The Maleficent Seven

This was fun! A kind of retelling of the Seven Samurai but with the samurai being horrific nasty evil people. Is the concept silly? No doubt, but the execution is brilliantly done. The basic premise is that a retired warlord (and demonologist of immense power) learns of a new threat to her peaceful existence in a religious nutjob empire trying to expand, so decides to regather her lieutenants (A necromancer, a minor god of war, a pirate queen, an orc champion, a vampire and a mad alchemist) to fight off this bunch of zealots. The moral greyness of the story is exquisite as every character has there own somewhat morally bankrupt reasons for doing things. When the classical villains are the heroes the tropes get played with in very entertaining ways. The interactions between these characters are also very entertaining (no one particularly likes anyone).

Silly but enjoyable fun! Highly recommended

I have been meaning to check this author out for a while. I have obviously been missing out! I loved this book!

This book is bloody, action-packed, and humorous. It has it all. I usually prefer more world building, but this story was great as is. The characters are horrible and amazing at the same time. I loved/hated them all!

I will be waiting impatiently for the next one. In the meantime, I definitely need to read the other books out by this author.

I received a copy from Net Galley.

RTC