The Malevolent Seven

4

Cade's POV is glorious. Cade is, in fact, glorious. No, he is not a good guy, but he is damn good, and I am all for it.

Most of this book was just fantastic, but there were moments where lines blurred, and I was like, well shit, morally, this is shitty, that is weird and not okay, but I guess because there was already the disclaimer that they weren't the good guys at the beginning, that makes it alright?????
*insert unconvinced laughter*

The Kindle version had a couple of typos, but this was overall well written.
Yes, I would read the sequel.

This is my very first time reading any of Sebastien de Castell's writing, so a huge thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Book Group for approving me for the ARC!

The quick and dirty CAWPILE scoring:

Character(s): 9
Atmosphere: 6
Writing: 9
Plot: 10
Intrigue: 8
Logic: 8
Enjoyment: 10

Character(s)
We navigate through this adventure and world in the perspective of Cade Ombra, an Infernal wonderist (mage). He masks being an Infernalist - he tries to play his spells off as a Fortunal mage. So right away, my curiosity was piqued: who was Cade really? Who is he hiding from? Why is he hiding? I love Cade with all of his sarcastic wit - he felt like an antihero not unlike Deadpool. Which is honestly how I felt this novel was framed, like Cade sort of broke the fourth wall with the thoughts in his head being directed at the reader. Sort of. It's hard to explain, but it just worked. All of the characters were interesting and well written/developed, came from all walks of life, different types of magic users with some being more advanced than others - I loved them all, but the one who stole my heart was Mozen, the Rat Mage. When you read it, I bet he steals yours too.

Atmosphere
I didn't find anything too special about the setting, but there were some interesting things about the different planes and realms wonderists were attuned to and pulled their magic from.

Writing
Since this is the first time I've read de Castell, I don't know if this is a typical style of writing for him. I sincerely hope that it is because I loved it. It was quirky and fun while still being easy to read and understand the narrative.

Plot
Awesome. That's what it was. I will be forthcoming and say it took me a few chapters to get the big picture, but because the characters were constantly stealing the show, I didn't mind. I figured the author would get me there sooner or later and I was right. I thought for the longest time that the characters were my favorite element of this one, but once I finished and saw the depth of the plot, I had to give it top marks. The description led me to think this would be a sort of comedy regarding a fantasy quest, and while there is tons of great humor, there is a deeper story here that was so good. I want to say so much more here, but for those not having read it, I think it would be a spoiler.

Intrigue
I WANT MORE. Please, please, please let this be a series!!!!!

Logic
The author did a marvelous job explaining thoroughly the magic system and the different types of groups (I don't want to go into detail on the specific groups for spoilery reasons). I like that he used different ways to explain things a few times throughout the story, so if you're not a reader who takes notes, you don't have to memorize anything, you'll get more chances to have things described and illustrated. Not in an info dumping way and not in a hand holding way - it was very clever in my opinion.

Enjoyment
Absolutely looking forward to reading this one again. I had fun being with these characters. I loved learning the magic system, seeing different magic users and how spells were cast. I loved the discord between the different realms. It was a unique spin on the quest trope and I sincerely wish for more from the author in this world and with these characters.