This was a fun book and I enjoyed reading something a little different. I think one problem I tend to have with these kind of groundhog day stories is that at some point the author has to abandon the gimmick to proceed with the plot and character development. I felt it happened a little quickly here, but it also made sense. I didn't really get attached the the characters and I don't think I'll continue in the series, but it was a fun read.

I laughed out loud so often while reading this book, and forced whoever was sitting nearby to listen as I read aloud some brilliant and hilarious passages. There's lots of sex and murder in this book, but somehow the story doesn't get weighed down by darkness. And Davi is an amazing character. Love the complete unremarkability of her bisexuality too!

**Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for gifting me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review**

This book is going to quite polarizing- you will love it, or you will hate it. Definitely review the trigger warnings prior to reading. If you are sensitive to self-harm, suicide, sexual assault and/or do not enjoy dark humor, then this book will likely not be for you. As someone who has no trigger warnings, I had a great time!

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying follows Davi, a young woman tired of being defeated by an all-powerful Dark Lord. Davi decides 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em,’ and defects to the winning side to become the Dark Lord. We follow Davi on her journey to amass an army of minions and strategize her way through the kingdom.

The storyline was reminiscent of a D&D campaign x Deadpool. The characters are well written, and the battle scenes were easy to follow but complex enough not to drag. Modern slang in fantasy typically bothers me, but it worked well with the tone of the story and suited Davi. I cackled at “pocketses” and was hooked from then on.

The footnotes were a nice touch, but they weren’t e-reader friendly. Flipping back and forth was a no-go. I strongly advise getting ahold of a paper copy.

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying is not a book to be read in a serious mindset. It is a fun, easy-to-read novel (with quite a bit of dark content). If you are open to an unhinged twist on a fantasy read, I would recommend.

All hail Dark Lord Davi!

Have you ever just read a book and you can't put it down because you can't stop laughing at the absurd and ridiculous things keep happening? Well, let me introduce you to this book!

At one point in the pretty distant past, Davi was pulled from her couch in modern times, and sent splashing down into a magical pool of water where a wizard tells her she has to save the humans of this world from the wilders (which are animal humanoids). Well, after hundreds of times of trying (and getting sent back to level 1, the pool with the wizard and water), she decides to hell with it, maybe she wants to be the "bad guy".

There are so many ridiculous antics and I had a fantastic time. It's action packed, and there is a lot of tongue in cheek humor and satire. I am going to be honest, I don't know who is giving this bad reviews unless they are used to Wexler's other style of writing. Though this is a bit outside of his normal realm of writing, I think it sticks with an epic fantasy theme where someone is trying to become more than they are through trials and tribulations, back stabbing, and enemies. It's also kind of odd people would make commentary on the language or mild sex scenes ( minimal spicy at best), when another book I previously finished was applauded for the same level of content.

I love this book. I give it 5* and plan to do an episode on my YouTube channel in the very near future to talk more about the things I liked, I do want to thank NetGalley and Orbit Books for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. Django Wexler has never let me down yet.

I've seen a lot of people hating this book because of it's vulgarity and sexual content - it full on says that it's going to contain that, so I don't see the issue. I will say that I haven't read any of Wexler's other work, so I can't say how it compares. This reminded me of a kind of female fantasy version of Deadpool, but it also came across as a kid getting the go ahead to cuss for the first time. I love the humor from Deadpool, though, so it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I had a lot of fun with this one.

4.5 rounded to 5


Certain tropes in epic fantasy and game-related fantasy have become so formulaic that it's inevitable the satires come forth. I think books like this are much funnier for readers who have read so much fantasy that they're becoming a little jaded when the once-loved tropes don't do anything interesting with the expected setup.

This satire is unrepentantly crass, bawdy, vulgar, and sardonic. Wexler is a tight enough word-whipster that he brings it off--if you like that kind of thing. I adored the footnotes, but overall it did take me a while to read the book. I always enjoyed it when I picked it up, but it was easy to set down again, I don't think because the story was predictable so much as the fact that the emotional range is pretty narrow.

