s tone, complex plot, and expansive cast.”--Publishers Weekly




About the AuthorALEX PHEBY lives with his wife and two children in Scotland, and teaches at the University of Newcastle. Alex’s second novel, Playthings, was shortlisted for the 2016 Wellcome Book Prize. His third novel, Lucia, was joint winner of the 2019 Republic of Consciousness Prize. Mordew, the first book in the Cities of the Weft trilogy, was selected as a Book of the Year by The Guardian, The I, Tor.com and Locus.
Title: Waterblack
Author(s): Alex Pheby
Series: Cities of the Weft
Volume: 3
ISBN: 9781250817303
Copyright 2025
Release Date: January 14, 2025
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group
Countries: United States, Canada | Learn more about available countries
Language: English
Format: ePub,mobi | Learn More about our supported formats
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