This is a fun read, with a dense plot that fairly gallops along. I felt that occasionally it stretches credibility with regard to nefarious planning. That said, you have distinct characters pretty much all of whom are compelling and well-motivated. The culture is grimdark, the magic is creative and highly varied given the fact that each type has its own rules and effects.

I enjoyed it and I'm intrigued to read more as this opening volume points to a lot of delicious possibilities. In summary, a cool, grimdark fantasy novel with wit and creativity, great for stop-start reading.

This was my first Sebastian de Castell book that I’ve read. I’ve been intrigue to try his books for a while now, but never knew a good starting point. This seemed like a good one! And I wasn’t wrong because it was so good. Each character feels so fleshed out. The world he’s created felt really unique to me and kinda a more realistic take on what life would be like if people with magic were real, being paid to fight it wars, etc.
So glad I decided to read this book! Now I just need to work out which de Castell book to read next!

I don't know what exactly I was expecting when I started reading this book, but it wasn't what I got. We follow a group of anti-heroes of on a quest to save the villian. The concept was good but wasn't too sure on the execution. There wasn't much depth in world building or characters, and at times it was all justba little chaotic for me.

Enjoyed this. Adult fantasy with plenty of anti heroes, swearing and violence.
We are presented with a world in conflict, groups of Wonderists (mages) offering their services to the highest bidders. Normal people are just cannon fodder in an environment of powerful magics.
Cade is a Wonderist with powers of Auroralist magic (channelling other powers). When he and a disparate group take on a task they find they have been manipulated by almost everyone and they might be the only people that can stop the world changing forever.
It’s well written fantasy. Starts off very linier on a well trodden fantasy path, but gradually many things are exposed and you realise it is a very different story to the one you thought you were reading!
Clever and enjoyable stuff.

Made it about halfway through this one - it's pretty good but i struggle to find anything funny thats crafted to be funny :/ - i will now know who would like it in my store though - thanks

This was great fun! I loved Cade as the main character and POV, and it was satisfying to unravel his past, which really highlighted his motivations and made you feel less conflicted about rooting for a self-described ‘bad guy’.
I found the magic system a little confusing at times, although having found the magic summaries at the back of the digital arc, I can see how that would make references easier in a physical copy.
Hoping there’ll be a sequel!

I was a little nervous to pick up this book, because it would be my first Sebastien de Castell book that did not take place in the Spellslinger universe. But let me just tell you that I still love his writing so much! This book completely hooked me and did not want to let me go. I fell in love with the main characters and want to read more about them (sequel, when?) Highly recommend if you loved the Spellslinger books and characters that may or may not always be the heroes.

I have never read anything from this author before but I can tell you I will be reading a lot more after this. I loved it. Everything about it ... I just loved it. Fast paced, exciting, entertaining and just all my kinda vibe. Highly recommend,

Thank you to Quercus Books for providing me with an arc in exchange for a review.

In case I hadn't made this clear already, we're not exactly the good guys.
But don't worry - by the end of this story, me, Corrigan and the five other wonderists who would come to be known as the Malevolent Seven would definitely be getting what was coming to us.

I was excited to read de Castell’s work after enjoying the wit and humour of the Traitor’s blade. This book felt similar in terms of writing style and voice.
This book is gritty and dark. It deals with good vs evil, slavery, greed…. You can’t help but feel the complete sense of hopelessness in every character and aspect of this fantasy.

“…the difference between you and me is not that I am a slave and you a mercenary. What separates us is that I know I am a slave, and you still harbour the illusion that you have free will…”

De Castell is a pro at creating vivid and unique characters. Dry wit, pessimistic cynicism, ambiguous morals and ideals… these are the marks of a grimdark fantasy challenging your own views of who you should be rooting for.
Be ready for crude humour, down-there jokes, and gallows humour.

“Are you both complete fools, or do you just act like it to mask your lack of any coherent plan to get us out of here alive?”

However, sadly, the writing felt over complicated and sometimes, I hate to say it, pretentious. As if de Castell was trying too hard to sound incredibly convoluted and smart. And the magic system? Get ready to grit your teeth.