I tend to like my epic fantasy with plenty of humor, but I also want sense of wonder, and duels of wit, along with adventure and maybe even some eucatastrophic luminosity. This book is pretty much the opposite of that, sticking to the same insouciant knife edge expertly wielded, and I know it's going to find its audience. Will I read more? You bet. Will I reread this one? Probably not, unless it pulls a Good Place switcheroo, changing everything.

Django Wexler’s latest novel has a mouthful of a title, but it’s an absolute blast.

Davi is tired. She’s been living in a time loop for hundreds of years since she first found herself in The Kingdom, restarting in the same place, the same state of existence, every time she dies. Sometimes, that’s only a few hours (or minutes) into a loop. Sometimes it’s been years. Every time she wakes up in a new loop, she’s greeted by the same old wizard who tells her that it’s her destiny to save The Kingdom. She has tried hundreds of times, and so far, has always ended up the same way: failing to defeat the newly arisen Dark Lord and their horde of villains. What’s the phrase? If you can’t beat them, join them.

This time around, Davi decides, things are going to be different. She’s done fighting the Dark Lord, and is going to use her ability (curse?) of respawning to take the title for herself. It’s going to be hard, though. Subverting your destiny isn’t easy, even when you can take a few hundred tries to get it right. Step one. Kill the old wizard for starters. Step two. Find the nearest band of orcs and gain their trust. Step three. Use that orc band and her own knowledge of the local Guild patrols and fighting tactics to take out a crew and get their gear. Step four. Turn that little orc gang to start building up a proper army, and fast.

Oh, did she mention that she’s only got two months or so to get to the Convocation where the new Dark Lord will be selected? Davi needs to get moving if she’s going to get her tenure as Dark Lord on track, but she has no guarantees that things will end any differently than every time she tried to be a hero. After all, the Convocation is held beyond the edge of the map, as far as the Guild is concerned. She has no experience breaking the standard loop of time, and each day she moves beyond her previous routine is one day further that she’ll have to go if she screws up. She’s headed into unknown territory now, and the fate of her adopted world is at stake.

Wexler’s newest novel is perfect for fans of roguelike games like Hades. It’s an absolutely hilarious and unrepentantly horny book, and I enjoyed the hell out of it. Wexler’s writing traces a line between homage and irreverent humor, particularly where Davi’s footnotes are concerned (after a few hundred lives, she’s lost track of some of the details of her own background, and her memories from Earth are slightly scrambled). Even better? This is book one of a series. How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying is available next Tuesday, May 21st.

My utmost thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for a fair review.

This review originally appeared here: https://swordsoftheancients.com/2024/05/13/how-to-become-the-dark-lord-and-die-trying-a-review/

In "How to Become The Dark Lord and Die Trying" by Django Wexler, readers are treated to a unique blend of Groundhog Day-style time loops and Guardians of the Galaxy-esque adventures. The story follows Davi, a young woman tired of being defeated by the all-powerful Dark Lord, who decides to switch sides and become the Dark Lord herself.

While the premise is undeniably intriguing, the execution of the narrative leaves something to be desired. Davi, our snarky main character, is at times overly sarcastic, making the book feel longer than necessary. The constant barrage of sarcasm can become tedious, detracting from the overall enjoyment of the story.

However, the supporting characters shine in this tale, offering moments of depth and development that Davi's character lacks. Despite the main character's shortcomings, the immersive world-building and comical premise make this an engaging read.

That being said, the middle of the book does tend to drag and become repetitive, losing some of the momentum built up in the beginning. Despite these flaws, "How to Become The Dark Lord and Die Trying" is still recommended for fantasy fans looking for a quirky twist on traditional tropes, so long as you don't mind a startlingly amount of modern day pop-culture references in your fantasy.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was interesting and different. Davi is hilarious and I look forward to the sequel. I did find the footnotes to be a little distracting. I found myself trying to read them first so I didn't have to backtrack when I got to the end of the page.

