Book Review of How to become the dark lord and die trying by Django Wexler

Name of Book: How to become the dark Lord and die trying 

Author: Django Wexler 

ISBN: 9780316392204

Publisher: Orbit

Part of a Series: Dark Lord Davi 

Type of book: comedy, satire, fantasy, adventure, flipping the fantasy tropes, power of evil vs good, quest, humans vs other humanoids, mastermind 

Year it was published: 2024 

Summary:

Groundhog Day meets Guardians of the Galaxy in Django Wexler’s laugh-out-loud fantasy tale about a young woman who, tired of defending humanity from the Dark Lord, decides 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.

Burningblade & Silvereye
Ashes of the Sun  
Blood of the Chosen  
Emperor of Ruin

Characters:

Main character is Davi, a snarky and sarcastic young woman who comes from 21st century of our world. She is very open, energetic, logical and is passionate. She also has a vicious streak of sorts, but at the same time compassion. She is also reckless as well. There is also her love interest Tsav an ogre? Woman who is practical, loyal and is willing to do what she can to make sure Davi survives. Amitsugu is a fox? Creature who is sneaky, too clever for his own good and often thinks with his feelings instead of brain. I am sure there are a ton of other characters I am forgetting, but they are worthwhile to check out. 

Theme:

Being good isn't all its cracked up to be

Plot:

The story is in first person narrative from Davis point of view. Davi is a girl from our world and she gets transferred to a mysterious fantasy world where she becomes the Chosen and tries to do typical fantasy tropes: defeat evil, unite kingdom, etc etc. However there are a number of problems; one is a constant reset button after "death" and the other is she is sick and tired of being a good guy after 237 lives. Thus Davi decides the best thing to do is to become a Dark Lord. But how will she go about it? Everything in the book is just pure gold, from Davis footnotes to her snark and to others humoring her. With such an impressive tale, I am definitely counting down until I can get my hands on the conclusion of the story. 

Author Information:
( From goodreads)

Django 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.

Opinion:

This is definitely a hidden gem for me. It's simply pure comedic genius, and trust me when I say from storytelling to relationships to an interesting world will definitely keep the reader continuously turning pages, hungry for more of Davis story. I would highly recommend for those who are seeking comedic fantasy, or else fantasy that will turn the world around to seek this one out. 

This was given for review 

5 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)