The ending was reminiscent of Swan Song. It’s dark, gruesome, and bleak-fully hopeless.
If you don’t want to scream as you realise you don’t have book 2, then this is your warning.
Unfortunately, the whole book felt like a build-up to a rushed and incomplete ending.

The Blacktongue Thief meets The Maleficent Seven.

The Malevolent Seven is my second book by Sebastian de Castell after starting the Spellslinger series (which I really plan to continue soon) and it didn’t disappoint. This one is a mix of dark fantasy and humour, which often means a break of the fourth wall and honestly is a type of narration that I really enjoy.

We are going to follow a band of seven mages (wonderists) who end up in a job that wasn’t really what they were expecting. Yes, I know that plot sounds vague, but honestly it goes very straight to it since the first chapters so no worries about that. Having said that I really enjoy the assembling of characters for missions, I don’t know why exactly but I love it every single time, so while 70% of the book is that assembly, I was really okay with it. The last 30% is really where it shines the most, I couldn’t put it down and it was really, really, addicting. Overall, we have a good balance of plot and characters that will appeal to most readers. I do have to say that they didn’t really feel that evil, more of a bunch of antiheroes.

I really liked the exploration of the different magic systems; basically, different types of mages draw magic from different planes of existence (dude the cosmic wonderists was so cool). Really cool honestly, I do hope we get a sequel and continue to explore this.
As I said before I really like this type of narration, where the main character practically tells you the story. It reminded me of the one from The Blacktongue Thief since that one is also quite dark and humorous.

Probably due to the title but I couldn’t help but compare this one to The Maleficent Seven which is one of my favourite books and I mean they are kind of similar, sadly The Maleficent Seven is still the one I prefer, but if you enjoyed that one, you’re for sure going to like The Malevolent Seven. The ending definitely hints a sequel but I’m not really sure if one is confirmed, but if it is I’ll be there waiting.

As an overall thought I would definitely recommend The Malevolent Seven as it really is a joy of a ride (a pretty dark ride but still), De Castell shines in his very addicting writing and you will finish this one in no time. I’ll be crossing my fingers for the sequel!

Thoroughly enjoyable magical fantasy adventure intertwined with comedic repartee between the 7 protagonists. Really looking forward to the sequel. Thank you to #netgalley and publicist for advance copy.

First book I have read by this author and eager to read more of his work. Fantasy fiction that has plenty of magic, action, memorable anti-heroes and some of the best one liners you'll read in any genre! Great fun.

Plot
Ooh wee, this review turned out long, and perhaps a bit ramblly in places but I had a lot of thoughts. But ultimately, I'm glad I read it.

I'm a big fan of the concept of a ragtag group of misfits getting together despite differences and grievances for plot reasons. It's always such a fun concept.
The book starts out strong with a voicey narrative and a cool action sequence. The opening chapters do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of world-building and setting the stage and I found myself really invested at the start of the book and excited to read more.

The middle of the book became a bit confusing and convoluted. The chapters with Hazidan in particular. It felt like I'd walked in on the middle of a conversation between her and Cade and I had to figure out what they were talking about from context clues.
Perhaps because we'd never been given a clear enough image of Cade's past. It felt a lot like this conversation was meant to make me go 'Aha!' but instead it made me go 'Huh?'

And boy was it ever convoluted. Even as everything was being explained I was like, 'but really, though?' Cause this all seems like a really farfetched way to get Cade to do the bidding of the Lords Celestine. Like everything was pre-orchestrated and apparently none of it was Cade's choice. So all that occurred was Cade went from being an active character in his own story to being a passive one. And this little revelation didn't feel too satisfying.

The Hazidan chapters really disrupted the pacing in the middle of the book. It comes across as confusing exposition and slows down the narrative to the point of tedium. I just wanted to the plot to get back on track.

Also, I was reading, I couldn't help but feel the presence of tiny plot holes emerging around me. Like Cade wanting to keep his past, and also the way he acquires spells, secret. Yet when both of these things are revealed in front of the group, no one says anything. I at least expected some shock from Corrigan, but nothing. It undermines the need for a secret to be kept at all.

