jacey | Booklog 12/2023: Sebastien de Castell: The Malevolent Seven

I think I’ve said before that I hate cliffhanger endings. I loved this book right up until I realised that the last page just dropped me into a hole in the middle of the story. I like Sebastien de Castell, so I will read the next book anyway, but that cliffhanger ending lost this book at least one star. Anyhow… the rest of the book is tight and exciting. It features Cade Ombra, a war mage, or ‘wonderist’, his best friend (friend is a loose term) a homicidal thunder mage and five seemingly random wonderists with an odd assortment of powers: a rat mage, an angelic, a demon, a reluctant blood mage, and Mr Bones, seemingly a small carrion-feeding canine. Circumstances see then heading north to do a job with the promise of a rich reward or an early grave. Cade constantly reminds us that they are not the good guys, but Cade’s secret past hints at other motives.