'The Seven: The Labyrinth Book 1' – Brian Keene

Before we get started, I need to make a couple of things clear. I'm a big fan of Brian Keene's work so while I'm aiming for a balanced review, I might not hit it. Also, I finished 'The Seven' a few days ago but held off posting anything because I enjoyed it so much that I needed to just stop and take a few deep breaths first.... Shit, what did I say about a balanced review...? Oh, well. Anyway... Consider yourself told ;o)

I've been reading Brian Keene's books for a number of years now and the whole way through, the Labyrinth mythos has loomed large over everything. It is quite literally the glue that holds this shared universe together but it has always kept a place in the background (and rightly so) where it has been something to speculate over but not know an awful lot about. Until now that is (unless you're a Patreon subscriber that is, you guys have a head start on the rest of us). There's a war on and it's time for certain of us to stand up and fight...

The Labyrinth — an interconnected mythos that binds all of Brian Keene’s works together.

The Labyrinth — an interdimensional construct that binds all of reality together.

Now, the Labyrinth is threatened. A group of malevolent cosmic entities known as The Thirteen have been loosed upon the universe. Ob, Leviathan, Behemoth, Nodens, Meeble, Shtar, Kandara and the rest of their kind have one goal — the complete destruction of all Creation. Seven unlikely warriors from across time and space have been called upon to stop them. If they fail, reality itself will crumble. And the collapse has already begun…

With my life being the way it is these days, it's a rare book indeed where I will actively exclude everything else so I can just sit down and read. 'The Seven' is one of those books, a book that just grabbed and held my attention from the first chapter right through to the end. One of those books where you surface, at the end, and realise that lunchtime has been and gone and you missed it because you were somewhere else. It was a book, for me, that I finished and couldn't imagine what I'd read next; I'd had a glimpse of what Keene had been building up to (all these years) and got to walk that road a little, it is epic in scope and bodes extremely well for the books to come.

Reading 'The Seven' feels like coming home and picking up with friends that you haven't seen in a long time. And that's exactly what it is, Keene has written any number of memorable characters over the years and 'The Seven' reintroduces you to a cast that I'd lay money on has at least one of your favourites in it. No, not that one (they have another battle to fight) but three favourites of mine made the cut along with one that I never expected to see. And I'm loving the fact that while each person brings something to the team, it's the number that's most important. I think there's going to be some interesting stuff happen with that.

Having read that last paragraph back, I think that now is a good time to say that while you could read 'The Seven' without prior knowledge of Keene's earlier works (there is some background but not loads), it works a lot better if you've read a few, it won't change the story at all but you won't be able to stop saying 'oh that's …. from …' There's a reading list Here that will help you out.

Either way, you'll enjoy 'The Seven' with it's glimpse into the Labyrinth and the absolute hell on Earth that happens every time the team steps through one of the doors to get shit done. There is something for everyone here and the dial is turned up appropriately high given what is at stake. This also means that when the team face one of the Thirteen, the resulting fight is what you'd expect. Honestly, it's like watching the battle at the end of 'Avengers: Endgame' but the villain has no redeeming features whatsoever (and to be fair, the Seven aren't exactly squeaky clean themselves).

And then it all comes to an end and I want more, I might have to see about subscribing to the Patreon page (just need to get to payday first, I can re-read 'The Seven' in the meantime). You can probably tell how I felt about 'The Seven' but on the off chance that you didn't... Fans of Brian Keene are all over this book already but if you aren't then you should be. Do something about it right now, I promise you won't regret it. 'The Seven' was everything that I'd been hoping for, plus a whole load extra. Highly recommended by me.