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A review by wart
Seven Devils by Elizabeth May, L.R. Lam
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I received a free ARC via NetGalley
In Seven Devils, there is a ruthless empire, the Tholosian Empire. This empire controls its citizens with brainwashing and AI control via chips in their brains. The empire is ruled with precision and severity, the Emperor passing his title down only after his children have killed each other to the last two. This violence and cruelty echoes throughout the empire, its citizens grown in batches save the natural-borns who live chipless and downtrodden in slums below vast palaces.
In response to the empire's merciless rule, the Novantae resistance has risen up, led by Kyla and Sher, two former citizens of the empire. The resistance works to destabilize the Empire where it can while also rescuing and deprogramming defectors. Working for the resistance, Clo and Eris are sent on a mission to infiltrate a ship and gain intel on its cargo. But things go wrong almost immediately as they discover someone else has taken down the ship's crew, intending to hijack the ship for their own. And that is how Clo and Eris meet Rhea, Ariadne, and Nyx.
The three new additions to this crew are recent defectors from the empire. They team up with Clo and Eris as the mission changes. And keeps changing, because things often don't go according to plan when you're an underground resistance fighting against an immensely powerful empire that has mind control.
In the course of their mission, they uncover a deadly plot aimed at the Tholosians' oldest enemy, the Evoli, and they are in a race against time to stop it even as everything seems to be going wrong for them.
Seven Devils is an excellently crafted book. It's got a good pace but also gives the feeling of a real group being out in space, taking the time to make plans, reassessing as things go awry, while also being mindful of their time constraints. It ends on quite the cliffhanger and I am very much looking forward to the sequel.
In Seven Devils, there is a ruthless empire, the Tholosian Empire. This empire controls its citizens with brainwashing and AI control via chips in their brains. The empire is ruled with precision and severity, the Emperor passing his title down only after his children have killed each other to the last two. This violence and cruelty echoes throughout the empire, its citizens grown in batches save the natural-borns who live chipless and downtrodden in slums below vast palaces.
In response to the empire's merciless rule, the Novantae resistance has risen up, led by Kyla and Sher, two former citizens of the empire. The resistance works to destabilize the Empire where it can while also rescuing and deprogramming defectors. Working for the resistance, Clo and Eris are sent on a mission to infiltrate a ship and gain intel on its cargo. But things go wrong almost immediately as they discover someone else has taken down the ship's crew, intending to hijack the ship for their own. And that is how Clo and Eris meet Rhea, Ariadne, and Nyx.
The three new additions to this crew are recent defectors from the empire. They team up with Clo and Eris as the mission changes. And keeps changing, because things often don't go according to plan when you're an underground resistance fighting against an immensely powerful empire that has mind control.
In the course of their mission, they uncover a deadly plot aimed at the Tholosians' oldest enemy, the Evoli, and they are in a race against time to stop it even as everything seems to be going wrong for them.
Seven Devils is an excellently crafted book. It's got a good pace but also gives the feeling of a real group being out in space, taking the time to make plans, reassessing as things go awry, while also being mindful of their time constraints. It ends on quite the cliffhanger and I am very much looking forward to the sequel.