Something that likewise didn't sit right with me was how things would happen and yet there were no consequences. Like when Cade breaks a certain character's nose. No way Galass would be happy about that and yet the broken nose is never mentioned by anyone.
Little details that build the characters and the world aren't properly established. Details are just mentioned in the moment and then never again, where I feel some previous set-up could've worked really well to give readers a better understanding of the characters.
A very minor example (but still one that pulled me out the story) is when it's basically stated that Cade found a pipe earlier and now he smokes.
...uh, okay? I didn't know that he smoked. Maybe if something had been previously mentioned earlier to show the reader that he sometimes smokes and is pleased he found a pipe.
I know this is a dumb example, but it's just to prove a point that character traits and plot details aren't set up beforehand and only used they're needed so it feels like these details just come out of nowhere and I'm left feeling like ....uh, okay?

Thankfully, the story finds its feet again in the final third of the book as things build towards a showdown between the seven mages and the seven brothers. These chapters felt much more like the beginning of the book, voicey and a little cheeky in places, far more engaging and even exciting.
Was I satisfied with the ending? Um, I don't know. Not really, I guess. It did sort of feel like it was all for nothing in the end, which I suppose is the idea? But am I intrigued enough by where the story leaves off to read the possible sequel? Yeah, probably. Why not?

Characters

The main character and unreliable narrator of this book is Cade, a mage who buy spells from a demon-like creature in another realm. As stated, his narration style is very voicey, packed with dry, witty quips and sarcasm. He's a very jaded character and despite how he's constantly trying to remind the reader he's the bad guy, deep down he's the good guy and can't resist doing the right thing, even from the very start.

Rescued by Cade, Galass is a powerful blood mage who was formerly a child groomed into sex slavery. When she's freed from the horrors of her past, she has to learn how to use her new found power without killing her teammates by accident. She's an interesting character, but I also found her a little flat. I couldn't really describe her personality as beside her traumatic past and her new blood magic, nothing stood out with her.

Corrigen is probably the most useful member of the group. A tempestoral mage who can/is willing to use his magic when needed. He wasn't afraid to get shit done, making him the most active character in the book. He is your typical self-serving antihero. A bit of a dirtbag, but an honest dirtbag, which made him one of my favourites. I felt pretty confident I knew who he was as a character and I enjoyed him a lot.

Aradeus was a lot of fun and another of my favourites. He was quirky and charming but frankly, I don't know why he was there. He was a rat mage that hardly summoned any rats. There were times I actually forgot he was a mage cause he never did much magic. He was more of a swordsman. Luckily his charismatic personality made up for his shortcomings in actual usefulness.

Shame is an exiled Angelic and, surprise surprise, also a former sex slave. Yay. Two women out of three have a history of sexual abuse, but we don't need to explore that. She's somewhat introduced as Aradeus's love interest, but they don't have any chemistry and, again, their feeling aren't explored until the very end. She's interesting in the regard that she can shapeshift and take any appearance and I found it cool that the one she chose wasn't that of a traditionally beautiful woman.

I didn't like Alice as a character. There were few redeeming qualities about her and I was a little confused why an Infernal was so damn righteous all the time. I was also a little confused about her existence in general. What exactly was her purpose and what was she being trained for? It didn't seem like she had any powers either. She just had her sword whip. She wasn't likeable and I just don't feel like she was a necessary addition to the group.

As for Mister Bones, the pet jackal, it was pretty obvious it wasn't a normal jackal. Because, one, everybody just seemed to include it as part of the Seven. No one was ever like 'but there's only six of you.'
And two, it's on the book cover, included among the Seven. So Cade constantly telling me throughout 'stop considering the jackal, it's just a normal jackal. Nothing special about the jackal,' just got annoying. Dude, shut up. I got eyes. I can count. The damn jackal is on the cover. It's the seventh member. I know the jackal is special so stop trying to shove a red herring down my throat. The reveal was surprising though. I didn't see that coming.

Out of the Seven characters, I only felt like I knew and understood Cade and Corrigan, maybe a little bit of Aradeus. There was little growth or exploration of the others, while some got barely any page time towards the end. The female characters definitely lacked depth and personality. I might even be convinced that it would've been better if Shame and Alice weren't there at all, especially considering how much their recruitment chapters slowed down the pacing in the middle of the book. They didn't bring enough to the table to make to disruption to the pace worth it.

