She’s very sure of herself in any situation, and even though she’s given to bits of self-deprecation, she’s confident in her ability to get shit done. So we know that Sal is incredibly driven to exact bloody revenge on this list of people, but the why of it is one of the book’s great mysteries. Her brutal backstory, and the reason for her mission, is slowly teased out over the course of the novel. Sal is a former mage, and she’s got a list of mages she plans to kill. Which is nothing short of a blood-drenched, rage-fueled mission of revenge. The bulk of the story is told in first-person, as Sal tells Tretta her story. Sal’s being interrogated by Governor-Militant Tretta Stern, and being asked to answer not just for her crimes, but to provide Tretta with the whereabouts of Cavric, a Revolutionary solider that Sal had kinda-sorta befriended before being captured. There’s two sides to an ongoing conflict: the Imperium, and the Revolutionaries.

When we meet her, she’s in manacles, being interrogated, and slated for execution. “it is a book about a surly young woman with tattoos who rides a giant bird and fights wizards with a gun that shoots magic As soon as I saw the incredibly striking & unique cover (art by Jeremy Wilson, design by Lauren Panepinto) I was excited! Of course I leapt at the opportunity to read Seven Blades in Black, the start of his new series, The Grave of Empires. But I just haven’t made the time to start either of those trilogies yet…the endless TBR struggle & all… I’ve got the first two books of Sam Sykes’s Bring Down Heaven trilogy sitting on my shelf, along with the omnibus edition of his Aeon’s Gate trilogy (which is probably the most outrageously chunky book I’ve ever owned). You may remember me blathering on recently about how lately, I seem to be reading a lot of Book Ones to new trilogies/series from authors who have quite a bit of previously published work. 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. But she has a will stronger than magic, and knows exactly where to go. She was left for dead.īetrayed 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.

Seven blades in black sam sykes