Title: The Maleficent Seven.
Writer(s): Cameron Johnston.
Publisher: Angry Robot.
Format: Digital.
Release Date: August 10th 2021.
Pages: 400.
Genre(s): Fantasy.
ASIN: B08N6TX8LN.
My Overall Rating:
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Thanks for the review, Lashaan! I will add this to that endless TBR. It weirdly sounds like a good book for winter.
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I’m really glad to hear that, Kim! I hope you have fun with it when you get the chance to try it out. Nothing like contributing to the endless TBR of other bookworms. 😀
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I love fast pace, action and banter. I can overlook that lack of world building if everything else is great. Amazing review, Lashaan!
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Glad to hear that fantasy stories don’t always need to tick all those boxes for you too! Thanks for reading, Yesha! 😀
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Stories like this make me despair that authors will ever truly try to redeem their characters. Doing “a” good thing (no matter how big) doesn’t qualify as redemption if you’re the same exact person after doing that good thing.
And then you have stories like this. Where all the reader has is a choice of evils.
I am sad 😦
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Thankfully we all have the will to decide what we want to read! 😛 I haven’t read many stories with such a focus on villains though. There are, however, so many traditional fantasy stories where the villains end up helping the good guys by the end and turning into antiheroes. Which I’m also very much accustomed to in superhero stories hahah
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This sounds like so much fun, never heard of it before but will add it to the TBR.
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I’m glad to hear your interest in this one! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 😀 Thank you so much for reading!
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This is the first I’ve heard of this book, and now I’m beyond intrigued! Thank you so much for showcasing the novel – and for adding another book to my already crowded TBR! 😉 😀
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I’m absolutely glad to add it to your ever-growing TBR! Hopefully, it will scratch an itch that you either know or don’t know you have for this kind of story! 😀 Thanks for reading, Maddalena!
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Hmmm… I’m not sure if this is one I’ll read. But I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it. Sounds like quite a ride. Did you think there was any parallel or inspiration, other than title, from the stories this title seems to be inspired by (Seven Samurai and The Magnificient Seven)?
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Yep, it’s not the kind of story that many readers sought within the fantasy genre but it’s a nice break of those thick huge books, part of series, with at least 1000 pages per book hahaha I honestly just saw those 2 classics as a fundamental influence on the author’s book and its premise. I saw someone (an author) on Goodreads draw analogies to the Suicide Squad, which makes sense. The story’s structure is also similar to Kings of the Wyld, another “band getting back together to do cool things” but without the “we’re all evil” part. I could 100% recommend Kings of the Wyld to you if you haven’t already tried or wanted to try it.
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Cool, glad to hear the recommendation for Kings of the Wyld. It’s high up on my list to be read. Not sure yet if I’ll manage to get to it this year, though. And who knows, perhaps I’ll even give this one a try one day. Probably one that would very much depend on my mood. I’m reading one (well, listening) right now that’s been highly recommended by several whose tastes I generally share but it’s not working for me at the moment. It’s a great read, just not fitting my current mood, and it’s all about an evil one. 🙂
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I imagine you’re speaking of In the Garden of Spite. I added it to my TBR following those glowing reviews too. Sorry to hear it’s not working out too well for you right now. Would you be more of the type to DNF and get back to it another time or push forward and move on to other titles? 😀
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Yup, In the Garden of Spite. I’m slowly working my way through it. I’m enjoying it enough I will finish it, I just might take longer than I typically would. Normally I only listen to one audiobook at a time, and I typically listen at night before I sleep and sometimes when driving, and if I’m really into it I’ll sometimes listen during any free time. Well, I’ve no desire to listen to this on the drive to work as it can be a downer of a read and I don’t want to jinx my day that way. And I don’t want to listen before I sleep for similar reasons. So I’ll listen on some of the drives home and then put it aside for other things. I’ve started another audiobook for the other times I read. It’s certainly an interesting character study, and perhaps a thought experiment on how much a truely tragic and horrendous experience might warp and twist us and affect the rest of our life. I found I went from really feeling sympathy for a character because of what she went through to almost completely losing all sympathy because of what she becomes. But the brain can be broken in so many ways.
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Black Herran jumps ships and then comes crawling back to them? Ummm, no thank you. I mean, I hope they make her pay at least. The tale sounds intriguing and I don’t mind the non-perfect worldbuilding one bit. It’s all about the action for me!
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Ah ha! That’s exactly what you’ll have to find out by reading the story. It’s pretty much calling upon the best (of those who are the evilest) to see if they’re willing to join forces for one big “good” deed for the world. As for “payback”, that is exactly what the second half of the story prepares you for. 😀 Glad to hear that world-building in not a necessity for you in fantasy stories if the rest is good! Thanks for reading. I appreciate it.
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Hmm… I do prefer strong worldbuilding, but I’m curious about this anyway. I wonder what the characters will be like. Will add to the TBR.
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Cool review, Lashaan! Somehow that doesn’t sound like something I’d overly enjoy, so I’ll pass, but I’m glad you had so much fun with it!
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Thanks, Ola. Yep, I don’t think I would’ve recommended it to you too. It doesn’t have the right ingredients for your cup of SFF! 😛
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