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Dark Lord Davi #1
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying
A hilarious fantasy adventure in which a young woman, who is stuck in a time loop, decides the best way to defend the kingdom from the Dark Lord is to become the Dark Lord herself.
Davi has done this all before. She's tried to be the hero and take down the all-powerful Dark Lord. A hundred times she's rallied humanity and made the final charge. But the time loop always gets her in the end. Sometimes she's killed quickly. Sometimes it takes a while. But she's been defeated every time.
This time? She's done being the hero and done being stuck in this endless time loop. If the Dark Lord always wins, then maybe that's who she needs to be. It's Davi's turn to play on the winning side.
Davi has done this all before. She's tried to be the hero and take down the all-powerful Dark Lord. A hundred times she's rallied humanity and made the final charge. But the time loop always gets her in the end. Sometimes she's killed quickly. Sometimes it takes a while. But she's been defeated every time.
This time? She's done being the hero and done being stuck in this endless time loop. If the Dark Lord always wins, then maybe that's who she needs to be. It's Davi's turn to play on the winning side.
432 pages, Paperback
First published May 21, 2024
2805 people are currently reading
40116 people want to read
About the author
Django Wexler
50 books3,693 followersDjango Wexler graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh with degrees in creative writing and computer science, and worked for the university in artificial intelligence research. Eventually he migrated to Microsoft in Seattle, where he now lives with two cats and a teetering mountain of books. When not planning Shadow Campaigns, he wrangles computers, paints tiny soldiers, and plays games of all sorts.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,993 reviews
April 29, 2024
Brilliant, action-packed, and hilarious. I always think that I don't care much for high fantasy, and then I read a book like this one and I'm reminded of how awesome it can be. In fact, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying might just be my new favorite high fantasy book ever, and I'm pretty sure that it has a top-25 place on my “favorite books of all time” list (if I had such a list, anyway, which I don't, but you get my drift).
I've seen other reviewers complain about the language and sex, and, yeah, if you're squeamish about such things this probably isn't the book for you. Have you seen Deadpool? Well, this book is absolutely nothing like it plot-wise, but that's the kind of humor and subject matter that we're talking about here. I thought it was amazeballs, but I can see how it wouldn't be for everyone.
Anyway, Davi and her minions are fantastic characters and I couldn't love them more. Davi is a little jaded after having been stuck in a Groundhog's Day-ish time loop for centuries, but who can blame her? She's also incredibly snarky and witty and resourceful, and actually pretty nice as far as Dark Lords-in-waiting go. Her minions are a diverse bunch – there are orcs and yetis and stone-eaters and all manner of humanoid animals (or wilders, as they're called in this book), and it's so much fun every time a new species is introduced into the story. The fox-wilder, Amitsugu, is perhaps my favorite character – he's complex and devious and absolutely adorable and I just want to give him some scritches behind his cute little witty bitty ears … *ahem*
And the world building? Fantastic. Davi and her horde travel through multiple strange and dangerous territories on their journey to the Convocation (where the new Dark Lord is chosen), and the author does an amazing job of fleshing out these lands and the creatures that live within.
My one complaint? The book ends on quite the cliffhanger and I am not a patient person – I need to know what happens now! Hopefully we won't have too long to wait for the next installment because this is definitely a series that I need to continue as soon as possible.
My overall rating: 4.85 stars, rounded up. If you enjoy witty and humorous fantasy novels with delightful characters (and, yeah, a lot of bad language and sex talk), this one just might be right up your alley.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review.
I've seen other reviewers complain about the language and sex, and, yeah, if you're squeamish about such things this probably isn't the book for you. Have you seen Deadpool? Well, this book is absolutely nothing like it plot-wise, but that's the kind of humor and subject matter that we're talking about here. I thought it was amazeballs, but I can see how it wouldn't be for everyone.
Anyway, Davi and her minions are fantastic characters and I couldn't love them more. Davi is a little jaded after having been stuck in a Groundhog's Day-ish time loop for centuries, but who can blame her? She's also incredibly snarky and witty and resourceful, and actually pretty nice as far as Dark Lords-in-waiting go. Her minions are a diverse bunch – there are orcs and yetis and stone-eaters and all manner of humanoid animals (or wilders, as they're called in this book), and it's so much fun every time a new species is introduced into the story. The fox-wilder, Amitsugu, is perhaps my favorite character – he's complex and devious and absolutely adorable and I just want to give him some scritches behind his cute little witty bitty ears … *ahem*
And the world building? Fantastic. Davi and her horde travel through multiple strange and dangerous territories on their journey to the Convocation (where the new Dark Lord is chosen), and the author does an amazing job of fleshing out these lands and the creatures that live within.
My one complaint? The book ends on quite the cliffhanger and I am not a patient person – I need to know what happens now! Hopefully we won't have too long to wait for the next installment because this is definitely a series that I need to continue as soon as possible.
My overall rating: 4.85 stars, rounded up. If you enjoy witty and humorous fantasy novels with delightful characters (and, yeah, a lot of bad language and sex talk), this one just might be right up your alley.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review.
January 11, 2025
Time loops, a woman dropped into a new environment with zero information, video game-esq quests, dark topics, and generalized horniness...yes I'll take another, thank you!
July 6, 2024
This book is my new personality. I loved everything about it from start to finish. Please give me more unhinged isakai books!
May 31, 2024
The book is out! I hope everyone enjoys.
May 23, 2024
*13% in*
"This feels like it's written by a man."
*checks*
"Yeah, it was written by a man."
Now that the release date is (unfortunately) creeping up on us, I will unleash my anger in this review.
For anyone curious, BISEXUAL WOMEN ARE NOT SEX-OBSESSED CREATURES THAT GROSSLY SEXUALIZES EVERY LIVING THING THEY COME ACROSS. No, no, please hold the applause. This is not rocket science. This is just common knowledge. I'm not even a bisexual for crying out loud. Just a human being who uses basic thinking skills!
Of course, learning that information would require Wexler to talk to a real woman. Based on this novel, I'm assuming he's never come across one in the wild. If he had, he would know we don't rate our bodies based on if someone would "swipe right on." 🤮 We leave that to creeps in high school that objectified us!
I knew from the opening scene this book was going to be a personal trial to get through. It opens up with our main character, Davi, being tortured to death. I do mean that literally. My first glimpse into personal hell was when she wondered what it would be like to "get head" from a snake creature, one of the creatures torturing her!
So yes.
Davi is annoying, insufferable, and the epitome of "I'm not like other girls," which is true since she's worse. The first thing we learn about characters from her POV is their sex appeal, and it's phrased in such demeaning ways. It made me feel so gross to read, genuinely. If I knew someone like Davi, I would throw hands. It's not okay in real life, and it's not alright in fiction, even if your character is a girl! Over-sexualization of anyone is gross and shouldn't be done and shouldn't be viewed as "humorous."
My main gripe with this book aside, I just was not entertained. The plot's not interesting, attention-grabbing, or worth the 528(!) pages of graphic violence. The violence was off-putting since it felt like violence for violence's sake. The detailed descriptions added nothing to the story except more of my time wasted. You can have battles and war on a page without being overt about the details. Because this book's violence was not used to show the depravity of man, the real cost of war, or the trauma violence can cause, it feels flippant and unnecessary.
Authors need to put down the footnotes! Heather Fawcett is the only person allowed to use them from now on. The footnotes added nothing of note or interest to an already tediously long novel.
I hope the arc I read was a rough draft that was accidentally sent into the world. I hope this novel underwent several rounds of editing and sensitivity readings. All I know is I wouldn't recommend this to my worst enemy!
Thank you Orbit Books and NetGalley for the advance copy. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
"This feels like it's written by a man."
*checks*
"Yeah, it was written by a man."
Now that the release date is (unfortunately) creeping up on us, I will unleash my anger in this review.
For anyone curious, BISEXUAL WOMEN ARE NOT SEX-OBSESSED CREATURES THAT GROSSLY SEXUALIZES EVERY LIVING THING THEY COME ACROSS. No, no, please hold the applause. This is not rocket science. This is just common knowledge. I'm not even a bisexual for crying out loud. Just a human being who uses basic thinking skills!
Of course, learning that information would require Wexler to talk to a real woman. Based on this novel, I'm assuming he's never come across one in the wild. If he had, he would know we don't rate our bodies based on if someone would "swipe right on." 🤮 We leave that to creeps in high school that objectified us!
I knew from the opening scene this book was going to be a personal trial to get through. It opens up with our main character, Davi, being tortured to death. I do mean that literally. My first glimpse into personal hell was when she wondered what it would be like to "get head" from a snake creature, one of the creatures torturing her!
So yes.
Davi is annoying, insufferable, and the epitome of "I'm not like other girls," which is true since she's worse. The first thing we learn about characters from her POV is their sex appeal, and it's phrased in such demeaning ways. It made me feel so gross to read, genuinely. If I knew someone like Davi, I would throw hands. It's not okay in real life, and it's not alright in fiction, even if your character is a girl! Over-sexualization of anyone is gross and shouldn't be done and shouldn't be viewed as "humorous."
My main gripe with this book aside, I just was not entertained. The plot's not interesting, attention-grabbing, or worth the 528(!) pages of graphic violence. The violence was off-putting since it felt like violence for violence's sake. The detailed descriptions added nothing to the story except more of my time wasted. You can have battles and war on a page without being overt about the details. Because this book's violence was not used to show the depravity of man, the real cost of war, or the trauma violence can cause, it feels flippant and unnecessary.
Authors need to put down the footnotes! Heather Fawcett is the only person allowed to use them from now on. The footnotes added nothing of note or interest to an already tediously long novel.
I hope the arc I read was a rough draft that was accidentally sent into the world. I hope this novel underwent several rounds of editing and sensitivity readings. All I know is I wouldn't recommend this to my worst enemy!