The first in a new series about Davi, who is fed up with trying to save humanity from the dark lord over and over again. So instead, she decides she will become the dark lord.

I liked the idea a lot here but the writing style felt very chaotic to me. It was super fast paced but in a way that made hard for me to follow. Good idea, but the writing style just wasn’t for me.

This is the story of Davi, who is a woman from our time who has somehow gotten herself trapped in a fantasy world, and in a time loop on top of that. Every time she dies, she wakes up in the same place at the same time and starts over. It's something like Groundhog Day meets Dungeons and Dragons. I thought it sounded like a neat premise.

I had a good time with this book, there were just a few things that bothered me. First of all, there are a ton of footnotes here, and while I don't hate footnotes, I think they're annoying a lot of the time, especially if there are a lot of them. Admittedly, they're easier in ebook format because you don't have to flip to the end of the chapter, but still, sometimes i just want to lay in bed reading and turn the page with my nose. Look, I never said I wasn't super lazy... >.>

Davi as a character sometimes annoyed me too. This is told from her point of view and sometimes she is just... overly raunchy? It almost felt like it was raunchy just for raunch's sake and it came across like 'okay that was pointless and unnecessary' and this is coming from someone who reads some pretty smutty books, lol... but at the same time, Davi made me laugh more than a couple times, so I suppose it evens out in the end. We'll say this worked out in the end.

I feel like this would be a fantastic audiobook. Given the right narrator, this could be a fantastic listen. It would solve my problem with the footnotes too. I'm excited to maybe give that a try! 

All told, I had a solid 4/5 stars of fun with this one, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a comedic fantasy with lots of swearing.

This ARC was sent to me by Orbit via NetGalley.

This book was fairly surprising. I don't normally gravitate towards comedy books, but the premise of this story was too wild to pass up.

While the main character gave me second-hand anxiety at times (I mean, how could the threat of repeated death by a pseudo-reincarnation system *not* stress me out?!), I found her chaotic nature and resilience oddly endearing. Her internal dialogue reminds me of the one quirky friend that we all have who never fails to be funny, and I honestly respect the author's ability to write this kind of perspective in a way that feels organic.

All in all, this is a good book that I think fans of Hitchhiker's Guide will like. Just prepare yourself to have way more questions than answers by the end; this novel is definitely setting up a series, so the larger peculiarities are still heavily shrouded.

Genre writers from Western fandom have now decided to try their hand at the isekai novel premise, and you know what, turns out Wexler is a pretty damn good voice to try to do it first. We get a sarcastic gamer lesbian who falls in love with her orc second in command, and decides to go to try to be the villain to try and finally end the endless time loop cycle she's stuck in. He also leans into the sarcastic footnotes, and it absolutely feels like that one gamer lesbian you know online getting stuck in visual novel hell. Absolutely in for the next one.

Thank you to the publisher for an early copy for review. I am sad to report that I DNF'd this book. I do feel that I read enough to give my own personal take on the book and opinions. There is one main reason that I DNF'd then I will talk about the positives of the book. The reason I decided not to finish, "How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying" is just straight up the humor was not for me. I did really enjoy the DND type storytelling. If you are a fan of DNF, you should give this book a try. I wouldn't say that this book is offensive, but make sure you like crude comedy. I do think the author is witty and funny, just a lot of the jokes didn't sit right with me as they fall into the crude category which is just simply not comedy I enjoy. The writing otherwise is good, the storytelling is fine, if you. like crude comedy and DND you don't want to miss giving this one a try.

I wish I could have pushed through that aspect and enjoyed it but at times I found myself really put off and I just can't push through a book because of that.

