Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy.  I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings.  Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them.  In this week’s Waiting on Wednesday, I highlight an awesome upcoming fantasy novel that is sure to be a real blast, The Maleficent Seven by Cameron Johnston.

Cameron Johnston is a fantastic dark fantasy author who came onto the scene a couple of years ago and made an immediate impression on me.  Johnston’s first novel was the remarkably cool 2018 release, The Traitor God, which followed a dangerous wizard as he returned to his home city to find and exact bloody revenge on the people who killed his friend.  This was an awesome and clever book, and I absolutely loved the intense and epic fantasy story that Johnston produced in this debut.  The author followed up this excellent first novel with God of Broken Things, which served as an outstanding sequel to The Traitor God and ended up being one of my favourite releases of 2019.  Due to how much fun I had reading his first two novels, I have been keeping an eye out for any additional releases from Johnston and I was quite excited when I heard about The Maleficent Seven.

The Maleficent Seven is a fun and exciting-sounding upcoming fantasy novel that has the potential to be one of the most entertaining reads of 2021.  Currently set to be released on 10 August 2021, The Maleficent Seven has an awesome-sounding story that sees seven of the most dangerous villains in the world become the last hope of a besieged town.

Synopsis:

When you are all out of heroes, all that’s left are the villains.

Seven bloodthirsty monsters. One town. Their last hope.

Ok, so there is no way that I am not going to enjoy this fantastic upcoming book.  I absolutely love, love, love the idea of a warped Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven story, where some of the absolute worst fantasy villains come together to fight an even greater threat and defend a small innocent town.  This narrative has so much potential for intense action sequences, fantastic character interactions and cool magical fights, and I am really looking forward to seeing all the chaos unfold.

I am also excited to see what sort of complex characters Johnston comes up with in The Maleficent Seven.  One of the best things about the author’s first two novels was the amazing antihero that served as the series’ protagonist.  I always thought that Johnston did an amazing job crafting a complex and conflicted mage with powerful and unethical mind magic in these previous novels, and I am really intrigued to see what he does with the titular seven protagonists of his next book.  All of the seven sound pretty cool already and I love the fun blend of villain archetypes mentioned in the summary.  Johnston will no doubt dive into each of these characters, especially their leader, Black Herran, examining their pasts, personalities and motivations, and I am anticipating that he will come up with some really fascinating and deep characters here.  I am particularly intrigued to see what event stopped Black Herran’s initial invasion all those years previously, as well as what drives her to get back in action and fight to defend a town.  No doubt there will also be some impressive and deadly drama as these seven characters are reunited for the first time in years, and I am anticipated so many awesome sequences between them.

The Maleficent Seven by Cameron Johnston looks set to be an incredible and exceptionally entertaining dark fantasy read and I am extremely keen to see it come out.  The story hinted at in the summary has so much potential for awesomeness, and I already know that I am going to have an outstanding time getting through it.  This has all the markings of a spectacular read and I have some very high hopes for The Maleficent Seven.