Thank you Orbit Books and NetGalley for the advance copy. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
July 6, 2024
9.29 on CAWPILE
May 21, 2025
You know that book you keep seeing and think you are never going to try? That was HtBtDLaDT. In fact, I shelved it under ‘possibly-unlikely.’ Nothing personal; I like Django Wexler’s writing, although he tends to be a bit more strategic and military focused than I care to read. Fantasy just hasn’t been my jam lately, and fantasy spoofs are generally even worse. But I hung on to it for just the right mood and found it extremely entertaining.
The premise is simple: she has been pulled into a fantasy world and welcomed by a court wizard as the savior of humanity. Unfortunately, like a sadistic Choose Your Own Adventure Book, no matter what she does, she ends up being killed by the Dark Lord or the minions. But like a twisted Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, she gets resurrected back to the beginning. After 200 plus lives, she’s a little tired of the pattern and wants something different.
“Well-meaning monarch tries reforms, runs into murderous blowback from elders and fundamentalists. Been there, done that, bought the pamphlet. There’s a reason I gave up on making myself ruler of the Kingdom a hundred lifetimes ago.”
There’s two big hurdles to enjoying this book, so mileage will certainly vary. The first is that there are multiple instances of torture, death, and somewhat glib references to rape and abuse.
“I caught her sneaking into camp,” Barlav says. I have negative feelings toward Barlav, thanks to him being the one who keeps killing me.”
The second is that Davi has a very flippant voice. Despite her multitude of lives, she has the voice of a rather brash, sexually adventurous teenager, equally sarcastic and bored.
“I don’t remember much about my life on Earth, but I’m pretty sure I was living someplace more like Florida than Canada. Florida’s the dangly dick-shaped one with the dinosaurs, right?”
Ok, maybe there are three possible hurdles: unlike Terry Pratchett’s writing, the humor here is often topical. I don’t know how it will fare in ten years, but right now it works.
“Yes, come and join the Modern Horde! Diversity is our strength! Diversity and stabbing!”
Still, despite the shenanigans, it actually develops a degree of emotional sophistication. I mean, we all knew it was going to happen since Davi was the type of person to try to save humanity. I almost started to wonder if Wexler is going for a kind of PTSD-dissociation kind of personality. It makes sense; you die enough times, you might start to get a little unhinged. Anyway, Divi does move beyond the mouthy teenager, and Wexler gets to put the sarcasm to work in different ways. One of the surprise stand-outs is the character Droff, a member of a stone-like race.
“’As the rock said, if we try to outrun him, we’ll starve in the mountains.’
There’s a moment of silence.
‘We call them stone-eaters,’ I say.
‘Droff may also be called Droff,’ Droff says.”
There’s a bit of fairly predictable angst when Davi realizes how much she is invested in this lifetime. I thought it was decently done, and speaks to the point above where maybe Davi is a bit too dissociated to be healthy.
Anyway, fun and re-readable. Will I read the second? Quite possibly. I have my suspicions on where this all is heading, but I certainly enjoyed the path Wexler had us following.
The premise is simple: she has been pulled into a fantasy world and welcomed by a court wizard as the savior of humanity. Unfortunately, like a sadistic Choose Your Own Adventure Book, no matter what she does, she ends up being killed by the Dark Lord or the minions. But like a twisted Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, she gets resurrected back to the beginning. After 200 plus lives, she’s a little tired of the pattern and wants something different.
“Well-meaning monarch tries reforms, runs into murderous blowback from elders and fundamentalists. Been there, done that, bought the pamphlet. There’s a reason I gave up on making myself ruler of the Kingdom a hundred lifetimes ago.”
There’s two big hurdles to enjoying this book, so mileage will certainly vary. The first is that there are multiple instances of torture, death, and somewhat glib references to rape and abuse.
“I caught her sneaking into camp,” Barlav says. I have negative feelings toward Barlav, thanks to him being the one who keeps killing me.”
The second is that Davi has a very flippant voice. Despite her multitude of lives, she has the voice of a rather brash, sexually adventurous teenager, equally sarcastic and bored.
“I don’t remember much about my life on Earth, but I’m pretty sure I was living someplace more like Florida than Canada. Florida’s the dangly dick-shaped one with the dinosaurs, right?”
Ok, maybe there are three possible hurdles: unlike Terry Pratchett’s writing, the humor here is often topical. I don’t know how it will fare in ten years, but right now it works.
“Yes, come and join the Modern Horde! Diversity is our strength! Diversity and stabbing!”
Still, despite the shenanigans, it actually develops a degree of emotional sophistication. I mean, we all knew it was going to happen since Davi was the type of person to try to save humanity. I almost started to wonder if Wexler is going for a kind of PTSD-dissociation kind of personality. It makes sense; you die enough times, you might start to get a little unhinged. Anyway, Divi does move beyond the mouthy teenager, and Wexler gets to put the sarcasm to work in different ways. One of the surprise stand-outs is the character Droff, a member of a stone-like race.
“’As the rock said, if we try to outrun him, we’ll starve in the mountains.’
There’s a moment of silence.
‘We call them stone-eaters,’ I say.
‘Droff may also be called Droff,’ Droff says.”
There’s a bit of fairly predictable angst when Davi realizes how much she is invested in this lifetime. I thought it was decently done, and speaks to the point above where maybe Davi is a bit too dissociated to be healthy.
Anyway, fun and re-readable. Will I read the second? Quite possibly. I have my suspicions on where this all is heading, but I certainly enjoyed the path Wexler had us following.
May 17, 2024
I could not pass on the promise of a funny fantasy book about a "normal" woman stuck on a Groundhog day loop, trying to become a dark lord.
I really wanted to love it, but I have some issues with this book.
First, the tone. Too much "modern", sassy & pop culture references for a character supposed to be stuck in a time loop on a fantasy world for the last thousand years.
Second, the MC herself. She really felt like a woman written by a man, and quickly became insufferable.
I liked the overall story, but felt disappointed and somehow annoyed.
I will not read the next book.
Thank you Netgalley and Orbit for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
I really wanted to love it, but I have some issues with this book.
First, the tone. Too much "modern", sassy & pop culture references for a character supposed to be stuck in a time loop on a fantasy world for the last thousand years.
Second, the MC herself. She really felt like a woman written by a man, and quickly became insufferable.
I liked the overall story, but felt disappointed and somehow annoyed.
I will not read the next book.
Thank you Netgalley and Orbit for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Read
February 7, 2024I’m so disappointed. The description of this book made it seem like this would be a funny, lighthearted story that turns the typical princess trope on its head. All good, right? So I immediately requested this ARC.
I am not the target audience here. The synopsis of the book should absolutely make it clear that this has sexual themes, violence and profanity—to the EXTREME. The content warning at the beginning of the book refers to talk of self-harm, suicide and sexual assault. That warning is not good enough and came too late for an unsuspecting me. The story takes crudeness and vulgarity to new heights (or lows, however you want to look at it).
If this kind of book is your jam, go for it! Wexler is a talented author. I just wish I’d had an inkling of the content before requesting it. And therefore…this is my warning to others with similar tastes in fiction! It’s a DNF for me.
Really, though, Orbit—please change that plot summary. I can already tell I’m not the only one to feel this way. It’s not a good feeling and could have been easily avoided with a more accurate description.
I received an eARC from NetGalley and Orbit Books in exchange for my honest review.
I am not the target audience here. The synopsis of the book should absolutely make it clear that this has sexual themes, violence and profanity—to the EXTREME. The content warning at the beginning of the book refers to talk of self-harm, suicide and sexual assault. That warning is not good enough and came too late for an unsuspecting me. The story takes crudeness and vulgarity to new heights (or lows, however you want to look at it).
If this kind of book is your jam, go for it! Wexler is a talented author. I just wish I’d had an inkling of the content before requesting it. And therefore…this is my warning to others with similar tastes in fiction! It’s a DNF for me.
Really, though, Orbit—please change that plot summary. I can already tell I’m not the only one to feel this way. It’s not a good feeling and could have been easily avoided with a more accurate description.
I received an eARC from NetGalley and Orbit Books in exchange for my honest review.
August 28, 2025
Life #237 It takes me two weeks to die, locked in my own dungeon. Not for lack of trying on my part, mind, but orders have come down from the Dark Lord that the Princess isn’t allowed to pop off early.
Davi is stuck in a strange time loop in a medieval fantasy land, on a quest to protect the Kingdom from the forces of the Dark Lord, and returned to the same point in time and space whenever she dies to start all over again. That is, until she decides to forgo being the saviour Princess and decides to become the Dark Lord in How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying.
Time to shift modes. Enough with the kind leader doing her best for her people, that’s not how a Dark Lord thinks. I’m more like a ruthless CEO mining the scrap heap for raw gems ready to be polished into my able lieutenants. These need to be more like job interviews.
The plot follows Davi as she starts to recruit various bands of raiders and outlaws to follow and support her cause of becoming the Dark Lord at the Dark Convocation and she slowly adjusts to her new role. DnD vibes fill the book with some world-building elements such as character roles, plot points and species diversity, making it a fun read on the whole if the reader likes DnD quests.
Yes, come and join the Modern Horde! Diversity is our strength! Diversity and stabbing!
There is a certain amount of superficiality and dismissal of lives and emotions that Davi accrues through living hundreds of lives, starting from the same point and trying to complete a quest. Django Wexler's writing emphasizes this flippant attitude, perhaps too much and too bluntly in some cases, and this overshadowed the character growth Davi experiences in her new quest and her new relationships with different people this time around.
This is what being Dark Lord is all about. Betrayal, assassination, general evilness. I may try to keep the indiscriminate slaughter to a minimum, but there is going to be a certain amount of discriminate slaughter going on, it’s just part of the show.
🌟🌟1/2🌟
[Half a star for the premise and the whole book; Half a star for the plot and themes; Half a star for the characters and their growth; Half a star for the world-building; Half a star for the writing - 2 1/2 stars in total.]
