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Review: The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien De Castell

January 1, 2025 by A.J. Calvin Leave a Comment

Rating: —/10

Synopsis:

Picture a wizard. Go ahead, close your eyes. There he is, see? Skinny old guy with a long straggly beard. The hat’s a must, too, right? Big, floppy thing. Wouldn’t want a simple steel helmet or something that might, you know, protect the part of him most needed for conjuring magical forces from being bashed in with a mace (or pretty much any household object).

Yep. Behold the mighty wizard.

Now open your eyes and let me show you what a real war mage looks like . . . but be warned: you’re probably not going to like it, because we’re violent, angry, dangerously broken people who sell our skills to the highest bidder and be damned to any moral or ethical considerations.

My name is Cade Ombra, and though I currently make my living as a mercenary wonderist, I used to have a far more noble-sounding job title – until I discovered the people I worked for weren’t quite as noble as I’d believed. Now I’m on the run and my only friend, a homicidal thunder mage, has invited me to join him on a suicide mission against the seven deadliest mages on the continent.

Time to recruit some very bad people to help us on this job . . .

Review:

Irreverent, fast-paced, and humorous at times, The Malevolent Seven was a fun ride. I mean, you can’t go wrong with a story about a bunch of anti-heroes tricked into saving the world. Not only are the heroes of this tale unlikely, but the various alliances formed are unexpected too.

Cade is the main character (and narrator) of the story, a mercenary wonderist, and a self-proclaimed “Infernalist” (though that’s not his whole story or the extent of the magic he knows.) Basically, his variety of magic requires trade with the denizens of the Infernal Demesne… He gives up pieces of his soul in order to use various spells. And yes, it is as bad for him as it sounds.

Cade has a devil-may-care attitude at times, and is cynical at others. He doesn’t trust many people, and he can’t really afford to let most of his acquaintances learn the truth about his past. (The reader gets to learn about it as the book progresses, and while it wasn’t exactly a surprise, it was enough of a twist to make things entertaining when the others found out.)

I liked the way the magic system was set up in this book. Wonderists are attuned to specific planes of existence, and it’s from those planes that they take their magic. Calling too much magic breaks the natural laws and can have devastating effects on the world. I like when really powerful magic has equally powerful consequences. I also enjoy it when authors come up with unique varieties of magic—and there were plenty of those here.

While the ending leaves it open for more to come in this world, The Malevolent Seven worked well enough as a standalone (as far as I have seen, there is no official release date for book two yet.)

Overall, it was a fun story, and one I’d recommend.

Filed Under: Comic Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews, Sword and Sorcery

About A.J. Calvin

I'm a fantasy author and an avid reader of all things sci-fi/fantasy/horror. When I'm not immersed in something literary, I like to hike, scuba dive, and play video games. You can learn more about my writing at ajcalvin.net.

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