How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying

English language

Published 2024 by Orbit.

ISBN:: 978-0-316-39220-4

Groundhog Day meets Deadpool in Django Wexler’s raunchy, hilarious, blood-splattered fantasy tale about a young woman who, tired of defending humanity from the Dark Lord, decides to become the Dark Lord herself.

"Takes the old saying 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em,' to the next level. A sarcastic, action-packed, intrigue-filled (mis)adventure. One of the funniest books I've read in a long time."--Matt Dinniman, author of Dungeon Crawler Carl

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 …

Groundhog Day meets Deadpool in Django Wexler’s raunchy, hilarious, blood-splattered fantasy tale about a young woman who, tired of defending humanity from the Dark Lord, decides to become the Dark Lord herself.

"Takes the old saying 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em,' to the next level. A sarcastic, action-packed, intrigue-filled (mis)adventure. One of the funniest books I've read in a long time."--Matt Dinniman, author of Dungeon Crawler Carl

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.

A humorous western isekai featuring the reincarnation of an antihero female lead.

2 editions

Soh Kam Yung reviewed How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler

An entertaining story about doing something different while in a time loop

4 stars

An interesting, and raunchy, book featuring a protagonist caught in a time loop. For over two hundred attempts, Davi, the proclaimed saviour of the kingdom, has tried to rally the human Kingdom against the wilder forces of the Dark Lord, and failed each time. Well, she has had enough and decides that since the Dark Lord wins, she will be the Dark Lord instead.

But like a novice trying to play at expert level in a computer game for the first time, she's not very successful. It takes quite a number of attempts before she manages to join a band of orcs without being killed in the first few minutes. From there, she has to lead them to the Convocation, where the next Dark Lord is to be chosen. Along the way, she has to recruit more wilders, so she will have a horde to back up her claim …

An interesting, and raunchy, book featuring a protagonist caught in a time loop. For over two hundred attempts, Davi, the proclaimed saviour of the kingdom, has tried to rally the human Kingdom against the wilder forces of the Dark Lord, and failed each time. Well, she has had enough and decides that since the Dark Lord wins, she will be the Dark Lord instead.

But like a novice trying to play at expert level in a computer game for the first time, she's not very successful. It takes quite a number of attempts before she manages to join a band of orcs without being killed in the first few minutes. From there, she has to lead them to the Convocation, where the next Dark Lord is to be chosen. Along the way, she has to recruit more wilders, so she will have a horde to back up her claim to be the next Dark Lord.

The nature of the time loop Davi is caught in is not explained in the book, nor does it feature prominently in the story once she joins the band of orcs, as she wants to succeed in this attempt and not have to start again, with possibly a different outcome. But she is forced to reconsider her present life when an event occurs that causes the time loop to manifest differently. That and the discovery of surprising artifacts at the Convocation makes her reconsider the current life she is leading and just what she wants to do once she does become the Dark Lord.

A humorous story about a person trying to discover why she appears to be the centre around which the world revolves. But that revelation will have to wait for the next book.

David Scrimshaw reviewed How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler

A totally fun fantasy romp

5 stars

Content warning I don't think it's really much of a spoiler.

This was exactly the fun read I needed.

I am very glad that I had the hard copy version to read because there are excellent footnotes on most pages and they can be a pain when I'm reading on my phone.

Among the bonuses for me, at one point the narrator directly addresses the readers and says "Okay, listen up: F*** you. Yes, you, Dave. If your name isn't Dave, pretend I wrote your name." And I didn't have to pretend! Sure my name was the most popular name for boys in the 60s and 70s, but it's gotten to be a bit rare.

The other bonus [possible spoiler alert] I've been watching a lot of Taskmaster these days. Without giving away too much, I speculate that Django Wexler has also been watching a lot of it.

Subjects

American literature