Her magic was stolen. She was left for dead.

Betrayed by those she trusts most and her magic ripped from her, all Sal the Cacophony has left is her name, her story, and the weapon she used to carve both. But she has a will stronger than magic, and knows exactly where to go.

The Scar, a land torn between powerful empires, where rogue mages go to disappear, disgraced soldiers go to die and Sal went with a blade, a gun, and a list of seven names.

Revenge will be its own reward.

You may remember me blathering on recently about how lately, I seem to be reading a lot of Book Ones to new trilogies/series from authors who have quite a bit of previously published work.

And here we are again.

I’ve got the first two books of Sam Sykes’s Bring Down Heaven trilogy sitting on my shelf, along with the omnibus edition of his Aeon’s Gate trilogy (which is probably the most outrageously chunky book I’ve ever owned). But I just haven’t made the time to start either of those trilogies yet…the endless TBR struggle & all…

Of course I leapt at the opportunity to read Seven Blades in Black, the start of his new series, The Grave of Empires. As soon as I saw the incredibly striking & unique cover (art by Jeremy Wilson, design by Lauren Panepinto) I was excited!

And in Sam Sykes’s own words:

“it is a book about a surly young woman with tattoos who rides a giant bird and fights wizards with a gun that shoots magic

yeah.”

So this is exactly my kind of shit.

This is the story of Sal the Cacophony. When we meet her, she’s in manacles, being interrogated, and slated for execution. Sal is what’s known as a Vagrant. There’s two sides to an ongoing conflict: the Imperium, and the Revolutionaries. And then there are those…in between. Sal’s being interrogated by Governor-Militant Tretta Stern, and being asked to answer not just for her crimes, but to provide Tretta with the whereabouts of Cavric, a Revolutionary solider that Sal had kinda-sorta befriended before being captured.

The bulk of the story is told in first-person, as Sal tells Tretta her story. Which is nothing short of a blood-drenched, rage-fueled mission of revenge. Sal is a former mage, and she’s got a list of mages she plans to kill. Her brutal backstory, and the reason for her mission, is slowly teased out over the course of the novel. So we know that Sal is incredibly driven to exact bloody revenge on this list of people, but the why of it is one of the book’s great mysteries.

Sal is…impetuous. To say the very least. She’s very sure of herself in any situation, and even though she’s given to bits of self-deprecation, she’s confident in her ability to get shit done. Sal is a whirlwind of emotion, but has a hard time properly expressing herself (relatable af), which leads to a lot of instability in her life.

Especially where Liette is concerned. Liette is a Freemaker, and someone Sal relies on for a great deal. Liette makes the bullets for Sal’s magical gun, the Cacophony. The two have a lot of history together, and seem totally made for one another (in an opposites attract kind of way) but have had trouble making it really work. Mostly due to Sal’s insatiable appetite for revenge.

Oh, and Liette is a massive book nerd. Which, fuck…that’s always such a cool thing in a book, I think. That character who is as obsessed with books as we all are…oof.

Seven Blades in Black is over 650 pages, so there is a lot to take in. I never felt seriously overwhelmed by anything, and the story is so tightly focused on Sal. We do get little snippets of what all the different types of mages (and there’s quite a lot) are capable of as Sal battles her way through the world. There’s great bits of world building all throughout the book, and we really get a sense for how damaged much of this world is. Fucking hell, parts of it border on post-apocalyptic. The action in this book is INTENSE, and there’s also some super gnarly, skin-splitting, drippy horror elements as well.

Sam Sykes has given us a remarkable protagonist…I just fucking loved Sal from the moment I met her. She’s angry, she’s foul mouthed, loves whiskey (she’s not unlike Miriam Black in some regards), and is completely out of fucks to give. She’s a character that feels so much, and feels it so intensely, but again, can’t always find the right ways to express that.

It’s also worth mentioning that Sykes is DEEPLY unkind to this character…Sal gets fucking brutalized, time & time again. But just keeps on going with a fiery intensity.

I loved this book so goddamn much. I’m so glad to have finally read one of Sam Sykes’s books! I’ve followed him on Twitter for a number of years, and for more reasons than I’ll get into now, he’s one of the things I enjoy most about it. For real, if you are on Twitter & not following Sam, do that. In fact, I think it’s worth joining Twitter for that specific reason. He’s incredibly passionate about a great many things, from storytelling, to art, to games, and to fucking with Myke Cole relentlessly. He’s an incredibly gifted storyteller, and that passion shines really bright in Seven Blades in Black. A fucking awesome start to a new trilogy!

Massive thank you to Orbit Books for sending me a copy!! Seven Blades in Black releases April 9th!