Seven Devils

Seven Devils is a feminist space opera written by 2 Californian emigrants living in Scotland. It’s a surprisingly chonky novel — while it’s difficult to judge a book’s length on a Kindle, this is definitely a good example of how the length and pacing of novels works better for TV than for film adaptations. It’s also a №5 Sunday Times Bestseller.

The acknowledgements section starts with the book’s origin story:

Seven Devils came about somewhat flippantly: Elizabeth had a dream that she and Laura wrote Mad Max: Fury Road in space. Laura said: “let’s do it!”

In an evil mind-controlling galaxy-spanning empire, we meet 2 freedom-fighters sent on a mission to infiltrate a ship carrying a deadly cargo and return the intelligence to the Resistance. But, as well as the 2 spies having History™, they find the ship harbours 3 fugitives with first-hand knowledge of the empire’s inner workings. All the protagonists are female, this is another queernorm reality and there’s a side-character providing trans representation that’s well-considered in how her identity fits in with the worldbuilding. Quoting the review on Nerds Like Me:

Lam and May have both been clear that this is a Very Gay Book. And it is! But it’s not just a Very Gay Book. There is a lot of representation in here. There’s a trans character, a disabled character, an autistic character, various characters from different ethnic groups, and a very cute WLW love story. The representation is all explicit, clearly signposted (nothing that could be hand-waved away or retconned in later), but also described as naturally as one would describe hair colour, unlaboured. Everything is given its place in the plot and story, and handled thoughtfully. How do these things impact the characters? The story?

In her mildly-spoileriffic review for Locus, Liz Bourke lives up to the “cranky” in her description and she’s right, Seven Devils does fail to think through all of its second-order effects — and the authors were up-front about that in a panel discussion for the Cymera Festival. But Bourke is also right with the list of things she enjoyed; May and Lam do indeed write a wonderfully-balanced tale, fleshing out the backstories of their band of misfits while they run several baited-breath-exciting missions in the hope of foiling the plans of the imperial heir.

Quoting May’s tweet that sold me on the book:

@_ElizabethMay
If you wished Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars had more murder, women, and sapphic moments, we wrote this for you. IF YOU WANT TO SEE ASSHOLE FASCISTS GET PUNCHED IN THE FACE, we wrote this for you ☺️❤️

I don't know how to rate this book, so I'm not going to.

Clo is a gifted mechanic who's tired of being kicked around. Eris is a soldier who's tired of killing. The Tholosian Empire is a merciless, brutal regime controlling half the galaxy – emphasis on the controlling. The Oracle is an AI that speaks directly to people's minds, telling them what to do, what to think, how to be. Clo and Eris are part of the resistance.

The universe-building in this story is phenomenal. The world the women inhabit is nothing like our own (on the surface at least). But it is intense. The world is exquisitely built – but it's a lot. There's so much to establish that it sometimes gets in the way of the story.

The characters – and there are five at the heart of this story – are all flawed, multi-dimensional, and wonderful.

The story is fascinating and intricate. Though, again, it sometimes gets lost in the world-building.

The pace is break-neck – except when it reverses to give the reader a view of the past. Expect literary whiplash.

The ending… What the frack is that? I get that the authors are setting up for a sequel – but I expect some things to be resolved. I expect each book to exist on its own, at least to a degree. To end the book just when absolutely everything that can possibly go wrong has seems cruel.