Seven Devils – Book Review

Hello friends! Welcome to my Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May Book Review! I’m a big fan of sci-fi books, and this cover just had me falling in love with the book. Let’s get into it!

{You might also like – How To Annotate Books}

Title: Seven Devils

Author: Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, New Adult

Content Warnings: Loss of a limb, death/murder, disease, mutilation

Format: eARC

Publisher: DAW

Date Published: August 4th 2020

Goodreads Description: When Eris faked her death, she thought she had left her old life as the heir to the galaxy’s most ruthless empire behind. But her recruitment by the Novantaen Resistance, an organization opposed to the empire’s voracious expansion, throws her right back into the fray.

Eris has been assigned a new mission: to infiltrate a spaceship ferrying deadly cargo and return the intelligence gathered to the Resistance. But her partner for the mission, mechanic and hotshot pilot Cloelia, bears an old grudge against Eris, making an already difficult infiltration even more complicated.

When they find the ship, they discover more than they bargained for: three fugitives with firsthand knowledge of the corrupt empire’s inner workings.

Together, these women possess the knowledge and capabilities to bring the empire to its knees. But the clock is ticking: the new heir to the empire plans to disrupt a peace summit with the only remaining alien empire, ensuring the empire’s continued expansion. If they can find a way to stop him, they will save the galaxy. If they can’t, millions may die.

I received a review copy from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Review

I was surprised by the CAWPILE rating of this book. I was sure it would be a 4 star, but now that I think about it, 3 stars are appropriate. Let’s get into it!

Characters

We follow the POV of multiple characters in this one, but the book starts off with Clo and Eris’ perspectives. I really enjoyed the relationship dynamics between the characters and this is most definitely a character-driven book.

We get a lot of flashbacks and character building, and I really enjoy books where I get to know characters in-depth. However, even though we had a lot of character study, I felt very disconnected from the characters. I didn’t really root for them until the last part of the book. They’re all very interesting characters and I love their stories, I was just disconnected. And once again it’s because I’m soulless.

Characters = 8

Atmosphere

A good sci-fi book needs excellent worldbuilding and atmosphere. I enjoyed the worldbuilding, but I was confused for big parts of the book and we don’t spend enough time on one planet to get to know the surroundings.

My favourite parts of the book happened while the characters were on board their ship, and a few “normal” scenes between them really endeared me to the story and characters.

I also really enjoyed the technology used in the book, or rather the technology that was created for the book. The Oracle is a really interesting “character”/entity in the book and I can’t wait to read what happens in the sequel.

Atmosphere = 7

Writing

The writing was really beautiful and really pulled me into the book. Unfortunately, the eARC I read was not formatted correctly, so it was slightly difficult to read from time to time as the words were all over the pages. However, that is no fault of the author, so I didn’t penalise the book for it.

Writing = 7

Plot

The plot was kinda your typical sci-fi adventure. It really lagged in the middle due to the amount of character building we got. Most of the main plot happens in the last 40% of the book and I felt like we could have gotten there a lot faster.

Apart from the pacing, there’s nothing really wrong with the story. It’s average, and I think I’ll likely forget the plot in a few months. But I might just be really tired of reading fantasy/sci-fi books, and it’s impacting the way I read books.

Plot = 7

Intrigue

As I said, I might be tired of SFF. I’ve seen these plots before, I’ve seen these characters before, and there was nothing that really stood out for me. The last part of the book really picked up and I really enjoyed it, but I had to weigh it against struggling through the first part.

Intrigue = 6

Logic

I was really confused about what the difference between One and Oracle is, but apart from that everything in this book made complete sense. Lam and May have created some truly fascinating cultures and very real conflicts, and that’s what makes this book enjoyable.

Logic = 7

Enjoyment

Overall I just felt this book was really average. Then the last part of the book kinda saved it, which is why I initially thought this book would get four stars. I did enjoy it, it just didn’t stand out like other sci-fi books I’ve read.

Enjoyment = 6

CAWPILE = 6.8

This is a very high 3-star rating (as 4-star ratings = 7/10 on the CAWPILE scale), so I decided to rate it 3.5 stars.

Let me know your thoughts on Seven Devils (book review).

Pin This!

+3

0