Seven Blades in Black

By: Sam Sykes

Narrated by: Daisy-May Parsons

Length: 20 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Acclaimed author Sam Sykes returns with a brilliant new epic fantasy that introduces an unforgettable outcast mage caught between two warring empires.

Her magic was stolen. She was left for dead.

Betrayed 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. But she has a will stronger than magic and knows exactly where to go.

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.

Revenge will be its own reward.

For more from Sam Sykes, check out:

The Affinity for Steel Trilogy

• Tome of the Undergates
• Black Halo
• The Skybound Sea

Bring Down Heaven

• The City Stained Red
• The Mortal Tally
• God's Last Breath

©2019 Sam Sykes (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"With skillful worldbuilding, unexpected humor, and characters real enough to touch, this is easily Sykes's best book to date."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Sykes is a master at taking familiar elements of fantasy and stirring them to a wicked, wholly original churn. In Sal the Cacophony, Sykes has crafted a protagonist for the ages. Ludicrous, wicked, delightful."—Pierce Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Red Rising

"Seven Blades in Black offers villains that are as memorable and unique as the heroes. Action, magic, romance and humor mingle well in this mammoth tale. It's an immersive read in a well realized world."—Robin Hobb, New York Times bestselling author of Fool's Assassin

Entertaining and Engaging

It's good fun and has a gripping story. The narrator is also incredible. Looking forward to a sequel!

Read this!

A truly fantastic tale, told in a truly fantastic way. Love the story and the entire concept.

Need audio editor

Okay so I like the book. It’s weird and interesting and I like the voice of the narrator she really makes the story BUT I want to know why this wasn’t edited!?!? There are bunch of stupid reading errors and mispronounced words. For example the narrator repeated says “incarcerated” when she means “incinerated”. She pronounces the word debris as “deBRIS” instead of “Debree”. Maybe it’s just me but I found it irritating especially as it seemed like something that could and should have easily been corrected. I have recently found more and more errors like this. Is audible trying to get books out so fast they can’t edit them?!?

Great into into a new fantasy world

I highly recommend this book. The story is gripping. And while it took me a bit to become invested in the world, the characters are what really drive the narrative. Sal is a wonderful protagonist, complex and broken, but impossible not to love. The narration by Daisy May is top notch. Her voice is perfect for many of the scathing lines that are dripping in sarcasm. Again if you're on the fence, take the leap and become a vagrant!

The characters feel real

I loved the story, and thought that the narrator did an excellent job. She brought a lot of emotion to the performance. 5/5 stars indeed! I only wish the next book in the series were ready right now! The ending left me wanting more!

What a story

Sal the Cacophony is one tough mage.

Its hard to describe this story, it has magic, violence, revenge, love, and some odd bonding. It was like listening to an JRPG that I would love to play. There are even a kind of chocobo that one could ride. The story does meander quite a bit. There are details about the details but it doesnt take away from the overall story.

The narrater was ok, the only issue I had was that it was hard sometimes to keep up with who was talking. It was almost like it was the same person speaking (or thinking) as there was very little change of tone for any of the characters. The mc, the men, the women, it was almost all the same. I mention this only because its a 21 hour book so one needs to be prepared.

GREAT Read!

I gotta say, I absolutely fell in love with Sal. I love her character and I love her story and I think I would die of happiness if this ever got made into a graphic novel or a movie. I loved the characters and the plot and when I found out it's the first in a series, I McFreaking Lost It. I'm so excited for the sequel and I am officially completely emotionally invested.

This is a fantastic book and a great listen if you speed up the narrator and ignore the odd mispronounciations and inappropriately timed gaps in sentences. I feel like the reader didn't quite do this book justice, but it's completely worth it to listen through anyway!

Took a long time to get interesting but as a whole, good book

I really liked the storyS a whole. However I had to force myself to keep listening in the beginning. I’d heard good things about the book and I got the recommendation from one of my favorite authors: Diana Gabaldon so I wanted to give it a chance and I’m glad I did. It gets a lot bette. So much so, I’m about to order the second book!

When you see it

I was going to give the story a 4 instead of 5 because the scenes were often overly dramatic and the main character so stereotypical bad-ass. Then I noticed it was only when she was the narrator and it all made sense and added to the enjoyment. The narrator deserves all the awards too.

Perfect Blend of Rule-of-Cool and Character Study

There's a small, greedy part of me that wants to never tell a soul about Sam Sykes, because I want to use all his ideas in my DnD campaigns.

Sam is an author who I consider to be part of a newer wave in fantasy - he doesn't play to the cliché of Tolkienesque elves and dwarves, of not-so-subtle colonialism that has echoed through the genre for decades. Neither does he play to the supertrend of GRIMDARK, begging to outdo the tragedies of Martin or Abercrombie.

Sam's work reliably focuses on three things: characters with deep personal problems. A grinning disregard for propriety. And perhaps most importantly, an eagerness to ask, "What if?" purely for the fun of it. Something I think writers of both the aforementioned types of fantasy would do well to reexamine.

Seven Blades in Black does exactly that, by starting with a very simple one: "What if we mashed together Kill Bill, Trigun, and Final Fantasy? Wouldn't that just take the piss?"

Sal the Cacophony's story is one immediately familiar thanks to riffing on these concepts, but through Sam's excellent world building and understanding of character becomes one very much her own. She is now one of my favorite characters of all time. Even when I hate her. Even when she hates herself.

All of this brought to vivid life by narrator Daisy May. I will admit that Daisy's heavier cockney accent made it difficult for me to understand for the first chapter or so, but damn if she isn't the best for this job. She IS the voice for Sal. I just want other potential listeners to know that it may take some getting used to early on. Some names sounded a bit to close for my ear since I hadn't personally seen the exact spelling (Galta and Calto especially come to mind, apologies if I've spelled those names wrong).

I rarely write full reviews as I always end up going on longer than I intend, but I hope that conveys to you how much I enjoyed this story and cant stand that I have to wait to read more.

See, Sam and me, he and I had a deal. He'd write the books and I'd read em, revenge for ruin. And no one will say that Kael McDonald doesn't keep his word.