Publisher: Orbit (Trade Paperback – 6 August 2024)

Series: Dark Lord Davi – Book One

Length: 395 pages

My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

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Hilarious author Django Wexler presents one of the funniest and most memorable fantasy novels of 2024 with the deeply addictive How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying.  Serving as the first book in Wexler’s new Dark Lord Davi series, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying was an extremely amusing book that has been on my radar for a while due to its amazing-sounding plot.

It’s a tale as old as time.  An ordinary human becomes trapped in a mythical fantasy realm and is subsequently lauded as the prophesied hero of legend, destined to rule the kingdom and defeat the conquering Dark Lord.  But what happens when the human protagonist gets sick of living and dying as the hero?

That’s the question that falls to Davi, a young woman who has become trapped in a bloody and predictable time loop.  Constantly forced to become the leader of the soon-to-be-destroyed humans of The Kingdom, Davi has tried time and time again to organise an army capable of defeating the oncoming and everchanging Dark Lord, only to fail and die in agony in over 200 inventive ways.  After nearly a thousand years of playing the hero and losing in brutal fashion, Davi has had enough and decides that if you can’t beat them, become them.

Determined to take control of her destiny, Davi sets out to do the direct opposite of every other loop.  If the Dark Lord always wins, then this time Davi will take her place at the top of the winning side and become the new Dark Lord herself.  But first she must pull together a band of followers from the various non-human races of the realm and bring her loyal minions to the Convocation where the new Dark Lord is chosen, far away in lands she’s never even seen.  Standing between Davi and her destiny lie multitudes of deadly landscapes, brutal enemies, and all manner of unique obstacles that a Dark Lord in training needs to overcome.  Armed with her wits, her accumulated knowledge of the world, the ability to use her own death to her advantage, and an insane amount of humorous confidence, Davi may be able to do the impossible and finally win.  But Davi will soon learn that becoming the Dark Lord isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be.

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying was a highly entertaining and insanely captivating read that I honestly could not get enough off.  Featuring a brilliant scenario that Wexler plays to comedic perfection, combined with dark humour and a uniquely insane protagonist, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying is an outstanding novel that I had so much fun reading.

I must admit that I instantly loved the very fun premise of this book which saw the protagonist decide to take on the role of the Dark Lord after hundreds of failed attempts to survive as the hero.  Wexler did an outstanding job setting this idea up in the first couple of chapters of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, and you are quickly intrigued by the combination of a bloody time loop, a despondent, if hyper, protagonist, and the entire change of plan said protagonist embarks upon.  As such, you are completely onboard as soon as Davi starts to implement her plan, and the resulting carnage proves to be highly entertaining and fun.  After multiple bloody failed attempts to start her new turn to darkness, Davi soon begins to get into her groove as the next Dark Lord, recruiting a small band of minions, and taking the first steps to proving she has what it takes to rule.

Davi’s subsequent quest to become the Dark Lord involves an intense adventure arc, as she leads her army through various fun fantasy locations.  Along the way to her destination, Davi engages in different schemes to recruit new followers, especially when she encounters some chaotic communities whose internal strife she is able to exploit.  The story devolves into an awesome combination of intrigue, humorous encounters, fantasy action and personal character growth, as the protagonist becomes more comfortable with the Dark Lord lifestyle.  After several extended sequences at key locations, the protagonist eventually reaches her goal and begins her trials to become the new Dark Lord.  However, nothing at the trials is what it seems, and Davi is forced to deal with multiple enemies from her various pasts to survive.  There are some great moments in this final part of the book, including tragic betrayals, heart-felt romance, intriguing revelations, and some big fights, all of which leads to an interesting open-ended conclusion that will ensure readers come back for the next book in the series.

