Review by eb00kie - So You Want to Be a Villain?

eb00kie 's review for:

So You Want to Be a Villain? by ErraticErrata

4.0

dark emotional funny inspiring 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

I bet people who read the first Harry Potter book or the first Discworld felt knew what they were getting into as well.

“I trust people to act according to their nature. Anything more is sentimentality.” - Dread Empress Malicia

You may read the book description and think "This is the refined Shrek take on of [b:A Game of Thrones|13496|A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)|George R.R. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562726234l/13496._SY75_.jpg|1466917]" or "This is a villain point-of-view parody". You'd be right. It starts as the latter and takes a turn for the former. Every chapter starts with a short quote from a character, in the present or in the past. Yes, this book comes with a history.

However, if you really want to get this book, these are the two quotes you want.

"One grace: victory. One sin: defeat."

This is the war philosophy of her teacher and the battle cry of his armies. He is a short lithe man who once conquered an empire and set Empress Malicia on the throne. This is the culture she enters.

"Kill them! Take their stuff!"

This is the war philosophy of Robber, one of her soon-to-be greatest friends, a goblin with a love of explosions. This becomes the battle cry of a whole chunk of the army, but more of that later.

The story is played with an ear to these three. Malicia, the Black Knight and Robber. There are many more memorable characters. Most of them are villains, diverse, unique and charming. Some are heroes, and there's a lot of variety there, too. Some are more complex, some are less so. The result is increasingly rich tapestry.

I like twists when there's foreshadowing. Half this book is all stabby-stabby "You're a wizard villain, Harry Catherine" and then you come across the hero and in one glorious aftermath, the mystery of the Names, the rules of Creation and the stakes of failure are drawn.

As I’m writing, I’m on book #5, because outside of Easter family visiting and a set of twitchy histrionic client stakeholders at work, I prioritised reading as much of this as I could.

I’ll say this: if I had Harry Potter and an average fantasy reader, I’d give him the Practical Guide to Evil first. It’s like someone read Prince of Thorns and Song of Ice and Fire and Witcher l and made a really fast-paced queer clever irreverent high fantasy successor. There is something uniquely its own, as well, something between chaos and control and oracles and grasping one’s fate — beyond sentimentality. The amount of accountability a villain has to deal with can be mind-boggling, after all.

My only quibble is that all the 4D chess sometimes requires a lot of prose.

It will take a miracle for this series to get the recognition it richly deserves, because despite the humor, world-building, pacing, scope of the story and memorable characters, it was published as a serial online. My plan is to find someone to make these books into paperbacks for me.

Last thoughts: bookworm men on dating apps who recommend books are a treasure. My thanks and gratitude for this one, keep at it.

Content Warnings