Davi is stuck in a strange time loop in a medieval fantasy land, on a quest to protect the Kingdom from the forces of the Dark Lord, and returned to the same point in time and space whenever she dies to start all over again. That is, until she decides to forgo being the saviour Princess and decides to become the Dark Lord in How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying.
Time to shift modes. Enough with the kind leader doing her best for her people, that’s not how a Dark Lord thinks. I’m more like a ruthless CEO mining the scrap heap for raw gems ready to be polished into my able lieutenants. These need to be more like job interviews.
The plot follows Davi as she starts to recruit various bands of raiders and outlaws to follow and support her cause of becoming the Dark Lord at the Dark Convocation and she slowly adjusts to her new role. DnD vibes fill the book with some world-building elements such as character roles, plot points and species diversity, making it a fun read on the whole if the reader likes DnD quests.
Yes, come and join the Modern Horde! Diversity is our strength! Diversity and stabbing!
There is a certain amount of superficiality and dismissal of lives and emotions that Davi accrues through living hundreds of lives, starting from the same point and trying to complete a quest. Django Wexler's writing emphasizes this flippant attitude, perhaps too much and too bluntly in some cases, and this overshadowed the character growth Davi experiences in her new quest and her new relationships with different people this time around.
This is what being Dark Lord is all about. Betrayal, assassination, general evilness. I may try to keep the indiscriminate slaughter to a minimum, but there is going to be a certain amount of discriminate slaughter going on, it’s just part of the show.
🌟🌟1/2🌟
[Half a star for the premise and the whole book; Half a star for the plot and themes; Half a star for the characters and their growth; Half a star for the world-building; Half a star for the writing - 2 1/2 stars in total.]
July 28, 2025
Honestly this is the funniest, most profane book I've read in a long time. It's very very funny. Highly recommended. The entire idea of a "chosen one" giving up and becoming entirely evil is incredible and really well-done. Bordering on lit-RPG this book needs to be read by more people. Just awesome can't wait for the followup.
May 18, 2024
LOOK, when your main character says she can’t remember if Darth Vader was Luke’s father because she’s been trapped in a time loop for 1000s of years but then proceeds to make EVERY FUCKING POP CULTURE REFERENCE IN THE WORLD I have to cry shenanigans.
I thought this book would be witty, unique, charming even? Instead it is vile, annoying, self indulgent and horny.
And I don’t normally mind horny, I’m no prude…but when a man is writing as a woman in the first person, that woman always ends up acting and sounding like…well…A MAN. 🙄🙄
If you like Jay Kristoff’s “edgy” (immature) humor and wish that instead of every other page it was every other paragraph that some new snarky remark was being made than this book is for you.
If you liked Kings of the Wyld or The Blacktongue Thief and wish you could read something less funny, with less action and a 100 percent shittier plot than this book is for you.
Why the two stars? Because DW is a good enough author that I was almost 100 pages into this atrocity before I realized how much I hated it. And, honestly, that pisses me off the most.
I thought this book would be witty, unique, charming even? Instead it is vile, annoying, self indulgent and horny.
And I don’t normally mind horny, I’m no prude…but when a man is writing as a woman in the first person, that woman always ends up acting and sounding like…well…A MAN. 🙄🙄
If you like Jay Kristoff’s “edgy” (immature) humor and wish that instead of every other page it was every other paragraph that some new snarky remark was being made than this book is for you.
If you liked Kings of the Wyld or The Blacktongue Thief and wish you could read something less funny, with less action and a 100 percent shittier plot than this book is for you.
Why the two stars? Because DW is a good enough author that I was almost 100 pages into this atrocity before I realized how much I hated it. And, honestly, that pisses me off the most.
April 19, 2024
”I," I announce to the world, "am going to become the fuck*ng Dark Lord."
Basically, there's another universe where magic is real and so is time travel or the multiverse or and also there are sexy orcs and fox-people.
For the last thousand years, Davi has been trapped in a time loop, so that when she dies - and she keeps dying - she restarts and is told she is the only one able to save the Kingdom from the impending rise of the Dark Lord and the monstrous armies of the Wilds.
After being tortured one time too many, Davi decides, ‘screw it, I’m going to become the Dark Lord and lead the Wilders’.
”Where do you see yourself in five years?"
“Er." He scratches his scalp and shrugs at his fellows. "Prob'ly dead, if we're being honest? Gotta be realistic."
This sounded extremely cool and funny and was one of my most anticipated releases…. Yet this was one of the most infuriating and disappointing reads of the year.
Sadly, this felt too forced and almost like a D&D campaign. Davi is too full of herself as the universe literally revolves around her, restarting and sending her back to the beginning every time she dies.
There’s just a lot of crass swearing and such a focus on sex that it becomes tedious and unbearable.
There’s also footnotes which I normally love, however this felt over indulgent and grated on me. Too many pop culture references that tried too hard to be witty.
I kind of want her to step on me and make me lick her toes, if we're being honest.
I briefly contemplate what it would be like to get head from a snake-wilder, but I have let's say a premonition that this is not on the agenda.
I am gutted as I was so excited for this.
I also thought this was a standalone, but I was mistaken and it’s a duology.
However, I will not be reading EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD EXCEPT ME Book TWO of the Dark Lord Davi.
Thank you to Orbit for providing an arc in exchange for a review.
Bookstagram
Basically, there's another universe where magic is real and so is time travel or the multiverse or and also there are sexy orcs and fox-people.
For the last thousand years, Davi has been trapped in a time loop, so that when she dies - and she keeps dying - she restarts and is told she is the only one able to save the Kingdom from the impending rise of the Dark Lord and the monstrous armies of the Wilds.
After being tortured one time too many, Davi decides, ‘screw it, I’m going to become the Dark Lord and lead the Wilders’.
”Where do you see yourself in five years?"
“Er." He scratches his scalp and shrugs at his fellows. "Prob'ly dead, if we're being honest? Gotta be realistic."
This sounded extremely cool and funny and was one of my most anticipated releases…. Yet this was one of the most infuriating and disappointing reads of the year.
Sadly, this felt too forced and almost like a D&D campaign. Davi is too full of herself as the universe literally revolves around her, restarting and sending her back to the beginning every time she dies.
There’s just a lot of crass swearing and such a focus on sex that it becomes tedious and unbearable.
There’s also footnotes which I normally love, however this felt over indulgent and grated on me. Too many pop culture references that tried too hard to be witty.
I kind of want her to step on me and make me lick her toes, if we're being honest.
I briefly contemplate what it would be like to get head from a snake-wilder, but I have let's say a premonition that this is not on the agenda.
I am gutted as I was so excited for this.
I also thought this was a standalone, but I was mistaken and it’s a duology.
However, I will not be reading EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD EXCEPT ME Book TWO of the Dark Lord Davi.
Thank you to Orbit for providing an arc in exchange for a review.
Bookstagram
May 24, 2024
Davi has been stuck in a timeloop for more than a thousand years, told over and over that she's prophesized to protect the kingdom from the newly crowned dark lord...except she hasn't managed it yet. By life 238, she's decided it's time to take matters into her own hands. No longer will she train to be the kingdom's hero, this time around she'll become the new dark lord.
Why is it that whenever a male author writes a female character, she's little more than a cavalier bisexual nymphomaniac who substitutes pop culture references for a personality? (Also, note to every male author: women don't rate themselves. A female character who describes their body and offers an X out of 10 rating is a l w a y s going to ring false. Always.)
Davi speaks almost entirely in pop culture references from a world she barely remembers (read: our world). She's lived in this other world for more than a thousand years, but she uses no local colloquialisms. In fact, what little we learn about this world is either from what other characters say to her, or is strictly about magic.
When she's not speaking in pop culture, she's talking about sex - who she's sleeping with, who she's slept with, who she'd like to sleep with... I understand that being trapped in a time loop probably makes someone feel like very little truly matters, but Davi's regression into a teenage boy is just not at all interesting to read.
Then there's the...romance, though I hesitate to call it that. There's zero chemistry between the characters. Davi thinks the other woman is hot as soon as they meet...and that basically the basis for the relationship. On top of this, Davi pulled away from another character she was sleeping with when they got too attached, but her love interest refuses to move forward at all unless Davi becomes immediately monogamous, and that's somehow just fine.
And the big one. Davi has turned her back on the human kingdom in favor of becoming the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord, however, rules over non-human creatures called Wilders. So human Davi becoming ruler of the oppressed, non-human Wilders smacks of white saviorism.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for a free copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
Why is it that whenever a male author writes a female character, she's little more than a cavalier bisexual nymphomaniac who substitutes pop culture references for a personality? (Also, note to every male author: women don't rate themselves. A female character who describes their body and offers an X out of 10 rating is a l w a y s going to ring false. Always.)
Davi speaks almost entirely in pop culture references from a world she barely remembers (read: our world). She's lived in this other world for more than a thousand years, but she uses no local colloquialisms. In fact, what little we learn about this world is either from what other characters say to her, or is strictly about magic.
When she's not speaking in pop culture, she's talking about sex - who she's sleeping with, who she's slept with, who she'd like to sleep with... I understand that being trapped in a time loop probably makes someone feel like very little truly matters, but Davi's regression into a teenage boy is just not at all interesting to read.
Then there's the...romance, though I hesitate to call it that. There's zero chemistry between the characters. Davi thinks the other woman is hot as soon as they meet...and that basically the basis for the relationship. On top of this, Davi pulled away from another character she was sleeping with when they got too attached, but her love interest refuses to move forward at all unless Davi becomes immediately monogamous, and that's somehow just fine.
