Comic, Camp and Creepy: The Maleficent Seven by Cameron Johnston

It is not often that I am seduced into requesting a book based on its cover. In fact very recently I have criticised a book because the cover failed to live up to the narrative inside. But in the case of this book I admit I was seduced both by the title, I have a fetish for the number seven, The Seventh Seal and The Seven Samurai are among my most favourite movies, and the cover, I just knew I had to have it.

Do I regret this weakness? Not a bit. This was a good book, in a very rare form of fantasy, should we call it brutalist comedy? Or comic brutality? Anyway, a form of fantasy that it must be incredibly difficult to write; something that makes you laugh and cringe at the same time... 

One of the things that from the beginning that got this crone's seal of approval is that four of the seven are female, including the leader, the shifty demonologist. The other female characters are the necromancer, the pirate Queen and the orc (I mean the sex doth not the orc make, does it? And an orc in either sex would be as brutish). The male characters are the vampire, who is black (another break with the genre), the former war God and the MAD MAD alchemist, who no one likes. In fact the maleficent seven are truly maleficent, and they don't like each other very much at all. 

Now this may be one of the issues with the book, if you have a bunch of characters who are fundamentally evil and all betraying and backstabbing each other as well as the supposed goodies, it is difficult to find a sympathetic focus within the story. I never particularly found one, I think perhaps overall the characters most sympathetic to me was the vampire followed by the God. This is not much of a problem for somebody like myself, I mean I like Succession for God's sake, so I don't necessarily need an appealing character within the story to enjoy it, but it does help, and many people do.

However, the presumptive goodies are even worse. Whereas the maleficents all have their own respective ruthless personalities at least they seem to tolerate individuality, the goodies are Taliban level fanatics, using the justification of a religion based on beauty to repress, massacre and enslave the populace.

One of the main strengths of this novel is the plotting, which is pretty faultless, very much like The Seven Samurai, it is based on defending the demonologist's village from the fanatics. The world building is also extremely accomplished.

One weakness I perceived was the dialogue, I found it a bit stultifying, a bit slow, it should have flown freer it should have been funnier... I can't help but think that the author missed an opportunity here.

Would I recommend The Maleficent Seven to a friend? Yes, I definitely would, but only to that rather special friend with whom I share a tough stomach and a twisted sense of humour...