Setting
There's a bit of a steep learning curve to tackle here. There's a lot of jargon and while most of it is explained, it can be a little tricky at times to see how things are connected.
The world created here is very involved and certainly interesting one. Maybe not executed as well as it could be, considering how vast and complex it is, but the author does a decent enough job of explaining things.
Was I able to follow everything being explored and discussed? Hell no. I was maybe able to follow and understand about half of it with no problem, but I still found it a very interesting world despite the gaps in my knowledge.

Any good magic system is a huge part of the world-building, and the author has created something very interesting here. I won't go into great detail about the magic here because the author does enough of that early on in the book. This is probably one of the best-explained magic systems I've read. Despite being rather involved and complex, I never wasn't able to understand it. The various spells, and dimensions, and different types of mage, and booking agents who are also demons. It was all fantastically detailed and easy to follow.

Writing Style

The writing style both worked for me and didn't work. While I love a voicey narration, there were definitely moments when Cade's ramblings and interruptions irritated me. I'm just not a fan of the old 'you're probably wondering...' or 'I know what you're thinking...' cause I'm not thinking that at all, which only makes me annoyed with the character for assuming.
That said, I did really enjoy how much of Cade's character and personality shone through the tone and voice of the writing. It does certainly make it feel more personal to him.

I love a bit of dry humour in books, and though this book had a lot within the narration, it wasn't quite my flavour of humour, unfortunately. I could see where the humour was and appreciated that there was humour in the first place. Humour can be tough. I often think it's the second most subjective thing after art itself. So I'm not salty that I didn't find the book all that funny. It's definitely going to hit the funny bone of someone though.

This is my third time reading a De Castell book, after trying the first books of two of his other series. The pattern between them all seems to be my middling ratings. Now I'm realising that maybe it isn't just the book, but that maybe the author's writing style just isn't for me, and that's totally fine. I know this will work great for other readers. Not every book is written for every reader but, hey, at least I gave it a shot.

Final Impression
I wish I could like this more and I know it sounds like I'm complaining a lot in this review but it was really just an accumulation of little nitpicks that, collectively, amounts to a lot.
In theory, I should've been the target audience. This had everything I normally love in a book, but I can admit when a book isn't for me.
This book is by no means bad, they're already a lot of people loving this, which I'm pleased about.
I did have a decent time reading. I was certainly interested enough to finish it and not DNF. But it's difficult for me to see past all the problems I had with it. Despite all the things that did work for me, I'm able to admit when a book just isn't for me.

Before starting, let me you a thing: if you want to know how this book is going to be and you are in a hurry, simply read the synopsis here. It would tell you all you need to know: the writing, the humor, dark and subtle and oh-so-perfect, and our MC. It’s really all here, and even if I am not a big fan of synopsis and usually just skip them, well… this time it is just too perfect, and I have to point it out to you.

And now, let’s begin. Or let’s try. Because I don’t think I would be coherent much. Sorry, but not really sorry! So… I discovered this book thanks to Jordyn‘s review and since the Greatcoats series is one of my favorite series ever, I flew on NetGalley full of hope! And once they approved me (and the subsequent happy dance), I devoured it. And… it was perfect!
And okay, okay, maybe there are a couple of things that could have been somehow better developed, maybe (and I am thinking that, objectively, since the magic system is pretty complex and the world-building fascinating, a tad more of it could have been good), but to me, it was pure bliss. And I loved it. And I had an amazing time with it. And I laughed. I sighed. I was happy. And I was mad. And I was sad. And I was awed. And all the feelings in between.