I had an exceptional amount of fun with How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, and Wexler had a fantastic style that really appealed to me.  Told exclusively from the slightly crazed first-person perspective of the protagonist, readers are treated to Davi’s highly excitable inner thoughts as she recounts her journey to becoming the Dark Lord.  This proved to be a great medium to explore the more complex elements of the plot, and I appreciated how Wexler was able to succinctly dive into time-loop and Davi’s place in it, while also moving the plot along.  The author also introduces a serviceable and intriguing fantasy world the plot of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, which proved interesting to explore.  While a little basic in places, Wexler does feature some excellent concepts here, and readers will enjoy watching Davi explore it with her own unique perspective, especially as she forms new ideas about the supposedly evil wilders (non-human creatures) as she works with them.  While some of these concepts are a little complex at times, everything honestly works extremely well for the entertaining plot, and I really appreciated how effectively the author was able to explore and utilise his fantastic ideas.

While all these great concepts help to craft a unique book, what holds everything together and keeps the reader’s attention is the relentless comedy that Wexler injects into nearly every page of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying.  I really connected to Wexler’s humour in this book, and I found myself chuckling away for large chunks of it.  Thanks to the slightly cracked protagonist, the reader is bombarded with a constant array of jokes, hilarious commentary, and over-the-top moments, as Davi combats the horrors both in front and behind her with humour.  A lot of this humour was driven by the protagonist having a modern, nerdish perspective in a crazy fantasy world, and her reactions ranged from sarcastic to goofy.  Wexler also makes great use of an array of continuous footnotes to tell additional jokes outside the flow of the narrative, or to really expand on an interesting or funny point.  I am a big fan of the use of footnotes for comedic purposes (blame my Terry Pratchett upbringing), and Wexler made it work really well here.  The author also relies on quite a lot of highly adult humour throughout the book, which helped to give How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying an interesting flair.  While I could see some readers not liking how continuously risqué the book got, or how over-the-top the humour is in general, I personally felt that it worked and allowed for quite an amusing, if slightly randy, experience.

Talking of crazy humour, I must highlight the fantastic central protagonist of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, Davi.  A modern-day and highly nerdy woman who finds herself trapped in this recurring fantasy adventure without any idea of how she got there, Davi is an interesting figure, and you really connect with her as the plot continues, especially as a lot of hilarity is drawn from her outrageous behaviour and thoughts.  Davi is constantly cracking jokes, making sarcastic inner observations and meta commentary, often driven by her modern experiences, and it’s hard not to be amused by her antics.  She also has some great, often ridiculous interactions with the various fantasy creatures she encounters, and I liked seeing her unusual persona connect with these more serious creatures.

While it is easy to get lost in Davi’s comedic persona, the further you get into the book, the more apparent it is that her cracked behaviour has been brought on by the constant trauma from her hundreds of deaths and the accompanying thousand years of experience that she has lived through as part of her fantasy adventure.  The initial exposure to her early trauma and rage at the start of the book gives you enough of a glimpse of this that you appreciate her turn to the dark side, but you see even more of it as the story continues.  A lot of this is because, even after years of watching everyone die, she still cares about the people around her, and the impacts of her decisions start to wear on her.  While she maintains her zany persona for much of the book, a new romance and a dark change in her circumstances towards the end of the book nearly break her, and I felt that Wexler did an outstanding job of trying to humanise her there, especially as she sometimes gives off uncaring, immortal vibes.  Thanks to these deeper personality traits, as well as her comedic nature, I really grew to appreciate to Davi as main character, especially as she is a lot more capable and competent thanks to her experiences, although she still makes some interesting mistakes (never sleep with your minions, everyone knows that).  As such, I look forward to seeing how her story continues, especially as things are likely to get even more out of control for her.

Overall, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler was an awesome book that I honestly found to be quite addictive.  The fantastic central scenario is greatly enhanced by the author’s outrageous humour and clever storytelling, and it allows for quite an outstanding read.  Slick, unique and very, very funny, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying was one of the more unique fantasy novels of 2024, and if you are in the mood for a great laugh, then this is the book for you.  I personally am very excited to see how the Dark Lord Davi series continues in the future, and the second novel, Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me, is set for release in May 2025.

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