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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying seemed to promise a fresh perspective on the time-loop story, wrapped up in a fantasy world packed with satire and wit. It pulled through on about half of those promises.
*Mild spoilers below*
Davi is a woman from Earth who has spent the last thousand lifetimes trying to save the Kingdom from the torment of the Dark Lord. She's spent so much time in this world relative to her life on Earth that she has forgotten almost everything about her past life... except hyper-specific pop culture references, her favourite websites, how the language works, and many more things. This wouldn't have been a problem for me, had the text not mentioned several times that these were things she should have forgotten.
The main character is bisexual woman (good), with a very unhealthy idea of sexual boundaries (bad). At best, this comes across as humorous when applied to evil snake-women. At worst, it comes across as abuse of power and sexual harassment when applied to her subordinates.
The humour is not anywhere near as subtle or nuanced as a Pratchett-style fantasy satire (despite the use of humorous footnotes), but is more akin to a Deadpoolian swearing-and-killing-and-talking-about-sex audience.
Despite my above points, I did enjoy this book, and will be picking up the second book when it releases. The writing is simple but punchy, the pacing is good, and the characters all have a distinct voice (love you, Droff).
*Mild spoilers below*
Davi is a woman from Earth who has spent the last thousand lifetimes trying to save the Kingdom from the torment of the Dark Lord. She's spent so much time in this world relative to her life on Earth that she has forgotten almost everything about her past life... except hyper-specific pop culture references, her favourite websites, how the language works, and many more things. This wouldn't have been a problem for me, had the text not mentioned several times that these were things she should have forgotten.
The main character is bisexual woman (good), with a very unhealthy idea of sexual boundaries (bad). At best, this comes across as humorous when applied to evil snake-women. At worst, it comes across as abuse of power and sexual harassment when applied to her subordinates.
The humour is not anywhere near as subtle or nuanced as a Pratchett-style fantasy satire (despite the use of humorous footnotes), but is more akin to a Deadpoolian swearing-and-killing-and-talking-about-sex audience.
Despite my above points, I did enjoy this book, and will be picking up the second book when it releases. The writing is simple but punchy, the pacing is good, and the characters all have a distinct voice (love you, Droff).
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This was hard to put down. I spent a lot of time laughing out loud over this. I read somewhere that it was likened to if a female version of Deadpool was thrown into a fantasy world and had to conquer. Perfect description.
Lots of sexual content. Commentary about how the “real world” is so terrible because “insert leftist ideology.” So much swearing it’s hard to read. I just didn’t care about the story and I’d finished over 20%.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
adventurous
challenging
dark
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm not a huge fan of the voice or the main character. It's like if a sales manager was somehow in an isekai. Too much pep for me, but I still had a good time with it.