I know that comparing books is not a good thing, but I am still going to do it. First thing first, a couple of years ago it came out The Maleficient Seven by Cameron Johnston, and the titles are pretty similar so… it is not unexpected to compare them. And I appreciated Johnston’s book, but De Castell is exactly what I was expecting to get when the first book came out, and I didn’t get it (obviously). It’s not that the first book is bad, not at all. It has a lot of good things going on for it, the idea was brilliant and the book is solid, to be short about it, but it wasn’t a perfect fit for me. I enjoyed it, but I was in need of something slightly different, that worked better for me. And this second book is it. It’s everything I wanted and wished for. And it was perfect.
But this is not the only comparison. Because it is also hard to not compare this book with other books by this author. Even more so because Cade and Falcio (the first is the MC of this book, and the second is the MC of the Greatcoats series) have a lot in common, even if they are quite different. It is like Cade is like Falcio and Kest smashed together, especially if we consider his sense of humor, dark and subtle and biting, But there is more to it, too. Falcio is a morally grey character, and he is one of the best at it (okay, okay, I am a Falcio fan so he is the best in general, but this is not the point here), but he is on the good side of the morally gray graph. And he is one of the good guys (in a world where things went pretty bad for a long time, and he is not the shiny knight, sure, but even if you can debate the methods, he and his companions are sort of the good guys). Cade is on the opposite side of it. And mind me, he is sort of good, or one of the good guys, but only if you need to put the line somewhere, because, sure as hell, he is not a good guy. He is the lesser evil, and he has morality but… well, it’s like de Castell specializes in morally grey characters, and he is gifting us with all the spectrum of them. And it was amazing!

And the other characters… guys, trust me, you need to meet them. All of them! And the magic system!! It is rich and interesting, and quite original. And talking about the magic here, the Acknowledgments part is brilliant (and it may sound strange that I am putting this here, but you need to go and check for yourself). And okay, I know that I am asking for a lot of trusts in there, because I am not telling you much. Especially if you haven’t met this author before, but I can’t really say more, because the plot is pretty straightforward: our MC and a band of misfits wonderists, in part recruited and in part “adopted” or imposed along the way, are traveling to complete their last assignment: help a bad baron against seven other wonderists that are there to help the good people oppressed by the baron. And reward? Money, a lot of it, duh, they are mercenaries so… what else? Ah, right, also a really powerful artifact, that is more the stuff of the legends than reality.
Only… things aren’t really like they seem. And I can’t say more because I won’t ruin it for it. And the magical system is fascinating, but again, I won’t explain it for you because you need to see for yourself, so I know that I am not giving you much, but I can tell you that I loved it to pieces, and I would recommend it at every chance I get!

If you are in for a grimdark fantasy, with fascinating magic in there, an interesting world to visit, and some bleak and dark humor to keep you company (and a jackal, too!Yay! I love animal companions!) you need to get this one as soon as possible. And I mean it. Really really mean it. Go and get it ASAP!

The Malevolent Seven is a fun, fast-paced fantasy novel in classic Sebastien de Castell style. The main characters are avowedly not good guys, but they kind of get sucked into doing the good guy thing, just this once, although it’s obviously for their own selfish reasons.

They’re kind of halfway between antiheroes and outright villains, I’d say. They’re a bit more selfish and villainous than your average antihero, but they also don’t quite feel like villains. Villain-adjacent perhaps. Perfectly willing to let themselves be the weapon by which someone evil subjugates other people, but they might not do it of their own accord. Anyway, it makes for very compelling characters.

What I also love about Sebastien de Castell’s books is that they’re fast-paced. The action gets going right from the start, but it never leaves you wondering what’s going on. It’s a good mix of worldbuilding and actual things happening. I was hooked by it from the start, as entirely expected based on what I’ve read of de Castell before. Most of that was due to the characters, who are, as I said, highly compelling.

Genuinely the only thing even slightly negative I have to say about this book is that there won’t be a sequel. After that ending? Those revelations? And I don’t get to see where it might go? It felt like there could be more, though also, who’s to say there won’t be in future (my fingers are crossed!).

If you’re looking to get into Sebastien de Castell’s works, then, I think this would be a good place to start. It showcases the best of his skill and, being currently a standalone (sob), is less of a commitment than a series (if that’s one of your criteria). And, really, it’s just a whole lot of fun.

Huge thanks to Jo Fletcher Books, Wiercus Books and Netgalley for the arc of The Malevolent Seven in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Do you like your wizards to be wearing big pointy hats and cloaks with dribble white beards? Do you see your heroes as strapping blond mountains of muscle? Are you looking for a book that is monochrome good and evil? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, walk away now. This isn’t the book you are looking for.

