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The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver
- Author
- Rafael Torrubia
- Narrator
- Lianne Walker
- Publisher
- Orion
- Publish Date
- 27 November 2025
- Run Time
- 29 hours 2 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
'If, like me, you're interested in what comes after the war, what sins and saints it begets, this is the book you want this year' C. L. CLARK
'A dark fairytale of epic proportions' J.T. GREATHOUSE
'A gothic love letter to high seas, deep love, and the epic stakes of a world at risk. The spirit of Poe infused with Samantha Shannon, and perfect for fans of both' R.R. VIRDI
'The most beautiful book I have read in a very long time. Dark, gothic, visceral and incredibly hard-hitting' ROGBA PAYNE
'Bold, brassy, clever work. It made me feel like my childhood self again' THE SCOTSMAN
'Rafael Torrubia is a generational talent' HARDY'S BOOKS
MEET YOUR NEXT EPIC FANTASY OBSESSION . . .
No one remembers the calamity that killed the gods and stole the names of their people. Now Shipwright and Shroudweaver are known only by their professions.
She's a master of magical shipbuilding. He's a maker of the gilded gods that fuel their sails, stitched from the souls of dead sailors.
When a chance to save their world calls the veterans back to shore, they decide they'll stop at nothing to vanquish the ultimate evil, embarking on a deadly race against time to beat the grief-wracked sorceress known as Crowkisser to the notorious mountain kingdom in the legend-infested north before she unleashes the ancient power entombed at its heart - the one waiting to finish what it started.
The first book in a brand-new debut duology, The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver introduces a trail-blazing voice in Scottish fantasy, fusing the Celtic folklore of J.R.R. Tolkien with the climate geopolitics of N.K. Jemisin in an epic adventure of ancient gods, apocalyptic magic, and love that can survive the end of the world - unmissable for fans of The Will of the Many by James Islington, The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, and Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
Critics Review
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This is bold, brassy, clever work. It made me feel like my childhood self again
The Scotsman
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A profound and elegaic tale
Sunyi Dean, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Book Eaters
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I've enjoyed every sentence of this beautiful, beautiful book. If, like me, you're interested in what comes after the war, what sins and saints it begets, this is the book you want this year
C. L. Clark, Nebula Award-nominated author of The Unbroken
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A dark fairytale of epic proportions. Torrubia casts a spell with their poetic prose and portrays a strange, magical world full of complex and compelling characters
J.T. Greathouse, British Fantasy Award-nominated author of The Tower of the Tyrant
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Rafael Torrubia pulls you along a dark, surreal, and hauntingly lovely dream over the high seas in this powerful debut fantasy. With prose that's lilting, seductive, and smooth, a story that pulls at your heartstrings like canvas and rope, and a magic as deep and sorrowful as it is fantastic and forbidden, The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver is a gothic love letter to high seas, deep love, and the epic stakes of a world at risk. The spirit of Poe infused with Samantha Shannon, and perfect for fans of both!
R.R. Virdi, USA Today-bestselling author of The First Binding
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The most beautiful book I have read in a very long time. Dark, gothic, visceral and incredibly hard-hitting. Rafael Torrubia's prose is stunning and they have managed to render gripping characters in a tortured world that will stay with me for quite some time. A delight from the first page to the last
Rogba Payne, author of The Dance of Shadows
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Rafael Torrubia is a generational talent
Hardy's Books
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The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver is richly immersive epic fantasy . . . The world on the high seas presented in this story is reminiscent of that in R.J. Barker's The Tide Child trilogy, in that we have a world torn apart, and its would-be saviours travelling the seas, and wielding dark magics, to try to bring back balance . . . This is one for those of us who like fantasy worlds in which to linger and escape
The British Fantasy Society
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Rafael Torrubia turns the fantasy genre into a set of framed and intimate conversation poems. These brutal, yet loving conversations between a series of feuding humanised gods, take place among the embers of relationships; the scorched ruins of histories built upon love and desire and fraying egos. These mythopoetic temperaments are framed by vivid lyrical landscapes which offer readers hints of a visual and literary hinterland through which we can move and shape our responses as in the recognisable form of a ballad - knowing already some of what we hear and see - familiar rhythms in a fantastical world
Sally Bayley, author of Girl With Dove
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Rafael Torrubia
- Narrator
- Lianne Walker
- Duration
- 29 hours 2 minutes
- Release Date
- 27 November 2025
- ISBN
- 9781399623704
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Orion
- Genre
- Epic fantasy / high fantasy, Historical fantasy
Synopsis
'A profound and elegaic tale' SUNYI DEAN'If, like me, you're interested in what comes after the war, what sins and saints it begets, this is the book you want this year' C. L. CLARK'A dark fairytale of epic proportions' J.T. GREATHOUSE'A gothic love letter to high seas, deep love, and the epic stakes of a world at risk. The spirit of Poe infused with Samantha Shannon, and perfect for fans of both' R.R. VIRDI'The most beautiful book I have read in a very long time. Dark, gothic, visceral and incredibly hard-hitting' ROGBA PAYNE'Bold, brassy, clever work. It made me feel like my childhood self again' THE SCOTSMAN'Rafael Torrubia is a generational talent' HARDY'S BOOKSMEET YOUR NEXT EPIC FANTASY OBSESSION . . .No one remembers the calamity that killed the gods and stole the names of their people. Now Shipwright and Shroudweaver are known only by their professions.She's a master of magical shipbuilding. He's a maker of the gilded gods that fuel their sails, stitched from the souls of dead sailors.When a chance to save their world calls the veterans back to shore, they decide they'll stop at nothing to vanquish the ultimate evil, embarking on a deadly race against time to beat the grief-wracked sorceress known as Crowkisser to the notorious mountain kingdom in the legend-infested north before she unleashes the ancient power entombed at its heart - the one waiting to finish what it started.The first book in a brand-new debut duology, The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver introduces a trail-blazing voice in Scottish fantasy, fusing the Celtic folklore of J.R.R. Tolkien with the climate geopolitics of N.K. Jemisin in an epic adventure of ancient gods, apocalyptic magic, and love that can survive the end of the world - unmissable for fans of The Will of the Many by James Islington, The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, and Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
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