Oh my, at 35.5 Richmans, "The Malificent Seven" by Cameron Johnston is a guilty pleasure. An evil general recruits her six most awful captains, but this time to save a small village? You know that can't be the only thing going on in this gory, really well paced dark fantasy novel. And can I say how great it was that it in fact did not actually follow the "Magick, Dearie" rule that makes so much grimdark cliche and irritating? The "Magick Dearie" rule is the way that most grimdark authors leave plenty of magic around, but its all evil and only the evil can use it or make it happen. A front without a back, "Magick always comes with a price, Dearie" authors have it that no good person, or even a person who wants to do good, can do magic-- or at least not without paying a horrible price. So much for altruism, wisdom, or even gods with a sense of humor. Now in this work, despite so much of the magic being inhuman or inhumane in nature, it never feels like there is only one side to magic- although we don't see really noble magic users here. yet this isn't that kind of book. In this book, you are rooting for evil.
Well, not all the evil- the book has evil and also eeeeevil. But there is quick and effective world building, twists and turns, solid characters, and my oh my, a triple ending that for me was quite satisfying. So many recent fantasy novels have failed to stick the landing, but not "The Malificent Seven." You are welcome to disagree, and perhaps I would have felt differently in past years. This time, though, a gory, messy, necromancy drenched adventure was a fun read, delivering all the goods.