And the big one. Davi has turned her back on the human kingdom in favor of becoming the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord, however, rules over non-human creatures called Wilders. So human Davi becoming ruler of the oppressed, non-human Wilders smacks of white saviorism.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for a free copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
dnf
February 28, 2024dnf @ 4% too many popular references annoys me so the main reason i stick to fantasy is so i don’t deal with that.. too bad that’s all this book is so far. also main character comes off as corny instead of badass. how unfortunate
June 7, 2024
3.5 Stars
Video Review https://youtu.be/csQk2BcJee4
This is a silly but generally fun twist on the classic piece of epic fantasy. The premise is quite goofy and the resulting the story is exactly what I would expect.
As someone with a preference for darker and more serious books, this one was hard to earn a five star rating from me. Yet, for the kind of story the author was going for, I think it fit the bill.
Given the nature of the story, the writing is quite casual with a lot of dialogue and strong language. I thought it fit the story so I didn't mind but I imagine this could turn off some readers looking for a "cozy" fantasy book.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
Video Review https://youtu.be/csQk2BcJee4
This is a silly but generally fun twist on the classic piece of epic fantasy. The premise is quite goofy and the resulting the story is exactly what I would expect.
As someone with a preference for darker and more serious books, this one was hard to earn a five star rating from me. Yet, for the kind of story the author was going for, I think it fit the bill.
Given the nature of the story, the writing is quite casual with a lot of dialogue and strong language. I thought it fit the story so I didn't mind but I imagine this could turn off some readers looking for a "cozy" fantasy book.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
May 21, 2024
Django Wexler takes the concept of progression fantasy to a whole new level in this darkly comic delight of a novel. Finding comedic, and sometimes tragic, potential in the absurdities and contradictions offered by well worn fantasy tropes, How to Become a Dark Lord works wonderfully as both satire and tribute.
June 13, 2024
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying
by Django Wexler
Dark Lord Davi #1
Fantasy Dark Humor
NetGalley eARC
Orbit Books
Pub Date: May 21, 2024
Ages: 18+
Davi is supposed to be the hero and save the realm from the Dark Lord, but after trying hundreds of times, (think restarting after dying while playing a video game) she's done and decides it's time for her to become the Dark Lord.
I loved this book. I was laughing at the dark humor. The characters, at least most of them, were relatable and well described as was the world and its history, though Davi's story needs just a tad more history. The story moved at a great pace with a nice variety of action and character interactions.
And yes, this has a lot of semi-graphic violence along with sexual innuendo, and 'spoiler', but it's not porn, though because of the content, this is not a book for readers under 18, or for those who offend easily.
Two major issues lowered my stars for this story. The first is I had to keep reminding myself that the MC, Davi, was female. (And yes, she said she was a she, and was bi(tri)sexual.) Her character was too much the typical 'male' with mannerisms that were very masculine. Now I'm not saying that this was bad, but with a mixture of her name, Davi, she was just too male for me to identify with her. (It read, IMO, more as if Davi was male in his original world but turned female upon arrival in this realm.)
My second issue was the footnotes. I don't have a problem with footnotes, as long as they are on the bottom of the page that the footnote refers to, but in the eARC copy I got, they were all lumped together at the end of the chapter, so when I got to them I forgot what they were related too, and that took some humor from the footnotes! It doesn't matter to me that they (some) were linked, because I'm not the type to jump back and forth, that, IMO, rips the reader away from the story.
Now to wait for the next book in the series!
4 Stars
by Django Wexler
Dark Lord Davi #1
Fantasy Dark Humor
NetGalley eARC
Orbit Books
Pub Date: May 21, 2024
Ages: 18+
Davi is supposed to be the hero and save the realm from the Dark Lord, but after trying hundreds of times, (think restarting after dying while playing a video game) she's done and decides it's time for her to become the Dark Lord.
I loved this book. I was laughing at the dark humor. The characters, at least most of them, were relatable and well described as was the world and its history, though Davi's story needs just a tad more history. The story moved at a great pace with a nice variety of action and character interactions.
And yes, this has a lot of semi-graphic violence along with sexual innuendo, and 'spoiler', but it's not porn, though because of the content, this is not a book for readers under 18, or for those who offend easily.
Two major issues lowered my stars for this story. The first is I had to keep reminding myself that the MC, Davi, was female. (And yes, she said she was a she, and was bi(tri)sexual.) Her character was too much the typical 'male' with mannerisms that were very masculine. Now I'm not saying that this was bad, but with a mixture of her name, Davi, she was just too male for me to identify with her. (It read, IMO, more as if Davi was male in his original world but turned female upon arrival in this realm.)
My second issue was the footnotes. I don't have a problem with footnotes, as long as they are on the bottom of the page that the footnote refers to, but in the eARC copy I got, they were all lumped together at the end of the chapter, so when I got to them I forgot what they were related too, and that took some humor from the footnotes! It doesn't matter to me that they (some) were linked, because I'm not the type to jump back and forth, that, IMO, rips the reader away from the story.
Now to wait for the next book in the series!
4 Stars
September 10, 2024
Look. I can’t say I didn’t have fun
December 19, 2024
Firstly, you're either going to like the tone and style this is written in, or you're going to bounce right off it.
I've seen a lot of people complaining about how vulgar and horny Davi is, and blaming it on a man writing a woman. Having read from this author before and seen how he can write women, and also, the other women in this book, I'm gonna vote no on that one. Women can be horny and vulgar! You might not like that, and it may be a significant barrier to entry here, but there's nothing inherently wrong with it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If you can get past the tone and style (or like it!*), the rest of the book is a self-aware fantasy romp with a plethora of pop culture references (many have compared Davi to Deadpool, and I feel that's accurate). The pacing on this thing is perfect, actually. We go from our protagonist—who has been stuck in a time loop for 1000 years in a fantasy world, with no idea how she got there—waking up in a freezing cold pond, and killing the wizard that for 1000 years has been dragging her into his prophecy and "trying to save the kingdom", to her deciding she's had enough, and now she's going to join the other side. Not only that, but she's gonna rule them. Davi for Dark Lord. She starts her campaign right away.
*TBH it was a bit much for me, but ultimately I found it made sense, as Davi's sense of humor and playing into the unreality of her situation is part of her character arc, and dropping that emotional shield is part of that. She is coping, my dudes.
I think it was super smart of the author to have us join Davi 1,000 years in to her journey, because at this point she knows this world incredibly well, but now that she's switching sides, we also get to experience things with her for the first time. Best of both worlds. And switching sides also, of course, allows her to get some new perspectives on everything that is happening to her. I really grew to love most of the side characters the longer I listened to the book, and you can sense Davi's affection for them, and her desire to protect them, even if she calls them her minions.
The audiobook was a good listen, even if the narrator leaned hard into the female Deadpool thing. I am definitely reading book two!
I've seen a lot of people complaining about how vulgar and horny Davi is, and blaming it on a man writing a woman. Having read from this author before and seen how he can write women, and also, the other women in this book, I'm gonna vote no on that one. Women can be horny and vulgar! You might not like that, and it may be a significant barrier to entry here, but there's nothing inherently wrong with it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If you can get past the tone and style (or like it!*), the rest of the book is a self-aware fantasy romp with a plethora of pop culture references (many have compared Davi to Deadpool, and I feel that's accurate). The pacing on this thing is perfect, actually. We go from our protagonist—who has been stuck in a time loop for 1000 years in a fantasy world, with no idea how she got there—waking up in a freezing cold pond, and killing the wizard that for 1000 years has been dragging her into his prophecy and "trying to save the kingdom", to her deciding she's had enough, and now she's going to join the other side. Not only that, but she's gonna rule them. Davi for Dark Lord. She starts her campaign right away.
*TBH it was a bit much for me, but ultimately I found it made sense, as Davi's sense of humor and playing into the unreality of her situation is part of her character arc, and dropping that emotional shield is part of that. She is coping, my dudes.
I think it was super smart of the author to have us join Davi 1,000 years in to her journey, because at this point she knows this world incredibly well, but now that she's switching sides, we also get to experience things with her for the first time. Best of both worlds. And switching sides also, of course, allows her to get some new perspectives on everything that is happening to her. I really grew to love most of the side characters the longer I listened to the book, and you can sense Davi's affection for them, and her desire to protect them, even if she calls them her minions.
The audiobook was a good listen, even if the narrator leaned hard into the female Deadpool thing. I am definitely reading book two!
May 23, 2024
The difficulty I had trying to get through this book is almost beyond words.
Set up a halirious ground-hog day esk fantasy adventure, it promised laughs a plenty and delivered few.
Davi is our main girl who has been dropped into a fantasy world where she is fated to save the kingdom from the dark Lord. Every time she dies, everything re-sets to her initial arrival. After being tortured and dying just one too many times, she's had enough and decides she should be the next dark Lord instead. Honestly, with a plot like this, it should have been funny.
Much of the humour seems to stem from overt violence and sex. Think the boys' level, except the boys, is funny because it's an extreme parody of our worlds.
This, however, just wants to do it for shits and giggles. Davi herself is extremely unlikeable, one dimensional and quite frankly boring. In one sentence, she tells us how it's been so long, and she remembers only a little of "earth" then in the rest of the book she make constant pop culture references in leu of any original humour. I often have a difficult time remembering she is a woman, as the way she comes across is so laughably odd. Clearly, a woman written by a man, honestly, I was shocked she didn't breast boobily anywhere.
The book comes with a trigger warning around sexual assault stating that it happens to none of the characters. Yet we have a charming story of how Davi ( in many of her lives) made another straight character gay. She even has been keep score of how quickly she managed it. This has the same vibe as those homophobic imbeciles who don't believe a woman is really a lesbian and he will be the one to f**k her straight. It's predatory and demeaning, and that's not getting into her talking/ thinking about wanting to screw every second character she meets. We even stray away from WLW and plunge in full on furry sex at one point.
The fourth wall breaking style of narration has long been one of my favourites, I've never wanted a new character POV in my life. Davi was so damn boring and genuinely like that one kid from our high- school days who thought they were funny but it turns our reciting lines from film/tv/ comedians doesn't make you cool nor interesting- just frustratingly dull.
