THE MALEFICENT SEVEN - Cameron Johnston


 Take Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, put a modern, supernatural spin on it in the grimdark sub-genre, and you get an idea of what The Maleficent Seven by Cameron Johnston is about.

The woman, Black Herran - a demonologist - is putting together a team to lead her armies and she's got six of the most ruthless, vicious characters ever brought together.  There's Amogg, a kickass orc, Maeven, a necromancer, Lorimer Felle, an old-school vampire lord, Captain Varena, a pirate lord, Tiarnach, a demi-god, and Jarek Hyden, a mad scientist type of alchemist.

These are not heroes, but some of the cruelest creatures on the planet, but author Cameron Johnston puts them in the protagonist role, generally saved for the heroes.

Together, the group was unstoppable. They brought an entire nation down, and on the eve of the final victory to seal the deal, Black Herran disappeared.  Now she's back, 40 years later, and she wants to pull her squad together. A new enemy is trying to finished what she started so long ago, and if there's going to be any evil ruling the country, it will be she and her six evil cohorts.

I found the characters here to generally be a lot of fun. Amogg the orc was probably my favorite.  He actually seemed the most level-headed and confident of the group, which is a bit odd, but that was part of the fun.

But where the characters were a lot of fun, the story itself, even though borrowed from a classic film, lacked a drive for me.  The story seemed like simply a device to have this set of characters interact with one another and to show off their unique skills. I was not at all engaged with what was happening - only who was doing things.

Like the story, the world-building is just 'there.' There's nothing particularly unique or special here.  This is a very generic fantasy setting.

And still, I had fun.  I enjoy dark fantasy.  But I would have enjoyed it a lot more, I think, if there were more guts laid bare to the story.

Looking for a good book?  The Maleficent Seven by Cameron Johnston is a bloody dark fantasy with some great characters but they needed a more powerful story to bind them together.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

* * * * * *

The Maleficent Seven

author: Cameron Johnston

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857669087

paperback, 416 pages

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MURDLE VOLUME 1 - G. T. Karber

Image
 I enjoy puzzles of many different varieties. I had not heard of 'Murdle' before this but essentially this is a combination of the game of Clue and a Sherlock Holmes micro story. With suspects, possible murder weapons, potential locations, and/or motives plus some very brief hints, readers are meant to combine the logic of what's know with deductive reasoning to identify the killer (or killers?) in 100 different mystery word puzzles. I will admit right off the bat that I did not do all 100.  I didn't even do half of these, but I did so some random sampling through all the categories (Elementary, Occult Medium, Hard Boiled, and Impossible). I did not get any correct in the Impossible category (of course not ... they were impossible!) and only one correct in the Hard Boiled (of five). The Elementary puzzles were, as expected, pretty easy and the Hard Boiled only a little bit more difficult. Each mini mystery comes with a grid printed in the book to help the reader-detecti
Read more

VINYL RESTING PLACE - Olivia Blacke

Image
 Juni Jessup and her two sister, Tansy and Maggie, have gone into business together in their hometown of Cedar River, Texas, opening a combination record store and coffee shop. Vinyl LPs are making a comeback after all, despite critics thinking the medium was dead.  But speaking of 'dead' ... finding a dead body in the supply closet just as they are looking to have a grand opening is not part of the plan.  Juni's life gets more complicated when their uncle, Calvin, already a suspect in the murder, disappears. And the police officer leading the investigation is Juni's EX-boyfriend (who passive-aggressively keeps putting himself back into her life). Convinced that her uncle would never murder anyone, Juni sets out to prove his innocence - which isn't easy since he's making himself look guilty - because Calvin is family and family is EVERYthing to Juni. As readers of my blog know, I'm not a big fan of most cozy mysteries, but the setting caught my eye and my in
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - wherein he acq
Read more