The Malevolent Seven

By: Sebastien de Castell

Narrated by: Joe Jameson

'Brilliant and vivid world-building . . . riveting' CHAD STAHLESKI, director of John Wick

'A masterful blend of Sebastien de Castell's unique brand of wry humour, elegant prose, and wonderfully imaginative worldbuilding. I devoured this book and loved every page' NICK EAMES, bestselling author of Kings of the Wylde

From the bestselling author of THE GREATCOATS: seven war mages with dark pasts must come together to fight an unknown enemy - but the stakes are higher than anyone can imagine . . . and someone's setting the seven up for a fall.

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 . . .

©2023 Sebastien de Castell (P)2023 Quercus Editions Limited

Great listen!

De Castell can sure write a “Hero” you want to root for. Even if that Hero is… anti. If you liked this you will love the Great Coats series.

Dark and Funny

I didn’t don’t expect to enjoy this book so much. It’s dark, for sure - but the MC has a witty sarcastic way about himself and the narrator nails it. Such a great listen!

Hidden Nugget of Gold

I have read several books where they make the self proclaimed bad guys into plucky heroes. they’re good but at heart you’re still dealing with protagonists just dressed up in the bad guys clothes.
This book truly has the antagonist doing the job of the protagonist, because there are none . In this world not in that world. I found myself laughing at just how dark and true so much of the camaraderie and underlining message. The author was trying to convey. Life is a stream of shit and that’s where the real fight is.

I wish I could give it six stars!

This was an amazingly fun read/listen. I really hope this is made into a series and Joe you are an incredible voice actor!

Anything that Sebastian writes, I love

this was a departure from the Greatcoats, and closer in tone to prequel books to Spellslinger series, the Argosi. it's dark, gritty, and filled with two big assholes in Cade and Coragan. But the story weaved with the "bad" people adjacent, is great and tight. Joe Jameson used the voices I was use to in the Greatcoats to play against who I first heard those voices for. overall, loved this and need this series to continue!

Color cast and creative worlds

I really enjoyed the tremendously colorful cast of characters, breathed flawlessly to life by the talented Joe Jameson. (Will put him on my "to be listened to" list.) I had to double-check that this wasn't an ensemble cast and that Jameson was in fact doing all the voices. Incredible.

The story was captivating, and I was quickly pulled in. Looking forward to the continuing saga.

wild dark and very funny

The narration was wonderful incredible really helped to make this dark bloody amorak tale fun.
There are no good guys or bad guys but there are some truly evil guys.
The humor is a little like Kings of the Wyld.

3.5 Stars 🌟

This was a "new to me" author that I came across after reading the summary for this book. The writing style was unique and took me a little while to get used to, but when it seemed to smooth out, the story took off.

This is a kind of dark humor type story. There is a motley crew put together to go on a sort of quest. The nonstop banter is actually funny, and the self-deprecation of the main male MC is at times too funny. He has the hardest time being happy because he is constantly telling himself and others how bad he is.

There is a bit of a philosophical quandary in this book - are you always ALL bad or ALL good? Or can there be levels of each?

We follow along with Cade and begin to slowly learn exactly WHY he chose his newest profession and WHY there are people after him. And yes, he just accepted a job to do the thing that he dislikes more than anything, yet it is his profession and it is a job.

I loved all of the secondary characters especially once everyone got together. Fun story, interesting world and exciting quest.

Took a minute but glad I stuck with it

This is one of those you have to pay attention to, I was so lost the first time I attempted it. I liked the narrator so I Googled for a more in depth summary and this time I was able to get into it rather than stopping now and then to rewind

Awesome

Super awesome fantastic incredible terrific action-packed tremendous spectacular spellbinding addictive brilliant superb outstanding great.