Maybe this is on me. Maybe I am not the audience for this?
This is probably the sort of book for 16 year old boys. Plenty of violence, swearing, and not quite sex to make them think they are adults reading something of substance.
Set up a halirious ground-hog day esk fantasy adventure, it promised laughs a plenty and delivered few.
Davi is our main girl who has been dropped into a fantasy world where she is fated to save the kingdom from the dark Lord. Every time she dies, everything re-sets to her initial arrival. After being tortured and dying just one too many times, she's had enough and decides she should be the next dark Lord instead. Honestly, with a plot like this, it should have been funny.
Much of the humour seems to stem from overt violence and sex. Think the boys' level, except the boys, is funny because it's an extreme parody of our worlds.
This, however, just wants to do it for shits and giggles. Davi herself is extremely unlikeable, one dimensional and quite frankly boring. In one sentence, she tells us how it's been so long, and she remembers only a little of "earth" then in the rest of the book she make constant pop culture references in leu of any original humour. I often have a difficult time remembering she is a woman, as the way she comes across is so laughably odd. Clearly, a woman written by a man, honestly, I was shocked she didn't breast boobily anywhere.
The book comes with a trigger warning around sexual assault stating that it happens to none of the characters. Yet we have a charming story of how Davi ( in many of her lives) made another straight character gay. She even has been keep score of how quickly she managed it. This has the same vibe as those homophobic imbeciles who don't believe a woman is really a lesbian and he will be the one to f**k her straight. It's predatory and demeaning, and that's not getting into her talking/ thinking about wanting to screw every second character she meets. We even stray away from WLW and plunge in full on furry sex at one point.
The fourth wall breaking style of narration has long been one of my favourites, I've never wanted a new character POV in my life. Davi was so damn boring and genuinely like that one kid from our high- school days who thought they were funny but it turns our reciting lines from film/tv/ comedians doesn't make you cool nor interesting- just frustratingly dull.
Maybe this is on me. Maybe I am not the audience for this?
This is probably the sort of book for 16 year old boys. Plenty of violence, swearing, and not quite sex to make them think they are adults reading something of substance.
September 27, 2024
I don't get it. Why are these villain focused books so over the top silly, unserious and insufferable? And this one adds over-sexualization of, well, everyone and everything. So, no thank you, dnf on page 100.
Read
January 6, 2025Entertaining concept--a woman is basically a video game character, in that she wakes up, is told she is the Chosen One and must save the kingdom, eventually dies trying, and wakes up at the beginning again. Until she decides sod this and she is going to destroy the kingdom instead. It's a fun concept carried out with aplomb, though there's rather too much sassy American pop culture sarcasm in the narrative voice for me.
October 7, 2025
He acabado uno de los libros más peculiares que he leído este año. En el momento que Oz me ofreció leerlo fue un rotundo sí.
El libro, a pesar de tener una historia muy buena, está centrado en los personajes. Davi y su camino para convertirse en el Señor Oscuro en lugar de ser asesinada por él, como ha pasado otras cientos de veces en el pasado. Por el camino humanizará a aquellas criaturas que tantas veces destruyó sin piedad, demostrando que si miramos un poco más allá de nuestras diferencias tenemos más en común con la gente que menos pensamos que tendríamos.
Un punto muy destacable (y polarizante a la vez) es el humor. Soy muy fan de Deadpool y Davi no deja de tener la misma vena sarcástica y ácida que el "mercenario bocazas", por lo que o entras de lleno en este humor desde la primera página o no entrarás en todo el libro. En mi caso he tenido una sonrisa en la boca durante toda mi lectura.
Ha sido una lectura muy ligera y que, cuando quieres darte cuenta te has bebido el libro, aunque entiendo que para la gente que no haya entrado en la dinámica del libro le haya resultado pesado. Lo que sí puedo decirte es que este libro, de una manera u otra, no te dejará indiferente.
Poco a poco van sumándose más personajes carismáticos a la "horda" de Davi Señor Oscuro y nos dejan momentos geniales. Tengo muchas ganas de ver por dónde lleva su camino a Davi en futuras entregas y, si mantiene este nivel, estará entere mis sagas de comedia fantástica preferidas.
El libro, a pesar de tener una historia muy buena, está centrado en los personajes. Davi y su camino para convertirse en el Señor Oscuro en lugar de ser asesinada por él, como ha pasado otras cientos de veces en el pasado. Por el camino humanizará a aquellas criaturas que tantas veces destruyó sin piedad, demostrando que si miramos un poco más allá de nuestras diferencias tenemos más en común con la gente que menos pensamos que tendríamos.
Un punto muy destacable (y polarizante a la vez) es el humor. Soy muy fan de Deadpool y Davi no deja de tener la misma vena sarcástica y ácida que el "mercenario bocazas", por lo que o entras de lleno en este humor desde la primera página o no entrarás en todo el libro. En mi caso he tenido una sonrisa en la boca durante toda mi lectura.
Ha sido una lectura muy ligera y que, cuando quieres darte cuenta te has bebido el libro, aunque entiendo que para la gente que no haya entrado en la dinámica del libro le haya resultado pesado. Lo que sí puedo decirte es que este libro, de una manera u otra, no te dejará indiferente.
Poco a poco van sumándose más personajes carismáticos a la "horda" de Davi Señor Oscuro y nos dejan momentos geniales. Tengo muchas ganas de ver por dónde lleva su camino a Davi en futuras entregas y, si mantiene este nivel, estará entere mis sagas de comedia fantástica preferidas.
Read
May 14, 2024Certain tropes in epic fantasy and game-related fantasy have become so formulaic that it's inevitable the satires come forth. I think books like this are much funnier for readers who have read so much fantasy that they're becoming a little jaded when the once-loved tropes don't do anything interesting with the expected setup.
This satire is unrepentantly crass, bawdy, vulgar, and sardonic. Wexler is a tight enough word-whipster that he brings it off--if you like that kind of thing. I adored the footnotes, but overall it did take me a while to read the book. I always enjoyed it when I picked it up, but it was easy to set down again, I don't think because the story was predictable so much as the fact that the emotional range is pretty narrow.
I tend to like my epic fantasy with plenty of humor, but I also want sense of wonder, and duels of wit, along with adventure and maybe even some eucatastrophic luminosity. This book is pretty much the opposite of that, sticking to the same insouciant knife edge expertly wielded, and I know it's going to find its audience. Will I read more? You bet. Will I reread this one? Probably not, unless the next one pulls a Good Place switcheroo, changing everything.
This satire is unrepentantly crass, bawdy, vulgar, and sardonic. Wexler is a tight enough word-whipster that he brings it off--if you like that kind of thing. I adored the footnotes, but overall it did take me a while to read the book. I always enjoyed it when I picked it up, but it was easy to set down again, I don't think because the story was predictable so much as the fact that the emotional range is pretty narrow.
I tend to like my epic fantasy with plenty of humor, but I also want sense of wonder, and duels of wit, along with adventure and maybe even some eucatastrophic luminosity. This book is pretty much the opposite of that, sticking to the same insouciant knife edge expertly wielded, and I know it's going to find its audience. Will I read more? You bet. Will I reread this one? Probably not, unless the next one pulls a Good Place switcheroo, changing everything.
July 15, 2024
For your consideration: a review of three formats.
The Book
Fantastic! What an enjoyable story. I've been in a mild reading slump, not having been wowed by anything new in epic fantasy for what feels like months. This, I ate up in 48 hours. Genuinely funny, exciting, original, a rolicking good time.
It's violent, it's often gory, it's got a lot of sex, it's thoughtful, it's fun and heartfelt. What's not to love? And the footnotes . . . plenty of footnotes, and buckle up because I'm about to pay the book the highest possible compliment. Ready?
The footnotes are Pratchett-worthy.
Davi's narration is wonderful. In turns sassy, bitter, horny, existentially horrifying, with occasional nods at the fourth wall (she's aware that she's writing a book), she's a character worth rooting for, including in death. Many, many deaths, and for all that we are all well familiar with time loop stories, the path this one takes with it is excellent.
I am, frankly, hugely relieved. Django Wexler is an author that I've had a bit of a rollercoaster ride with. I adored his earliest series: The Forbidden Library and The Shadow Campaigns (The Thousand Names). I liked his YA trilogy start (Ship of Smoke and Steel but had no need to read the rest because it was so strongly YA. Then came Ashes of the Sun which should have been another hit, but I struggled to like it at all despite its good qualities. I found it very much still YA in tone, and all too much transparent in the worldbuilding and magic system, Sandersonesque in its "make it to break it" nature. Hoard [I can't link it because it's deemed not to meet Goodreads catalogue requirements, probably because it's only available as a free download directly from the author: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/2df3v5kpix ] was okay, but I remained very nervous about my relationship with Wexler's books as this one's release approached. It didn't help that a couple prominent reviews were, like, "man writing woman" about the main character's sexually charged behaviour. Now that I've read it, I don't see any problem (I'm a heterosexual male, for context). Yes it's technically a man writing a woman, and heck yeah she's DTF with men, women, anthropomorphic animal hybrid men and women, maybe rock men ("I mean ... if it was polished nice and smooth ..."), her own fingers, but isn't it okay for a woman to be interested in sex and take charge to meet her own sexual needs and desires? She's very strong on consent, and it completely makes sense for someone who is, as far as I can tell from the book, is in her mid-20s and good health, has endured countless looping lifetimes usually ending in extremely painful death, often preceded by torture, and is understandably driven just a little bit crazy by all of that, to embrace life and bodily pleasure where she can get it and it doesn't hurt anyone. The book doesn't make that connection explicit, that's my interpretation.
As the story progressed, I particularly enjoyed Wexler's return to military tactics and campaign life, a hallmark of his debut series. There's nothing dry about the way he uses it.
