I have a confession to make. I’m not a huge fan of first person point of view (POV) novels. Why? I don’t really know, but third person perspective gets more of my attention. It could be programming from TV or the movies, but third person POV seems more cinematic and more honest. Inherently, first person POV is unreliable. By being in a human’s head, the reader views the story with the biases and filters of the narrator. Third person POV feels more like a history of the fictional events while first person feels more like an interpretation of said events. That said, one of my favorite series is Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. First person POV works best with an interesting character that maintains a unique and descriptive recording of events. Just as Harry’s running commentary is as essential to the story as his abilities, Sam Sykes’ newest character, Sal the Cacophony, entertains when talking about anything. She’s funny, highly competent, hyper-violent, and deeply hurt. Hell-bent on revenge, she races across the Scar pursuing bad ass wizards. Throughout Seven Blades in Black, Sal repeats over and over that she’s a liar. So, how much of her story is true?
TL;DR
Sam Sykes packed Seven Blades in Black with action, magic, and heart. Sal the Cacophony’s personal vendetta just may save the world. Highly Recommended.
From the Publisher
Acclaimed author Sam Sykes returns with a brilliant new epic fantasy that introduces an unforgettable outcast mage caught between two warring empires.
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.
Story
Sal the Cacophony, once an Imperial mage, now hunts rogue magic-users through the territory known as the Scar. Her raison d’etre is to visit revenge on those who took away her magic. Seven Blades in Black follows Sal’s pursuit of the names on her list. It’s also the opening book in a new trilogy set in a wonderful world. Her magic gun, The Cacophony, sets her on equal grounds as the mages she hunts. During her quest, she enlists the aid of a soldier with a conscience and an inventor/scholar who loves Sal. Her journey for revenge takes across the interesting landscape of the Scar from humble villages to war devastated ruins.
This new series combines fantasty with the western genre. Sal sports a gun, rides around on her trusty stead – a huge badass bird – and hunts magical bounty. It contains gun fights, battles with monsters, and a tragic love story. In short, Seven Blades in Black has it all.
World Building
The world of Seven Blades in Black contains multitudes. The setting of the story, the Scar, is equivalent to the Wild West, but the dominant political faction is the Revolution, a seeming communist/fascist regime built by ordinary people who are incapable of using magic without the aid of a relic. However, the Revolution excels at creating machines of war. Their enemy is the Imperium ruled over by an Empress, whose heir cannot use magic. Since the Empire’s entire caste system rests on the ability to use magic or not, some of the Imperium’s deadliest soldiers rebel and flee to the Scar. They turn Vagrant. This political dynamic is intriguing, though not explored much in this novel. One would think that the Revolution and the Vagrants could team up to overthrow the Empire, but Vagrants despise the non-mages of the Revolution, who see that the mages simply want to maintain the current caste system. Other factions make small but important appearances during Sal’s quest, and it’s clear there’s fertile ground for stories in this new universe.
The mages in the novel tend to specialize and are more like superheroes than just strict magic-users. In this world, magic has interesting costs that vary depending on discipline. The costs often resemble karmic payments. For instance, illusionists lose parts of their face. One characters has lost his ear lobes. Other magical users that create portals slowly become paralyzed. To balance out the magic, guns, tanks, and machines of war exist for the Revolution to combat the mages. Sal’s gun, the Cacophony, is a handgun often described with a malevolence that undercuts Sal’s heroics.
Unreliable Narrators
First person POV makes the narrative untrusthworthy, and the structure of this novel adds to that distrust. Sal starts the novel off in the custody of the Revolution, confessing her story before being executed. The interludes in the story’s present time are third person POV looking just over the garrison commander’s shoulder, but the real meat of the story takes place in Sal’s retelling of her journey across the Scar. By her very nature, Sal is considered an enemy of the Revolution. Facing her own execution, she’s telling her story, and naturally any person would emphasize the good and down play the bad. In addition, someone with authority issues is unlikely to be completely honest while in custody, and, finally, Sal repeats over and over that she is a liar. So, how much of her tale is true?
A few chapters in I began to see a resemblance to The Usual Suspects in the structure of the story. Alternating between the interrogation and the tale worked for me. Sal’s story isn’t a happy one, and during her retelling, she doesn’t pull punches. Sal refuses to paint herself in a favorable light, and this makes me want to believe her. However, she repeats over and over again how she is a liar and manipulator; so, I constantly wondered how she was manipulating me. There exist many ways to lie rather than telling outright falsehoods. Lies by omission, lies by half truths, letting the audience draw the wrong conclusion are potential tools for the skilled liar, and throughout I wondered which Sal applied while wanting to believe her. I couldn’t trust her. Even having finished the novel, I continue to wonder which parts of her story were true. And most curious of all, did she embellish the emotional damage that she dished out along the way?
Criticisms
Like other books by Mr. Sykes, Seven Blades in Black has an impressive page count. It’s a long novel. So, it may seem like a strange complaint, but parts of the world weren’t explored enough. We see a little of the larger world, and some significant things, like the disciples of the Seeing God, show up make a big impression and then are never to be heard from again. The Husks are an amazing setting, ripe for exploration that hopefully will come in future novels. This is another pitfall of first person POV novels. The reader sees what the narrator finds interesting, cares about, or even just knows. When an author sets up something really cool and then never revisits that cool thing, it feels like a missed opportunity. I kept waiting for a certain faction to reappear as either a wild card or unexpected ally to Sal’s foes. Sadly, neither happened. On the positive side, the larger world hooked me, and I’m on board for further exploration of this world.
Conclusion
Sam Sykes Seven Blades in Black sizzles. Sorry, but I had to run with the alliteration. This book worked for me on all levels, the language, the setting, the plot, and, most importantly, the characters. 600+ pages flew by as I wondered how Sal would escape the executioner and whether she’d ever realize all the good that she pushed out of her life. Seven Blades in Black is just plain fun. It’s intense. It’s emotional, and it’s worth your time.