*To be fair to the author I have given the book 3 stars as I did not finish it and believe it is worth trying.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and this is my honest and objective review. There is a nice amount of main character snark and humor. I liked the Groundhog Day-type premise, and initially I found it intriguing that after failing so miserably so many times at taking the just and honorable road, the main character Davi tosses up her hands and chooses evil. I wanted to like this book, so much, and I was prepared to fully enjoy it, but: too much graphic gore (a content warning about that should have been included along with the other content warnings) and there were just a truly ridiculous amount of footnotes (they went from quirky storytelling device to extremely annoying distraction in record time). This book is not what I was expecting from the description (I didn't expect it to be as dark as it was), and both the gore and excessive footnotes were a huge turn-off (I started ignoring the footnotes altogether about 15% of the way in, and once I got over my FOMO it made for a much smoother reading experience). I had a hard time getting invested in Davi (I kept trying and failing to find reasons to care about her) and I struggled to finish the story. I tried to enjoy the ride as it all played out, but I just couldn't. This was not the book for me.

This had the all the makings of a hilarious fantasy book. Main character save scumming life in in order to become the evil dark lord and constant fourth wall breaking. Structurally I love concept of the story, but textually it gives me the ick. Unfortunately the main character, Davi, gives off sex crazed, bisexual female character written by a man (cause it is). There's also a few instances of sexual assault being used for comedic purposes. Huge red flag there. The author tried to write an edgy comedic D&D campaign but it completely lost the plot, literally and figuratively.

Almost 300 times Davi has tried to be the hero and defeat the Dark Lord. She gets summoned by the court wizard, raises an army, and then … dies horribly. Rinse and repeat. But Davi has had enough. If the Dark Lord always wins, then this time Davi is going to become the Dark Lord.

As soon as I read the synopsis of the book, I was really looking forward to this book. And it did not disappoint. Before you read this you should know that it is very much a book breaking the fourth wall. Davi is constantly talking to the reader and there are annotations at the end of each chapter which gives more insight into her mind. Now as I read this on e-reader it was a bit of a hassle to keep going back and forth, but I managed eventually. I enjoyed the world and the premise and I kinda think Atraxes is really behind the time loop, but will wait to see in the next books. The ending left me with so many questions and was a bit of a cliffhanger, so just prepare for that.

I did have a problem with Davi sometimes. I found her funny, snarky, and loyal to her minions. But at the same time she was overly sexual and it seemed to be a driving force for her just to get laid. The dichotomy was a bit jarring for me at times.

Rating 4 stars
*I received a review copy from NetGalley for my voluntary and honest review

Stayed up way too late last night finishing this ARC. I found it hilarious but my sense of humor is occasionally juvenile or perhaps adolescent. There is a lot of kind of grim blood and guts humor. And some crass sex humor too so if your tastes are refined, adult and mature this might not be the book for you. But if you just want a good chuckle and are willing to find your tastes in the gutter this is a really fun book. I look forward to book two.

4.5⭐️

I actually really enjoyed this.

The language is more todays time, but I think that added to it. She’s not really a part of their world and they all think the things that she’s saying is gibberish. 😂 I think it’s a part of the charm because we can understand it.

There could be a chance that she’s like us and this is an entire other world.

She is quite flippant of dying, but when you’ve died thousands of times to be reincarnated back to the starting point…death becomes an everyday thing.

The thing that I was a little iffy about was all the footnotes. They added so much charm to her character and to the moment, but flipping back and forth was a tad bit annoying (especially when my kindle took me to a future footnote or location instead of where I needed to be)

Thank you NetGalley and orbit for the e-arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Oh my gosh this book is sooooo good! It’s really funny, like legit funny. It has a badass bisexual main character who you really want to win but you are certain will lose, because how could she actually win? The plot has so many twists and turns. The world building is A+++. Love it and really hope for the sequel soon. Th8s boom will be featured on an upcoming episode of Your Rainbow Reads podcast.