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MY ⭐️ RATING: 5/5
Format: Kindle Whispersync
BOOK DESCRIPTION
The stakes have never been higher.
The world is teetering on the brink of annihilation. The Lords Celestine and the Lords Devilish, celestial and infernal beings locked in an age-old enmity, have at last found the perfect battlefield for their apocalyptic Great Crusade: the mortal realm.
Cade Ombra, former Glorian Justiciar turned mercenary wonderist, leads a band of emotionally unstable mages in a desperate bid to prevent the impending clash of divine and diabolical titans. Failure will leave humanity to be conscripted into an eternal war, serving as foot soldiers doomed to oblivion.
The mission seems impossible, but Cade and the Malevolent Seven aren’t exactly pacifists, so they’re determined to bring peace no matter how many people they have to kill first. With wit as sharp as their blades and a moral compass that points only toward survival, they’re ready to cut down anyone in their path to stop the war before it begins.
Prepare for a whirlwind of dark magic, irreverent humour and relentless action in The Malevolent Eight. The fate of the humanity hangs in the balance, and only the most malevolent can hope to save it.
MY REVIEW
The Malevolent Eight may be the funniest book I’ve ever read! The amount of times I giggled and the legit belly laughs made me enjoy this book far more than I enjoyed The Malevolent Seven. It should be no secret that de Castell is one of my favorite authors and Joe Jameson is one of my favorite narrators. So I don’t know why it took me so long to get to the follow-up to a book I gave 5 stars to in 2023 as well as my winner of the 2023 favorite narration award, because this sequel totally rocked! These two paired together are as quintessential as Joe Abercrombie with Steven Pacey and Anthony Ryan with Steven Brand.
In my eyes, de Castell doesn’t miss, his writing is witty and fun which makes the banter between the characters, especially between Cade and Corrigan, over-the-top hilarious. It has a very Guardians of the Galaxy feel to it with a group of anti-heroes that always butt heads, but always find a way to have one another’s back when push comes to shove. It’s a mix of imperfect souls with differing personalities from different backgrounds. Plus it has a vampire kangaroo!
A common theme among his books is the main character’s 4th wall breaking to speak to the reader on a Deadpool-like manner. I love this because it lets the reader in on the fun. If it couldn’t get any better, de Castell decided to add in a crossover of his Spellslinger series to show inter-connecting worlds. Which begs the question, will we see a crossover with The Greatcoats or Court of Shadows in a future installment? For the love of all that’s holy, do it Sebastien!
“Not all lies are meant to deceive others.
Sometimes the most important lies are the ones we tell ourselves.”
I absolutely love these characters, as I said in my review of book 1 and again up above, Cade is the glue, but Corrigan is the magic because he has a scene stealing flare, no matter who he is in a scene with. But the addition of the Temper the vampire kangaroo put this over the top, by a mile. He reminds me a lot of Groot, with his one particular phrase that he delivers in certain ways that only Corrigan, like Rocket Racoon, understands. The addition of Eliva’ren adds a new dimension to the story as well as a little romance subplot, the kind I like, the kind that happens off-screen. The other group members like Galass, Aradeus, Shame & Alice take a bit of a backseat as secondary characters that are always there. They have their moments, but far less than the others
I will admit that there is a somewhat lack of character development in the story, but I feel that is due to the characters already being who they are. It’s not that there isn’t room to grow, but that they don’t really need that growth you would expect in a sequel, because that’s not who they are. Once I had that epiphany, the lack of development no longer mattered to me.
If you’re down for crude humor, fun characters that remind you of Guardians of the Galaxy, then prepare for belly laughs and a good time. As a fan of Joe Jameson, I highly recommend the audiobook or like I did, the whispersync version to follow along and listen. This is my favorite read of 2025 now and it’ll be tough to beat.
Wolfmantula.com 