Sebastian De Castell has delivered in The Malevolent Seven a master class in dry, sardonic, and at times cutting wit, a rag tag bag of the greyest anti-héroes you’ll ever come across, an immense, well crafted and logical magic system and a plot that carries you through more layers than an onion. This book is fantastic and I need more now.

The protagonist, Cade Ombra is your archetypal grey verging on charcoal mercenary Wonderist I.e. a type of wizard, who pretty much hires himself out to the highest bidder. Working with Corrigan, another wonderist and absolute delight of man, far too obsessed with his own manhood, Cade finds himself entrenched with no exit plan in sight in another job that he’d rather avoid. However, left with little choice, the two forge on to collect together that magic number of 7 wonderists to take on the road to suicide, sorry I meant marvel, wonder and victory.

And what a bunch they are, a rag tag bunch of the murkiest grey characters you can find, except Galass, who is just adorable. This group bitch, fight, grumble, and more throughout the process…you’d think they were siblings, and yes there’s definitely a found family element here. Throw in angels, demons, multiple planes and world building that is savagely beautiful , and you’ve got the makings of a mission to save the world brimming with seriously funny snark, darkness, dry, sardonic humour and enough magic to blow the world to smithereens!

And I have to mention animals, if you’re the delicate sort, please look away or read the start of my review again. No punches, explosions or destruction are held back and I’m still holding a grudge about that poor goat…I’m not discussing the jackal.

The plot is fantastically well paced, moving along at a good speed and at no time did I feel lectured or overpowered by the quantity of information or layers of plot that were surrounding me as de Castell created a 4D plot line constructed from the battles, bitching, bottles and bloody brilliant characters.

If you’re looking for a darker, more adult fantasy and magic book, you definitely need to pick up The Malevolent Seven. Be warned, there is no flinching from some of the darkest parts of humanity here but, this is not done for the sake of shock. De Castell takes a stark look at humanity, recognises the darkness and in doing so brings out the humour, humanity and sheer magic of life and why it matters so much!

I enjoyed most of The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien de Castiel featuring the most unlikely antiheroes who have to save the world led by Cade Ombra ( who has once of the best first point of view voice I’ve come across). But there was one aspect I didn’t like.
I received a copy of the book for a free and unbiased review.
This is a complicated fantasy with plenty of unique political, religious,magical and geographical world building to get to grips with but the author vividly brings this to life without any infodumps to slow the pace.
Cade Ombra is fascinating main POV character. Sometimes a sarky first-person narrator can get on my nerves after a while but Cade’s sometimes humorous, sometimes cynical and sometimes tragic narration never falls in to this trap. I liked his background story of being a fallen guard of the good who becomes caught up in some epic and convoluted battle between good and evil.
He collects a group of equally unhinged and dangerous mages to help him with his quest. The descriptions of how they eventually come together form a team is funny and interesting although Cade’s and banished angel’s Shame methods leave a lot to be desired.
The pace is fast, sometimes with a little to much going on- this is a book that will need your full attention.
But I found the frequent references to underage courtesans (for want of a better word) difficult and I did skip a few pages. Shame and her own plight on the pleasure boat also made difficult reading.
The book resolves the main plotline, but the story doesn’t end- I would definitely read the sequel to find out what happens.

I loved this and I love Sebastien de Castell. It's always wonderful getting to read the story of the bad guys and this book has a selection of mismatched baddies you can't help but love.

De Castell's Greatcoats is one of my all time favourite series, so you can guess how excited I was to find out he was returning to writing adult fantasy. The Malevolent Seven contained his trade mark wit, incompetent characters who somehow manage to succeed... kinda, and a wondrous magic system. Basically, I loved it.

Cade Ombra is not a good guy. He spends his days working as a mercenary Wonderist, someone who has the ability to access and use magic. When his current job goes sideways fast, he finds himself on the run with Corrigan, another wonderist who offers him a job he would rather refuse... too bad he has nothing else to do. The job though, requires slightly more power than Cade and Corrigan can muster, so now they just have to find five other wonderists to join them on this potential suicide mission... let the recruitment commence.