I also enjoyed the display of Wexler's growth as a writer. Humour is mostly new territory for him, and he pulled it off wonderfully. It's not funny ha-ha, it's darkly comic and heartfelt and helps you feel for the main character.
I have a single criticism of the book. An early footnote (in the prologue or first chapter) states that Davi doesn't remember any details of her original life on Earth (she was isekaied into the book's fantasy world and time loop), but she retains a vast repertoire of cultural references and impressions; she clearly remembers everything except her specific circumstances, even after somewhere between 500 and 10,000 years (she's not particularly reliable in her statements about how long she's been looping in total). If the book didn't differentiate between those two areas of knowledge, I wouldn't have ever given it any thought, but her frequent our-Earth references summon the memory of this detail repeatedly, and I found it very irritating. I was willing to overlook her deep pop-culture memory covering decades of material (from, say, 1960 to 2020; the most recent reference being "is it real or cake?") because it gave the book and her character delightful flavour. But the disparity between that knowledge and her personal life knowledge came up again at other points, and it leads me to believe that this is a plot point developed for a twist that is yet to come in the sequel (of this planned duology). That's something I increasingly can't stand: worldbuilding done solely for the purpose of a plot twist. It's one curse of contemporary fantasy: the tendency to write in the mode of, "This is how this world works. Oh no, now it's broken, shocking reveal!" The artifice of this approach irks me to no end.
Otherwise, all around a great joy to read. Highly recommended to fantasy fans of many stripes. I'm going to be first in line for the sequel.
The E-book
Where are your feet? Are they where your butt is?
Footnotes are a problem for e-books. Unless it's a pdf, which is not a good option, an e-book can't display footnotes at the bottom of the relevant page. Or, if this is technologically possible, then publishers are too lazy to do it. So, the footnotes really become endnotes, although in a section still titled 'footnotes' like an asshole. To get to them, you have to tappy-tap on the little superscript number in the text, which jumps you to the page of endnotes, then to get back to the correct place in the text you have to very carefully tap the tiny little number which is now on the left edge of the display, and if you're the slightest bit off with your fat fucking fingers it just scrolls back a page and not actually to the page the footnote originated on, and then you have to try it again. And again.
This book has a lot of footnotes. So good luck with all that.
Otherwise, the e-book is an acceptable format. I read it via Libby. It includes all the parts of the book, as it should, including the usual Orbit previews of other books at the back.
One interesting addition in the e-book: the content warning section is expanded. The content warning is well done, referring to the specific framing of self-harm and suicide in the book's fantastic context and how this differs from reality, and then provides a specific online resource for those struggling with that topic. It also warns that "This book contains frank discussion of sexual assault. (No characters are assaulted.)" The print (and audio) book stops there, but the e-book continues to provide another online resource for this matter (RAINN's website and phone hotline). It then even further adds, "This book also contains depictions of violence, sexual content, and explicit language," which is hardly necessary because the very first page of the book proper makes this abundantly clear.
One final advantage of the e-book will have to wait a moment.
The Audiobook
I'm not an audiobook guy. To get what I need out of a book, I need to pay a degree of attention to the audio that I may as well read it. I can't do chores or literally anything other than focus on the book to keep track. If there's a book for which it doesn't matter if I zone out for segments of various lengths and it doesn't matter if I don't rewind to cover that part again, I don't want it. I've occasionally consumed audiobooks during long solo road trips, but I can't see myself choosing a book that I actually want to care about for this. Give it to my retinas, please.
I tried this one in audiobook anyway, narrated by Jeanette Illidge, after I read it in print. I immediately hated it; the overacting didn't at all match with Davi's gritty character, and the enunciation was overly sharp and irritating at any speed. That's not the worst part.
I hated the "interpretation" of footnotes. These were inserted into the audio as a tinny, lower-fi clip, like the character was talking into a soup can telephone for those portions. If you had only the audiobook, would you have any idea what these asides were meant to be? The character is already speaking in smarmy first person throughout. You'd be forgiven for assuming they were some kind of post-production editing flubs. And when a footnote falls in the middle of a sentence, would you even still track the first part when the narration flipped back? Some footnotes last multiple paragraphs. The heart of my beef with it is: the medium is the message. A footnote is something specific to print that can't properly be reproduced in other formats. Changing the medium alters the meaning, and for a book that makes such extensive use of footnotes, this is a travesty. That's also not the worst part.
The audiobook altered the text. The author's dedication reads:
This is the worst part: the audiobook OMITS the author's acknowledgments! The other formats include a lovely two page Acknowledgments section, thoughtfully presented to express the author's appreciation for the reader taking a chance on a new, risky thing, and to all the important people that contributed, technically or emotionally, to making the book as good as it turned out, and also the author's sources of inspiration. These are not low value contributions. This section even has its own footnotes! But apparently whoever produced the audiobook (that woud be Hachette Audio) decided to say: "Fuck you, author! We don't give a shit how important all these people were to you!" Shame.
I'll finish this review cum rant with an interesting cross-format tidbit. It involves a footnote early in Chapter Eight, part of which reads:
The End. With that, I'm back on the Django train.
The Book
Fantastic! What an enjoyable story. I've been in a mild reading slump, not having been wowed by anything new in epic fantasy for what feels like months. This, I ate up in 48 hours. Genuinely funny, exciting, original, a rolicking good time.
It's violent, it's often gory, it's got a lot of sex, it's thoughtful, it's fun and heartfelt. What's not to love? And the footnotes . . . plenty of footnotes, and buckle up because I'm about to pay the book the highest possible compliment. Ready?
The footnotes are Pratchett-worthy.
Davi's narration is wonderful. In turns sassy, bitter, horny, existentially horrifying, with occasional nods at the fourth wall (she's aware that she's writing a book), she's a character worth rooting for, including in death. Many, many deaths, and for all that we are all well familiar with time loop stories, the path this one takes with it is excellent.
I am, frankly, hugely relieved. Django Wexler is an author that I've had a bit of a rollercoaster ride with. I adored his earliest series: The Forbidden Library and The Shadow Campaigns (The Thousand Names). I liked his YA trilogy start (Ship of Smoke and Steel but had no need to read the rest because it was so strongly YA. Then came Ashes of the Sun which should have been another hit, but I struggled to like it at all despite its good qualities. I found it very much still YA in tone, and all too much transparent in the worldbuilding and magic system, Sandersonesque in its "make it to break it" nature. Hoard [I can't link it because it's deemed not to meet Goodreads catalogue requirements, probably because it's only available as a free download directly from the author: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/2df3v5kpix ] was okay, but I remained very nervous about my relationship with Wexler's books as this one's release approached. It didn't help that a couple prominent reviews were, like, "man writing woman" about the main character's sexually charged behaviour. Now that I've read it, I don't see any problem (I'm a heterosexual male, for context). Yes it's technically a man writing a woman, and heck yeah she's DTF with men, women, anthropomorphic animal hybrid men and women, maybe rock men ("I mean ... if it was polished nice and smooth ..."), her own fingers, but isn't it okay for a woman to be interested in sex and take charge to meet her own sexual needs and desires? She's very strong on consent, and it completely makes sense for someone who is, as far as I can tell from the book, is in her mid-20s and good health, has endured countless looping lifetimes usually ending in extremely painful death, often preceded by torture, and is understandably driven just a little bit crazy by all of that, to embrace life and bodily pleasure where she can get it and it doesn't hurt anyone. The book doesn't make that connection explicit, that's my interpretation.
As the story progressed, I particularly enjoyed Wexler's return to military tactics and campaign life, a hallmark of his debut series. There's nothing dry about the way he uses it.
I also enjoyed the display of Wexler's growth as a writer. Humour is mostly new territory for him, and he pulled it off wonderfully. It's not funny ha-ha, it's darkly comic and heartfelt and helps you feel for the main character.
I have a single criticism of the book. An early footnote (in the prologue or first chapter) states that Davi doesn't remember any details of her original life on Earth (she was isekaied into the book's fantasy world and time loop), but she retains a vast repertoire of cultural references and impressions; she clearly remembers everything except her specific circumstances, even after somewhere between 500 and 10,000 years (she's not particularly reliable in her statements about how long she's been looping in total). If the book didn't differentiate between those two areas of knowledge, I wouldn't have ever given it any thought, but her frequent our-Earth references summon the memory of this detail repeatedly, and I found it very irritating. I was willing to overlook her deep pop-culture memory covering decades of material (from, say, 1960 to 2020; the most recent reference being "is it real or cake?") because it gave the book and her character delightful flavour. But the disparity between that knowledge and her personal life knowledge came up again at other points, and it leads me to believe that this is a plot point developed for a twist that is yet to come in the sequel (of this planned duology). That's something I increasingly can't stand: worldbuilding done solely for the purpose of a plot twist. It's one curse of contemporary fantasy: the tendency to write in the mode of, "This is how this world works. Oh no, now it's broken, shocking reveal!" The artifice of this approach irks me to no end.
Otherwise, all around a great joy to read. Highly recommended to fantasy fans of many stripes. I'm going to be first in line for the sequel.
The E-book
Where are your feet? Are they where your butt is?
Footnotes are a problem for e-books. Unless it's a pdf, which is not a good option, an e-book can't display footnotes at the bottom of the relevant page. Or, if this is technologically possible, then publishers are too lazy to do it. So, the footnotes really become endnotes, although in a section still titled 'footnotes' like an asshole. To get to them, you have to tappy-tap on the little superscript number in the text, which jumps you to the page of endnotes, then to get back to the correct place in the text you have to very carefully tap the tiny little number which is now on the left edge of the display, and if you're the slightest bit off with your fat fucking fingers it just scrolls back a page and not actually to the page the footnote originated on, and then you have to try it again. And again.
This book has a lot of footnotes. So good luck with all that.
