2024 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature (nominee)
Enter the bazaar of the bizarre—where fate and fortunes are for sale just beneath Covent Garden—in this high-stakes historical fantasy debut set in 19th-century London, perfect for fans of Neverwhere and The Night Circus.
Below Covent Garden lies the Untermarkt, where anything and everything has a price: a lover’s first blush, a month of honesty, a wisp of fortune. As a child, Deri was sold to one of the Market’s most powerful merchants. Now, after years of watchful servitude, Deri finally spots a chance to buy not only his freedom but also his place amongst the Market’s elite when he stumbles into the path of a runaway princess desperate to sell her royal destiny.
But news of the missing princess and her wayward destiny spreads. Royal enforcers and Master Merchants alike are after it. Outmanoeuvring them all would all be hard enough had Deri not just also met the love of his life, a young man called Owain, whose employers are using the Market for their own nefarious schemes.
Deri soon finds that the price of selling the royal destiny, making a name for himself, and saving the man he loves is dear. The cost of it all might just change the destiny of London forever..
Genre: Fantasy
Below Covent Garden lies the Untermarkt, where anything and everything has a price: a lover’s first blush, a month of honesty, a wisp of fortune. As a child, Deri was sold to one of the Market’s most powerful merchants. Now, after years of watchful servitude, Deri finally spots a chance to buy not only his freedom but also his place amongst the Market’s elite when he stumbles into the path of a runaway princess desperate to sell her royal destiny.
But news of the missing princess and her wayward destiny spreads. Royal enforcers and Master Merchants alike are after it. Outmanoeuvring them all would all be hard enough had Deri not just also met the love of his life, a young man called Owain, whose employers are using the Market for their own nefarious schemes.
Deri soon finds that the price of selling the royal destiny, making a name for himself, and saving the man he loves is dear. The cost of it all might just change the destiny of London forever..
Genre: Fantasy
Praise for this book
"I was enthralled by this world, where fairy merchants strike bargains with the precision of contract lawyers. The goblin market shines like enchanted gold, whimsical with dark undercurrents. The tension ratchets up with every trade, and Deri is the loophole-finding rogue we all wish we could be." - AJ Lancaster
"An astonishing feat of the imagination, every page bursting with fantastical detail. Trip Galey's debut is striking, and deserves to be celebrated." - Oliver K Langmead
"Intriguing and atmospheric, this compelling tale of drama and danger in the shadows of a goblin market under an alternate Victorian London more than delivers on its promises." - Juliet E McKenna
"A book as rich with wonder as the market in its pages. Galey's London is a world where anything - anything - is for sale: a glance, the feeling of moonlight, true love. Careful or you might end up bartering your heart away." - Patrick Ness
"Intoxicating. A thrilling mix of the magical, the monstrous and the mercantile. Set in an ingenious alternative London with a main character pairing you can't help but love, Galey's cocktail of enchantment, romance and dangerous bargains swept me away." - Tom Pollock
"You're in for the fantasy thrill of the year with A Market of Dreams and Destiny! Deri is our heroic queer navigator through a fascinating, frightening world, like the lead of some eighties dark fantasy film we never got (but always deserved). More, please, Trip Galey!" - Adam Sass
"Magical and literary, A Market of Dreams and Destiny ensnares you in layers and webs of fantasy and alternate history. Galey weaves a fae-touched world where anything can be bought or sold, leaving you to wonder what you would trade to visit it." - David R Slayton
"Galey has created a world you can step inside, full of texture and descriptions so rich you can almost experience the market for yourself... A cracking read all round!" - Courtney Smyth
"If, like me, you have ever longed to nibble on forbidden fruit, if you have ever wished to enter into your own foolish faerie bargain, then read this book. Deliciously written and drenched in imagination, A Market of Dreams and Destiny builds on the wicked allure of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market while examining what happens in a world when literally everything can be bottled and sold for the right price." - Shveta Thakrar
"I traded a handful of hours for Galey's, beautiful epic of an other-London full of magical deals, audacious schemes, outrageous romance and a talking cat. Trip's birthed something really rather extraordinary." - J L Worrad
"An astonishing feat of the imagination, every page bursting with fantastical detail. Trip Galey's debut is striking, and deserves to be celebrated." - Oliver K Langmead
"Intriguing and atmospheric, this compelling tale of drama and danger in the shadows of a goblin market under an alternate Victorian London more than delivers on its promises." - Juliet E McKenna
"A book as rich with wonder as the market in its pages. Galey's London is a world where anything - anything - is for sale: a glance, the feeling of moonlight, true love. Careful or you might end up bartering your heart away." - Patrick Ness
"Intoxicating. A thrilling mix of the magical, the monstrous and the mercantile. Set in an ingenious alternative London with a main character pairing you can't help but love, Galey's cocktail of enchantment, romance and dangerous bargains swept me away." - Tom Pollock
"You're in for the fantasy thrill of the year with A Market of Dreams and Destiny! Deri is our heroic queer navigator through a fascinating, frightening world, like the lead of some eighties dark fantasy film we never got (but always deserved). More, please, Trip Galey!" - Adam Sass
"Magical and literary, A Market of Dreams and Destiny ensnares you in layers and webs of fantasy and alternate history. Galey weaves a fae-touched world where anything can be bought or sold, leaving you to wonder what you would trade to visit it." - David R Slayton
"Galey has created a world you can step inside, full of texture and descriptions so rich you can almost experience the market for yourself... A cracking read all round!" - Courtney Smyth
"If, like me, you have ever longed to nibble on forbidden fruit, if you have ever wished to enter into your own foolish faerie bargain, then read this book. Deliciously written and drenched in imagination, A Market of Dreams and Destiny builds on the wicked allure of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market while examining what happens in a world when literally everything can be bottled and sold for the right price." - Shveta Thakrar
"I traded a handful of hours for Galey's, beautiful epic of an other-London full of magical deals, audacious schemes, outrageous romance and a talking cat. Trip's birthed something really rather extraordinary." - J L Worrad
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Used availability for Trip Galey's A Market of Dreams and Destiny