Maria Begh
Writing worlds where found families survive impossible odds-and the line between monster and hero dissolves.
Two published worlds, & more being built
The Pathways' Series - Book 1
The Shapeshifter
A novel of worlds, found family, and the cost of becoming
Skye escapes her sealed volcanic city and is scattered across the Pathways — a dying network threading between worlds — landing in the Spiral World with powers she doesn't understand and a past she can't fully access. A man called the Shapeshifter keeps finding her: ancient, singular, and genuinely dangerous. When the Pathways themselves begin to collapse, Skye must understand her own powers, who she trusts, and what she'll become to save the people she loves.
Part epic fantasy, part found-family story — a novel about brothers who refuse to give up on each other, warriors learning humility through loss, and a girl discovering that the scariest power isn't destruction. It's the power to hold on to what matters, even as everything around you keeps changing.
The Grandmaster
A speculative fiction story in five voices
In a world governed by the Limitation of the Lifespan Law — where the state assigns each person a calculated year of death — five lives collide around a single morning. A grieving guardian angel on a rooftop. A dying woman who gives away her remaining years to a man who was too busy to come when she needed him. A Realizer who feels something crack open inside him. And the Grandmaster himself: the chess genius whose beautiful, logical idea remade the world, now sitting alone in a smoke-filled room with the question his wife left behind when she closed the door.
A story about what happens when a brilliant mind mistakes calculation for wisdom — and what it costs everyone else.
The Depopulation Project 832
Two alien operatives sit at a bar on Earth and compare notes. Their assignment: nudge humanity into wiping itself out before the planet can be claimed. A sharply comic, unsettling look at conspiracy theories, climate denial, and the particular genius of self-destruction — told from the outside looking in.
Stories that live at the edge of worlds
“You can jump to the next world only when you honestly believe there is nothing holding you back.”
Maria Begh writes fantasy that refuses to stay in its lane. Her fiction moves between worlds — literally — exploring what it means to belong somewhere, to choose your family, and to become something entirely new without losing what made you yourself.
Born in Armenia, shaped by two decades of international work that took her across continents and cultures, Maria brings a rare global texture to her storytelling. Her characters speak with the weight of people who have crossed real borders, who know what it costs to translate yourself for a new world.
The Pathways Series is her debut novel sequence — an epic fantasy with a found-family heart. At its core is a simple, difficult question: what would you sacrifice for the people you love?