The Malevolent Seven

Really sad to DNF this book. The world and lore is right up my street, but there's just too much content that makes me uncomfortable enough to ruin the enjoyment I was otherwise getting from it.

Definitely well written but I like my books to be more serious than this. If you like Nicholas Eames then you'll definitely love this book. Just not my style.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book, but with a title like "The Malevolent Seven", I knew it was going to be fun. Though its got mages and spells and a quest to stop evil other-dimensional beings from taking over the world, it's not your typical epic fantasy nor is it a satire of one. I want to think of it as the story of a magical X-Men, but it's actually more of a magical Suicide Squad. The main character (the whole story is narrated from his point of view) is a mercenary war mage named Cade Ombra. We join him as he is fulfilling his contract to help a particularly nasty ruler defeat his enemies with the help of a small army of mages, including Cade's best friend, Corrigan. When Cade and Corrigan are ordered to brutally slaughter the enemy forces (even after they've surrendered), the duo decide they have had enough and make tracks to pursue another commission, recruiting other wonderists (that's what they call mages in this world) along the way. As expected, things really don't go as expected and the story builds from a couple of self-serving mercenary mages to something with good vs. evil, world-threatening stakes. Nevertheless, none of the characters are snowy white good (even the ones who literally appear to be on the side of the angels -- they call them "aurorals" in this book), and ultimately, it's fun to watch an armageddon of anti-heroes.

De Castell's writing is nice and clever. Cade's attitude is dry and cheeky, and Corrigan is brazen and sarcastic. Even when the situations seem serious enough to deserve a grim tone, our heroes laugh in the face of calamity and danger. There's a scene when Corrigan (who is a thunderist, i.e. fires bolts of lightning magic) runs into another like him, he blasts her unprovoked, claiming justification because of her over-the-top name (Elena Scourge). Everyone then calls hypocrite on him, since his name (Corrigan Blight) is just as bad. The facetious tone is a little bit like something from a Terry Pratchett novel, except it's not quite as ornately clever, mostly tongue-in-cheek. Though the tone can be humourous, the subject matter is still often quite adult and dark. It is probably closer to the Dungeon Crawler Carl series (even though the plots and settings are nothing alike).

My favourite part of this story is the fantasy world-building, specifically the character designs and the variety of magic. Aside from thunderists (who wield “tempestral” magic), Cade is an infernal mage (who trade pieces of their souls to demonic beings for spells). Then almost every other mage is a different type, with different powers, coming from a different realm of magic. These “attunements” have an extremely wide variety: everything from blood magic, to auroral (i.e. angelic), to floronic (who manipulate plants and nature), to rats, bats, keys, knots, torture, to my favourite: cosmists, whose bodies are portals to a cosmic dimension. They look like a starfield, or night sky, in the shape of a person (and apparently like to wear orange striped clothing). Everyone from the main characters to each little side character, whether mage or some other kind, has an interesting profile sheet (this story might make an enjoyable video game now that I think of it). In fact, the characters are all pretty well drawn out for such a short storyline and how much happens. The main focus is on Cade, so we dive a lot deeper into his backstory, but the cast is a wonderful mix and virtually no two characters are alike.

So if you enjoy fantasy but you're interested in something other than your typical Tolkien-inspired epic, and you want to read something that is colourful, clever, facetious, and fun, this book is very much worth your time (and apparently a sequel is coming out soon. So let's get ready for The Malevolent Eight!) (4 out of 5)

4.5

Fabulous! RTC

I absolutely loved this!

Cade is a mercenary with magic. He has more scruples than you would expect from a mercenary, but he's far from perfect.
He must find six other mages and defeat a very powerful enemy that wants to make the world a better place. But who would it be better for?
This has it all. Humor, magic, great characters and a fantastic plot. I am ready for more!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an e-arc.

CAWPILE SCORE
C-8
A-8
W-8
P-7
I-9
L-8
E-10
TOTAL-8.29/10

As you can see I really enjoyed this book. I did receive an ARC but this is my honest feelings about the book.

I liked the way the story is told to us with small “interruptions” by Cade talking directly to us.CAWPILECharactersSebastian De Castell has really good characters. They are fully realized and aside from Fidick I didn't feel like they were one dimensional. I wish we had more time to see them in action as a group and as individuals, but even with the small parts we see they feel like rounded characters.AtmosphereIts very easy to immerse yourself in the world that Sebastian has created.WritingGood writing. You can tell thought went into it to make sure it was precisely want is needed.PlotA simple plot, but with plenty of twists and turns along the way.InvestmentI had a really hard time putting this book done. LogicThe rules of the world that were put out were followed and subverted when necessary, the right way.EnjoymentLots and lots of enjoyment, between watching Cade try and be a “bad” guy and the rest of the groups antics as they group together.
I will be talking about it on Libromancy https://libromancy.podbean.com/ on 05/21/2023

For more of my reviews, check out my blog.

Thank you to Netgalley and Mobius for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good wizard, but The Malevolent Seven has almost no good wizards. Instead, we're treated to mage after mage with rather horrible temperaments. No one sides on the ‘good' side here, because there is no good side. The Malevolent Seven is about as grimdark as I can take before throwing in the towel. There were no brutal murders for brutal murder's sake here — everything that happened really did happen for a good reason. And the main character, Cade, while he has some moral issues he probably needs to work out eventually, is actually a pretty decent person. He just hides under sarcasm and literally being a mage for hire. Those are probably the two reasons I kept going – you all know how much I'm not a fan of grimdark. But despite that, de Castell really made the book interesting enough that I wanted to keep reading. Plus, I really sort of loved de Castell's writing. It's quirky, sarcastic, and generally not really the tone you're used to in this sort of setting.

The Malevolent Seven is a short book, in my personal opinion. Most fantasies that I read usually clock in around 450 pages or more. The Malevolent Seven only tips the scales at 384 — and it is a rather quick read. There's no wasted action in those few pages, thankfully. The pace is lightning quick, and the plot decently easy to follow. I had a hard time with all the explanations of the different magical planes, but once I sort of...let it glide over me...I realized it didn't matter in terms of the plot all that much. There's not a ton of world building here, but that's probably because the pace of the book is just go, go, go. Either way, it didn't hurt my enjoyment of the novel. There's enough here to go on, but I do wish we had seen perhaps more of the regular people? Instead, we get mages, demons, angels, etc. And while cool, they don't really help pad out the world too much. The characters we do see, we know very little about, again, thanks to that short page count. The one we know most about is Cade's best ‘friend', and even then we really don't' know much at all.

The plot includes a couple betrayals you don't see coming, and a pretty neat twist at the end. If you like wizards, morally grey characters, and a fast pace, you'll love this one. Four stars.