Maleficent Seven by Cameron Johnston review

    THE MALEFICENT SEVEN by Cameron Johnston is another take on the classic Kurosawa tale of The Seven Samurai. It is a story much imitated but rarely improved upon. This is because the original story is incredibly simple, seven warriors protect a village from a much larger force, but has layers of nuance that are frequently lost. In this case, Cameron Johnson has the idea of seven fantasy villains being assembled to defend a village from a self-styled champion of righteousness. In this way, he's actually more accurate to the original story: in The Seven Samurai, Kurosawa is quite clear the Seven aren't great people and the primary reason they're fighting for the villagers is because that's what samurai do.

    Is it any good? Oh yes, I think this is one of the easiest breeziest reads I've had in the past ten years aside from Legends and Lattes or Orconomics. I finished it in a single day and it was enjoyable from beginning to end. While it's hardly great praise to say it's better than Rebel Moon's take on The Seven Samurai, it's probably one of the better adaptations of the concept overall. Each of the characters is interesting and distinct in their own way as well as possessing their own motivations for participating in the town's "defense." The fact they all hate each other and there almost certainly will be betrayals is something that adds a layer of tension as well.

    The premise is that Black Herran abandoned her armies and plans for world-conquest on the eve of her total victory. This left her lieutenants to fall into in-fighting and despair, resulting in her armies being defeated. Forty years later, a new power has arisen in the Lucent Empire that led by the mysterious Falcon Prince. The Falcon Prince isn't like Herran in that he wears his evil on his shirt. No, he's an old fashioned religious bigot and totalitarian conqueror. All will be converted to the Goddess and obey the Empire or die.

    Black Herran has lived a comfortable retirement as a mother and then grandmother in her tiny village until the realization that her home is right in the path of the Falcon Prince. Going out to recruit her lieutenants, she has to: 1. Convince them not to kill her. 2. Participate in the defense of her village. This is easier said than done since several of her former companions have fallen on hard times and (justifiably) blame her for their situation. On the plus side, they're evil and corruptible, which means that it's easier to convince them on anything but ideological grounds.

    I define The Maleficent Seven as grimdark but I should clarify what I mean by that definition: something so absurdly dark that it becomes unintentionally funny. This is is a world where the theocratic fascists are so dangerous that a bunch of card-carrying absurdly evil villains are the lesser evil. A necromancer, a orc warlord, a pirate queen, a vampire lord, a demigod, and a mad alchemist are all horrible in their own way but intriguing. We just know they're a lot more "fun" evil than the kinds of people that make up the Lucent Empire that are far more true to life villains. There's no heroes in this world, Herran killed them all, but there's plenty of entertaining characters.

    In conclusion, this is a fantastic and fun book. It's dark in its themes and pretty gory in places but the absurdist black humor takes a lot of the sting out. Sometimes you see some character redemption arcs for characters, only to have a character do something utterly detestable (but hilarious). Also, who is going to mourn a bunch of conquering religious fanatics? Not me. Definitely recommended.

Available here