Otherwise, the e-book is an acceptable format. I read it via Libby. It includes all the parts of the book, as it should, including the usual Orbit previews of other books at the back.
One interesting addition in the e-book: the content warning section is expanded. The content warning is well done, referring to the specific framing of self-harm and suicide in the book's fantastic context and how this differs from reality, and then provides a specific online resource for those struggling with that topic. It also warns that "This book contains frank discussion of sexual assault. (No characters are assaulted.)" The print (and audio) book stops there, but the e-book continues to provide another online resource for this matter (RAINN's website and phone hotline). It then even further adds, "This book also contains depictions of violence, sexual content, and explicit language," which is hardly necessary because the very first page of the book proper makes this abundantly clear.
One final advantage of the e-book will have to wait a moment.
The Audiobook
I'm not an audiobook guy. To get what I need out of a book, I need to pay a degree of attention to the audio that I may as well read it. I can't do chores or literally anything other than focus on the book to keep track. If there's a book for which it doesn't matter if I zone out for segments of various lengths and it doesn't matter if I don't rewind to cover that part again, I don't want it. I've occasionally consumed audiobooks during long solo road trips, but I can't see myself choosing a book that I actually want to care about for this. Give it to my retinas, please.
I tried this one in audiobook anyway, narrated by Jeanette Illidge, after I read it in print. I immediately hated it; the overacting didn't at all match with Davi's gritty character, and the enunciation was overly sharp and irritating at any speed. That's not the worst part.
I hated the "interpretation" of footnotes. These were inserted into the audio as a tinny, lower-fi clip, like the character was talking into a soup can telephone for those portions. If you had only the audiobook, would you have any idea what these asides were meant to be? The character is already speaking in smarmy first person throughout. You'd be forgiven for assuming they were some kind of post-production editing flubs. And when a footnote falls in the middle of a sentence, would you even still track the first part when the narration flipped back? Some footnotes last multiple paragraphs. The heart of my beef with it is: the medium is the message. A footnote is something specific to print that can't properly be reproduced in other formats. Changing the medium alters the meaning, and for a book that makes such extensive use of footnotes, this is a travesty. That's also not the worst part.
The audiobook altered the text. The author's dedication reads:
For little Z,It's in centered, italicized text, displayed artfully and intentionally on the page. The audiobook changed the dedication to:
who is not allowed to read this until
I have been dead, like, a decade
For little Z, who is not allowed to listen to this until I have been dead, like, a decade.Look, I'm not saying audiobooks don't count as reading, the audiobook itself is saying that! That's still not the worst part.
This is the worst part: the audiobook OMITS the author's acknowledgments! The other formats include a lovely two page Acknowledgments section, thoughtfully presented to express the author's appreciation for the reader taking a chance on a new, risky thing, and to all the important people that contributed, technically or emotionally, to making the book as good as it turned out, and also the author's sources of inspiration. These are not low value contributions. This section even has its own footnotes! But apparently whoever produced the audiobook (that woud be Hachette Audio) decided to say: "Fuck you, author! We don't give a shit how important all these people were to you!" Shame.
I'll finish this review cum rant with an interesting cross-format tidbit. It involves a footnote early in Chapter Eight, part of which reads:
I guess I'll save the last slot in my 四天王 for any new friends we make along the way.That's a deep cut! For translation (do your own work) I had to rely on the ebook version, in which the Chinese characters were added as an image, which Google Lens was thankfully able to translate for me. If I had only the print edition in hand, I supposed I could have taken a photo of the words and gone from there. But for audiobook-only readers, I imagine they're the most screwed, because it was read as:
I guess I'll save the last slot in my Sìtiānwáng for any new friends we make along the way.(Good job to the narrator for the pronunciation here.) If you're lucky enough to identify the language correctly, maybe you know someone who can listen to it and translate it for you.
The End. With that, I'm back on the Django train.
March 29, 2024
I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
As a fan of author Django Wexler’s Burningblade and Silvereye trilogy, I was really excited to dig into How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, which even had a spot on My Most Anticipated Books of 2024 list. It sounded like an absolute ride and a subversion of the tried-and-true trope of a character getting Isekai-ed into a new world and finding themselves designated as the Chosen One who will save the world. Though I was right and How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying was definitely both of those things, with main character Davi deciding to quit trying to fulfill the prophecy of being the savior of the realm and to turn her sights onto something more manageable, i.e., becoming the Dark Lord, I found it just didn't work for me.
From the very beginning of the novel to the end, I struggled to connect with any of the characters, but I found that I really didn't care for Davi. Surely a female character being reborn in a new world with centuries of knowledge from past lives and aiming to use her wits to do what she, and not some prophecy wants, is the ultimate female empowerment story, right? Well…it seemed that Davi's personality boiled down to two traits: obnoxiously horny and pop culture references. If you don't mind constant fourth wall breaking and references to our own time, readers might really love all of Davi's comments, which would be right at home in an episode of a geekier version of Gilmore Girls, but I found them jarring.
It's a little shocking to read Davi yelling “LEEEROOOYY—” as a battle cry or screaming, “fool of a Took,” at someone in pivotal story moments. Though I can definitely appreciate the references, it really took me out of what was happening in the story and had me thinking more about where the references came from and not the actual story I was reading. And with the novel being absolutely littered with these kinds of references, it was hard for them not to feel stale, misplaced (as it often ruined the pacing for me, as I had to sit there and think about references rather than current story events), and over the top. It was also a little weird, as Davi mentions multiple times that she doesn't really remember her original life and world (ours), which is from where these highly specific and often situational references stem.
References aside, the big other personality trait of Davi’s was her inability to separate her ambitions to becoming the dark Lord from her insatiable sexual urges. Who Davi has slept with in her over 1000 years of estimated existences, wants to sleep with, and shouldn't-have-slept with takes up a very large part of the novel. And when the protagonist is admittedly making things up as she goes along, gets sidetracked by side quests left and right, and only has a vague goal of making it to a Dark Lord convocation in mind, the sexual remarks take up a pretty significant amount of page space, along with the aforementioned popular culture references.
It's worth noting that the novel takes place in a high fantasy world populated with creatures such as orcs, humans, and wilders. The wilders come in many different forms, with some appearing like foxes, lizards, snakes, deer, and so on and so forth. These wilders, though humanoid creatures, have mainly animal traits, such as lizard eyes, deer antlers, or fox tails. Maybe you can see where this is going. Davi has no qualms about sleeping with Wilders and in one scene describes sleeping with a fox wilder as “really cute” because he wags his tail like a dog when licking peanut butter. While I know this is a fantasy setting with predominantly animal-esque sentient beings, I'm personally not really into allusions of this sort, which directly reference things in our own world, like pets, and wasn't expecting to encounter it at all—let alone with characters who didn't have much, if any, of an emotional connection with each other.
Having read multiple works by the same author, I can't help but to notice a trend that gives me pause—most of the novels appear to predominantly feature WLW characters without any, or at least many substantial MLM counterparts. Likewise, there is also usually at least one super sex driven female character included under the pretext of comedy. I’m always a bit hesitant about male authors’ ability to depict these characters accurately from the sheer standpoint of experience alone, but I mostly liked the author’s portrayal of female characters in The Burningblade and Silverye trilogy. However, this representation of bisexual Davi in How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying felt shallow and even stereotypical to me because of the constant, weird sexual references and the lack of intimate relationships of any kind among other characters. While I'm all for a woman owning her sexuality, when her raging sexual desires become one of the sole defining character traits of the protagonist and a major plot point to which we are inevitably doomed to keep returning, that's a bit much for my tastes and screams that it's written by a male author. Here's just a few of the incessant remarks pertaining to Davi’s sex life:
The biggest strength of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying for me was in its core idea of a protagonist rejecting their role as a chosen one and deciding to become the villain instead. It was interesting to see Davi figure out how to become her own brand of villain with her own morals, though I wouldn't say she was at all consistent in her decisions. One minute she's bashing in the face of an old wizard and the next she can't stand to see anyone harmed.
While I didn't think the execution of the awesome premise was the best, I did think what little focus of the novel that was dedicated to world-building was, if not super complex, at least interesting. There is reference to a magical system, which only humans can truly harness and there's also a pretty unique naturally occurring substance known as thaumite. This thaumite comes in a variety of colors and can be absorbed by both beasts and Wilders to give them a variety of benefits. A red thaumite, for instance, gives Davi greater physical strength. Davi, through her original existence as what she thinks was a human nerd, is able to harness both the magic of humans and to utilize the thaumite, much like wilders. This puts her in some tricky positions, as she has to hide her magical powers from her Wilder minions, who naturally despise humans.
Though How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying leaves off on cliffhanger, while simultaneously setting up for its sequel, I don't see myself reading future entries in the series. In all honesty, I'm not exactly sure who the intended audience for this book was, but it definitely wasn't me (even though I consider myself a big fan of Isekai stories, female characters, and the Dark Side). I'd recommend this book to fantasy fans who are looking for something of a cozy, lower stakes fantasy, with plenty of unseriousness and sexuality to go around.
*All quotes taken from an ARC and subject to change at time of publication.
As a fan of author Django Wexler’s Burningblade and Silvereye trilogy, I was really excited to dig into How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, which even had a spot on My Most Anticipated Books of 2024 list. It sounded like an absolute ride and a subversion of the tried-and-true trope of a character getting Isekai-ed into a new world and finding themselves designated as the Chosen One who will save the world. Though I was right and How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying was definitely both of those things, with main character Davi deciding to quit trying to fulfill the prophecy of being the savior of the realm and to turn her sights onto something more manageable, i.e., becoming the Dark Lord, I found it just didn't work for me.
