Ragtag ‘wonderists’ activate!
The Malevolent Eight
by Sebastien de Castell
New York: Hachette Mobius, 2025
$36.00 / 9781529440911
Reviewed by Myshara McMyn
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Where I grew up, everyone in my family read a different sub-genre of fantasy. My dad read high fantasy with brilliant displays of magic and heroism and my mom read fantasy with more romance than magic. My grandpa, meanwhile, read what I would classify as comedic fantasy. Piers Anthony was his favourite, alongside Terry Pratchett. Their “punny” natures kept him enthralled throughout the lengthy Discworld and Xanth series.
The Malevolent Eight, following 2023’s The Malevolent Seven, proves that a sequel has that same ability to capture a reader’s mind. It’s written in a humorous tone that draws the reader’s attention quickly from the first page. Even when it discusses the unique magic system, the comedic elements keep things light and easy to follow. Many young adult readers will enjoy the mix of high fantasy elements and accessible language used by the author with his comedic tone.
Speaking of the magic system, I was blown away by the intuitiveness of its creation. Vancouver-based Sebastien de Castell describes a multi-dimensional, portal-based way of bringing different powers into this world. When a “wonderist” (a wizard in de Castell’s world) accesses their power, the realm they are attuned to opens and allows them to pull the pure magic into their world. The openings between realms are not visible, allowing for the “wonder” to show through—those who don’t know how wonderist magic works would believe that all those magics originated in one world.
The Malevolent Eight continues on shortly after the first book ends, with Cade and his fellow wonderists traveling through their newly invaded world with their new companion—a vampire kangaroo. The Malevolent Seven, as they call themselves, have taken up the job to fight against the two factions that have invaded their world: The Lords Celestine and The Lords Devilish. Uncaring about the mortals of the realm, and using them as cannon fodder against each other, these Lords are waging a prophesied war that is quickly destroying the realm they wish to rule.
Cade Owen and the rest of the Seven are doing everything they can to fight the factions they come across, but Cade knows it’s futile unless they pull out their trump card: the mysterious attunement that Cade took on at the end of the first book. He hides it from everyone, including the reader, in order to remain as unpredictable as possible. Oh, and who knew the vampire kangaroo would be so crucial to Cade’s plan of saving the world?
Another obstacle in their way is a female mage with a strange attunement that they refer to as ‘destiny magic.’ She has the ability to bring a person or place’s destiny backwards in time to the present. This leads to quite a few deaths, as expected. Her character was beautifully built in that she didn’t want to be working against the Seven and because of her hidden motivations.
The Lords Celestine are described like angels, while the Lords Devilish are demonic. The theme of good versus evil permeates the story, but Cade is the perfect narrator to explain the truth: good is not good, and evil is not evil. Though, what is right and what is wrong if your moral compass doesn’t use good and evil as base lines? How do you know that you’ve crossed a line? Fortunately for his world, Cade knows how to navigate morality to find his own truth.
There are quite a few scenes of torture that I would like to give a brief warning of, since they contain quite a bit of body horror that might discomfort some readers. It was much more creative than torture usually is, yet not for the faint of stomach. There is also a lot of foul language included, and though it matched the tone of the novel, it also merits mentioning.
Entranced is not a good enough descriptor for how it felt to read The Malevolent Eight. It felt like I physically couldn’t put it down–which ended up with me finishing the book before realizing the night had completely passed me by. My only qualm with this book was that it had to end.
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Myshara McMyn is a marketing coordinator, social media manager, and aspiring writer in the Shuswap. She runs the blog Lit&Leta. She spends her time teaching Dungeons and Dragons, reading as much as she can, and helping out on her family’s farm. She holds a BA in English and Creative Writing. [Editor’s note: Myshara has reviewed recent books by Judith Lepore, Courtney Shepard, Kate Gateley, Elle Tesch, Jae Waller, Kate Gateley, and S.M. Freedman for BCR.]
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The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors: Trevor Marc Hughes (nonfiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
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