Seven Devils, by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May, is a character-driven feminist space opera in which a thrown-together collection of badass women put their differences aside to help an embattled resistance strike back against the powerful Tholosian Empire. Once firm friends before bitterness and anger drove a wedge between them, engineer Clo and soldier Eris reluctantly team up again for what should be a relatively straightforward mission, only for things to be complicated by a trio of Tholosian defectors. The information provided by Ariadne, Nyx and Rhea gives the mismatched group of rebels the chance to strike a powerful blow to the Empire and save countless lives in the process, but in order to succeed they’ll each have to confront the pain they suffered at Tholosian hands.
Plucky rebels fighting back against a powerful empire is a well-trodden path, but Lam and May use it to great effect with a really strong cast of characters, each of whom is linked in some way to the genuinely sinister Tholosian Empire. Even amidst all the dark, death-focused mythology the ever-present AI ‘One’ is particularly creepy, with its programming lurking in the minds of almost every citizen and ensuring unthinking, homogenised compliance which can only be broken with considerable (and painful) difficulty. As the cast grows from the initial pairing of Clo and Eris to its full complement of characters, by way of pacy space-hopping quests and undercover actions which inevitably don’t quite go to plan, it gradually becomes clear just how dangerous the Empire is and how much it’s hurt these characters. The galactic stakes are high, but the personal stakes are just as important.
The narrative is split across the five main viewpoint characters, broken up by flashbacks at carefully chosen points within the story exploring each of the rebels’ histories and the events that drove them to where they are now. Five POV characters is a lot, especially with the need to establish involved backstories – Eris’ being perhaps the most complex, as it also explores the various members of the Tholosian royal family (of which she was originally part) and the Archon’s merciless campaign of forcing his children to compete for his favour. If the pace ebbs and flows a little early on, it’s a price worth paying for the time it gives the authors to dig into the cost each character pays to be more than the roles assigned to them by the Empire. The end result is a story with multiple strong voices, Clo’s coming through particularly well with an entertaining line in snarky banter and satisfyingly foul language.
There’s plenty of action and excitement right from the off, with all sorts of technological marvels and high-stakes sneaking about as the group gradually bonds, but the strength of this story is the time that Lam and May take to explore their characters’ emotions, histories and past traumas so that the setbacks, betrayals, tragedies and victories hit home with real impact. For all the darkness, however, there’s an underlying tone of swashbuckling space adventure that keeps things from getting too heavy, and there are some genuinely beautiful moments too, including a wonderfully gentle romance between two key characters. All told, if you’re on the lookout for a smart sci-fi story with a compelling world, sharp dialogue, and a pacy, entertaining plot, featuring kickass women with well-described histories, motivations and development (not to mention queer representation), then look no further than Seven Devils. As it’s the first in a duology too, there’s the added bonus of more to look forward to!
Many thanks to Gollancz, Laura Lam and Elizabeth May for an advance copy of Seven Devils in exchange for an honest review.