From the very beginning of the novel to the end, I struggled to connect with any of the characters, but I found that I really didn't care for Davi. Surely a female character being reborn in a new world with centuries of knowledge from past lives and aiming to use her wits to do what she, and not some prophecy wants, is the ultimate female empowerment story, right? Well…it seemed that Davi's personality boiled down to two traits: obnoxiously horny and pop culture references. If you don't mind constant fourth wall breaking and references to our own time, readers might really love all of Davi's comments, which would be right at home in an episode of a geekier version of Gilmore Girls, but I found them jarring.
It's a little shocking to read Davi yelling “LEEEROOOYY—” as a battle cry or screaming, “fool of a Took,” at someone in pivotal story moments. Though I can definitely appreciate the references, it really took me out of what was happening in the story and had me thinking more about where the references came from and not the actual story I was reading. And with the novel being absolutely littered with these kinds of references, it was hard for them not to feel stale, misplaced (as it often ruined the pacing for me, as I had to sit there and think about references rather than current story events), and over the top. It was also a little weird, as Davi mentions multiple times that she doesn't really remember her original life and world (ours), which is from where these highly specific and often situational references stem.
References aside, the big other personality trait of Davi’s was her inability to separate her ambitions to becoming the dark Lord from her insatiable sexual urges. Who Davi has slept with in her over 1000 years of estimated existences, wants to sleep with, and shouldn't-have-slept with takes up a very large part of the novel. And when the protagonist is admittedly making things up as she goes along, gets sidetracked by side quests left and right, and only has a vague goal of making it to a Dark Lord convocation in mind, the sexual remarks take up a pretty significant amount of page space, along with the aforementioned popular culture references.
It's worth noting that the novel takes place in a high fantasy world populated with creatures such as orcs, humans, and wilders. The wilders come in many different forms, with some appearing like foxes, lizards, snakes, deer, and so on and so forth. These wilders, though humanoid creatures, have mainly animal traits, such as lizard eyes, deer antlers, or fox tails. Maybe you can see where this is going. Davi has no qualms about sleeping with Wilders and in one scene describes sleeping with a fox wilder as “really cute” because he wags his tail like a dog when licking peanut butter. While I know this is a fantasy setting with predominantly animal-esque sentient beings, I'm personally not really into allusions of this sort, which directly reference things in our own world, like pets, and wasn't expecting to encounter it at all—let alone with characters who didn't have much, if any, of an emotional connection with each other.
Having read multiple works by the same author, I can't help but to notice a trend that gives me pause—most of the novels appear to predominantly feature WLW characters without any, or at least many substantial MLM counterparts. Likewise, there is also usually at least one super sex driven female character included under the pretext of comedy. I’m always a bit hesitant about male authors’ ability to depict these characters accurately from the sheer standpoint of experience alone, but I mostly liked the author’s portrayal of female characters in The Burningblade and Silverye trilogy. However, this representation of bisexual Davi in How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying felt shallow and even stereotypical to me because of the constant, weird sexual references and the lack of intimate relationships of any kind among other characters. While I'm all for a woman owning her sexuality, when her raging sexual desires become one of the sole defining character traits of the protagonist and a major plot point to which we are inevitably doomed to keep returning, that's a bit much for my tastes and screams that it's written by a male author. Here's just a few of the incessant remarks pertaining to Davi’s sex life:
“I need to stop fucking people before I betray them.”*
‘‘If I’d known they were going to take you, I would never—’
‘It's all right. I'm all right. Really. Everything was very consensual.’
‘You're—’ she leans back a few inches to stare at me. ‘what do you mean?’
‘Quiet.’ I pull her close. ‘We have friends among the enemy. Well. More than friends, I guess. We have fuck buddies among the enemy’
‘I’m so fucking lost,’ Tsav says.”
“Great. Can't a Dark Lord get a night of fornication with a minion without him getting all clingy? The worst of it is there's not really anywhere else I can go to get my rocks off.”
“There's Dark and there's Dark, right, this isn't HBO. And I am not going to be celibate for as long as this project takes, don't fucking start.”
“Q: How does a girl with tusks go down on you?
A: Very carefully, and with commendable attention to detail.”
The biggest strength of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying for me was in its core idea of a protagonist rejecting their role as a chosen one and deciding to become the villain instead. It was interesting to see Davi figure out how to become her own brand of villain with her own morals, though I wouldn't say she was at all consistent in her decisions. One minute she's bashing in the face of an old wizard and the next she can't stand to see anyone harmed.
While I didn't think the execution of the awesome premise was the best, I did think what little focus of the novel that was dedicated to world-building was, if not super complex, at least interesting. There is reference to a magical system, which only humans can truly harness and there's also a pretty unique naturally occurring substance known as thaumite. This thaumite comes in a variety of colors and can be absorbed by both beasts and Wilders to give them a variety of benefits. A red thaumite, for instance, gives Davi greater physical strength. Davi, through her original existence as what she thinks was a human nerd, is able to harness both the magic of humans and to utilize the thaumite, much like wilders. This puts her in some tricky positions, as she has to hide her magical powers from her Wilder minions, who naturally despise humans.
Though How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying leaves off on cliffhanger, while simultaneously setting up for its sequel, I don't see myself reading future entries in the series. In all honesty, I'm not exactly sure who the intended audience for this book was, but it definitely wasn't me (even though I consider myself a big fan of Isekai stories, female characters, and the Dark Side). I'd recommend this book to fantasy fans who are looking for something of a cozy, lower stakes fantasy, with plenty of unseriousness and sexuality to go around.
*All quotes taken from an ARC and subject to change at time of publication.
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October 8, 2025
If you liked Apprentice to the Villain, you’ll enjoy this book as well. Davi has been stuck in this fantasy world for a thousand years. She’s supposed to save the humans from the Dark Lord. After centuries of failing and being sent back to the beginning (think Groundhog Day) she’s had enough. She decides to become the Dark Lord. The story went on too long for me, but the humor is spot on.
May 11, 2024
This had the all the makings of a hilarious fantasy book. Main character save scumming life in in order to become the evil dark lord and the constant fourth wall breaking. Structurally I love concept of the story, but textually it gives me the ick. Unfortunately the main character, Davi, gives off sex crazed, bisexual female character written by a man (cause it is). There's also a few instances of sexual assault being used for comedic purposes. Huge red flag there. The author tried to write an edgy comedic D&D campaign but it completely lost the plot, literally and figuratively.
September 6, 2025
Edit: almost one year after reading this and rating it I’m bumping it up to 4 stars… you see I can’t stop thinking about how fun this book was. So I have picked up book 2 and am looking forward to it. Who cares if the book might not age well… it’s great right now!! (End of edit, original review below)
3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 because I don’t think this is a book that will age well. There are a lot of fantasy trope references that non-fantasy readers may not know, and that are possibly too timely and won’t age well. For a well-read fantasy reader like myself each reference was identified but I’m not sure l someone who is lesser read in fantasy novels will get them all. It’s not that you need to get them to enjoy the story but they are all the focus of jokes made by MC Davi.
Two more reasons why I ranked this one a bit lower..
It took me forever to read. At first I thought it was just me, but then I listened to some of the audiobook and realized it’s that my brain trips over some of the made up words. Especially the species names (that have roots in Latin) that are difficult to pronounce. There is a fine line between creating new words for your fantasy realm and creating words that readers brains will trip over or stumble on. It may sound silly, especially if you’re an avid reader (like myself) who doesn’t say words in their head as they read. However I have experienced this before and it is definitely a weird thing that happens sometimes for readers. We just can’t get past words that we don’t know how to pronounce or have trouble pronouncing.
Finally I was not a fan of the abrupt, unresolved ending. Be forewarned it is a bit of a cliffhanger and you may not feel satisfied by the ending. I certainly did not feel like I had any sort of resolution. Certainly this technique sells book two, but it is also annoying to many readers. That said, I am hooked so I suppose it worked on me this time…
All that said, even with what I felt didn’t work in Wexler’s fantasy comedy story, I still enjoyed it and will definitely read the next book. Not only is this very witty, sexy, and overall ridiculous; but it also quite entertaining. Although I’ll confess I did enjoy Dreadful more (which is similar in that it is a first person witty fantasy narrative) I would say if you like narrators that know they are narrating a story and break the fourth wall (talk to the reader) or silly over-the-top comedic fantasy then definitely check this one out.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 because I don’t think this is a book that will age well. There are a lot of fantasy trope references that non-fantasy readers may not know, and that are possibly too timely and won’t age well. For a well-read fantasy reader like myself each reference was identified but I’m not sure l someone who is lesser read in fantasy novels will get them all. It’s not that you need to get them to enjoy the story but they are all the focus of jokes made by MC Davi.
Two more reasons why I ranked this one a bit lower..
It took me forever to read. At first I thought it was just me, but then I listened to some of the audiobook and realized it’s that my brain trips over some of the made up words. Especially the species names (that have roots in Latin) that are difficult to pronounce. There is a fine line between creating new words for your fantasy realm and creating words that readers brains will trip over or stumble on. It may sound silly, especially if you’re an avid reader (like myself) who doesn’t say words in their head as they read. However I have experienced this before and it is definitely a weird thing that happens sometimes for readers. We just can’t get past words that we don’t know how to pronounce or have trouble pronouncing.
Finally I was not a fan of the abrupt, unresolved ending. Be forewarned it is a bit of a cliffhanger and you may not feel satisfied by the ending. I certainly did not feel like I had any sort of resolution. Certainly this technique sells book two, but it is also annoying to many readers. That said, I am hooked so I suppose it worked on me this time…
All that said, even with what I felt didn’t work in Wexler’s fantasy comedy story, I still enjoyed it and will definitely read the next book. Not only is this very witty, sexy, and overall ridiculous; but it also quite entertaining. Although I’ll confess I did enjoy Dreadful more (which is similar in that it is a first person witty fantasy narrative) I would say if you like narrators that know they are narrating a story and break the fourth wall (talk to the reader) or silly over-the-top comedic fantasy then definitely check this one out.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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