With The Malevolent Seven, De Castell brings us his regular bunch of semi-competent individuals who are more likely to kill each other than succeed and somehow make them into a found family. None of these characters are good... except for maybe Galass... and they all take this mission with their own goals in mind, but once the mission changes and they start to realise the true danger, they all start to begrudgingly work together... rather more begrudgingly than you'd like considering the fate of humanity hung in the balance. These characters, and their interactions, absolutely made this book for me. Having the majority of them be mercenaries for hire lent a dangerous and questioning air to the story, you never quite knew who you could trust, and who was just playing an incredibly long game. Their interactions were snark filled, sometimes volatile, and filled with humour, and even towards the end of the book, when they had finally come together, there was still that edge of humorous hostility surrounding them.

You base a book around Mages and you expect magic... something we got in spades. Wonderists have the ability to almost leech magic from other planes of existence, something that leads to multiple varieties of wonderists and through them magics. We spend a good bit of time learning about the magic and enjoyed the descriptions as well as learning about all the different planes where their magic comes from. This obviously added to the world building, which was already pretty well developed. Though we get a boat load of information, and at some points there is quite a lot of telling over showing, I never found it info dumpy in anyway and enjoyed following the characters working out of events.

The writing was pretty typical De Castell... which I adored. It was witty, fast paced and filled with plenty of energy. There were no real slow parts to this story, instead we bounced from battle to battle, some noticeably smaller than others and sometimes just good old friends wanting to murder each other, and with the addition of a few well placed plot twists, The Malevolent Seven was a pretty hard book to put down. But I think the part of the writing I enjoyed the most was how our MC Cade almost broke the fourth wall in parts when he kind of slowed the story down and explained how we got here, or his reasoning, and this gave me very big 'staring straight into the camera while I'm telling you this bit' vibes. It made me feel like I was actually part of the story, along on the journey with our bunch of misfits and certainly made the story a little more unique.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it was 100% stolen by the characters. De Castell has this knack for writing a bunch of completely morally corrupt characters, who are absolutely not good people, and making you fall in love with them all. You're impressed that they managed to hold off killing each other by the end of the book, and boy does the ending make you want more. More of the world, more of the characters. I'm not sure if this is going to be a series or not, but I would definitely pick up any sequel that cropped up, especially with the book ending as open as it did. Suffice to say if you enjoy your characters, magic and world on the darker side, aren't afraid of a little blood and enjoy found families who try to kill each other... this is the book for you.

The Malevolent Seven by Sebastian de Castell is an in-your-face, magic filled, grimy adventure with a host of cynical characters (including the protagonist) and a whole lot of gruesome death. Whether you like this one or not will probably boil down to whether or not the humour works for you.

Our hero Cade is a mercenary battle wizard in a world that seems to be in near constant war, with demonic and angelic beings directing things to their own ends. Cade himself secretly gets his spells from a demon, something frowned upon even in the amoral circles of mercenary wizards that he runs in. Things quickly go wrong in his current job, leading him to take on an even more dangerous job with his best friend, having to pick up a posse of five more wizards on the way. The Magnificent Seven connections don’t really go much further past that.

Throughout the book, we have Cade telling us that he’s a pretty terrible guy, even if he’s not as terrible as some of the terrible people he works with, and he’s not overly wrong, even if he has a sense of justice that gets him into trouble and shockingly leads to him trying to do the right thing as the book goes on. If I was supposed to care much about whether or not he’d choose to do the right thing, the book failed on that account – the world is terrible enough in a slightly cartoony way that I couldn’t bring myself to care much what happened to it, or even the characters in it.

There’s a lot of humour here in the characters, setting and narrative, much of it a little dark. It was quite hit and miss for me, but humour is notoriously subjective. The tone at least stays consistent throughout the book. And part of that tone is dark, with many of the characters being incredibly terrible, implied sexual assault of minors being brought up pretty early on in the book as one major example. The protagonist abstains from the worst of these behaviours, but he is far from a saint.

I found the Malevolent Seven to be easy to pick up, with some cool magic, but ultimately lacking in substance. The light tone contrasts a little with the horrible world, and it’s a story that doesn’t overstay its welcome. There’s probably an audience for this book, but I’d hesitate to recommend it unless this sounds like something you’d definitely enjoy.

Rating: 6.5/10