The Dark Lord's Handbook

The Dark Lord's Handbook #1

by Paul Dale

To become a Dark Lord is no easy thing. The simple ambition to hold dominion over the world and bend all to your Will sounds straightforward but it's not. There are armies to raise, fortresses to build, heroes to defeat, battles to be fought, hours of endless soliloquy in front of the mirror – it's a never ending job.

After many spectacular failures, Evil decided to lend more than inspiration to these would be tyrants. He wrote an easy to follow Dark Lord's Handbook. And yet the next Dark Lord that came along screwed up like all the others.

It had been hundreds of years, and the Handbook was lost in the annals of time, along with all that was mythic and exciting in the world. Then one day a randy dragon had a chance encounter. Nine months later a Dark Lord was born.

In time, the Handbook found its way to this new contender, Morden. To become a Dark Lord is no easy thing.

Morden had better be a quick study.

Genres: Fantasy, Humor, Audiobook, Fiction, Horror, Magic, Dragons

326 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

I live in Bath, England, a city rich in Roman and Georgian heritage. When I’m not writing, I’m cycling the surrounding hills of the Mendips and Cotswolds.

I studied Physics with Applied Physics at Bath University, later earning an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University.

My first work, a satirical fantasy trilogy, The Dark Lord’s Handbook, explores whether anyone can be born entirely evil—even a Dark Lord. My latest novel, Artificial Intelligence: Awakening, shifts to science fiction, tackling the accelerating impact of technology on society. While more serious in tone, it still carries moments of humour and aims to spark thoughtful conversation.

Reviews

[Markus · Rating 2 out of 5]

”The enemy of my enemy is also my enemy. A dark lord has no friends.”
- The Dark Lord’s Handbook

"Keep your friends close and your enemies dead.”
- The Dark Lord’s Handbook

Morden is the Dark Lord of prophecy. The one who will save the orcs from slavery and lead his vile followers to conquer the world. Unfortunately, that prophecy was just made up in desperation by his second-in-command. Luckily, Morden has help. When he manages to open the Dark Lord’s Handbook which served as a guide for the previous Dark Lord, Zoon the Reviled, he no longer has to go about his evil quest on his own…

This was a fantastic concept. The whole idea of having a book where the bad guy is the protagonist is something I really enjoy, and here the author has even included a handbook giving tips to aspiring dark lords about how they should act in any given situation. I was really excited about this, and expected lots of evil awesomeness and humorous advice on how to do this whole dark lord business.

Unfortunately, I must say that the book fails spectacularly. The main story, and mostly everything that happens, is utterly and senselessly boring. The characters are unengaging, one-dimensional and, yes, boring. The same goes for the setting. And the problem is that there shouldn’t even be a storyline. The focus of the book should be on what is written in the infamous Handbook, and that is actually great, but instead Morden just seems to read a couple of paragraphs from the Handbook every fifth chapter or so. And it just took away most of the enjoyment for me. I have no problem admitting that I ended up skimming through everything and just reading the excerpts from the Handbook. They were written in italics, so fortunately they were easy to find while skipping through everything else.

So, to repeat myself, the Handbook is awesome. It delivers on its promise, even though the rest of the book was entirely uninteresting. There are great quotes, lots of humour, and references to, among others, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, World of Warcraft, King Arthur and even the Bible. If the whole book was written like that, I would have ended up giving it a much higher rating.

Here’s a sample of the gold you can find:

”So you want a fortress? Well, the first thing is to look at the geography and consider important features such as impenetrable mountain ranges, nasty indigenous flora and fauna (poison swamps, dragons, immense spiders and man eating plants are all favourable) and the weather. If you are coming into the Dark Lord business later in life perhaps the colder north may not be the best choice as it will play havoc with the rheumatism.”

“Morden, I am your father.”

”A good Rising should be followed by a sudden Coming Forth (see next chapter). If you have Risen well and disrupted your opponents’ preparations you should be able to Come Forth and manage some Laying Waste (see chapter after Coming Forth).”

”There was a promising Dark Lord who had Risen well. Despite all this he made a number of crucial mistakes after good preparation, not least of which was investing all his power in a ring, and then losing it (fool!). Such a shame. He had real promise.»

”Of good length, it was as bright as burnished steel - mainly because it was burnished steel.”

”A surprising number of heroes come from humble backgrounds. Often they are orphans whose parentage has been hidden. They are raised as a family's own but sooner or later the six-foot giant with flaming red hair is told by his dwarf parents that he is not their actual offspring. It comes as quite a shock.”

”Fortunately, the uncertain parentage of an orphan is a crucial emotional scar that must be opened and used to undermine them. When he is standing before you in the final confrontation, if you happen to be his father, this is the time to reveal the fact. Even if you are not, it is worth suggesting you are anyway. It will mess with his head. It could be start of a beautiful relationship; one that should end in his unfortunate demise.”

That should prove how cool this handbook is. The main problem I had with this is that this appears to be an author who is really good at something and has managed to find himself a really interesting concept, but unfortunately wastes his time doing something he is nowhere near as good at. I would recommend it to any fantasy fans who want to laugh a little at all the clichés and references, but I would suggest that you, like me, skip straight to the excerpts from the Handbook itself.

[Mia Darien · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was a lot of fun, which is certainly what a description like the above promised that it would be. The extended description reminded me of a line from "The Princess Bride" which is among the annals of legend for late twenty-something geeks everywhere, and thus drew me right in.

It had a lot of wry humor, poking astute fun at our archetypes for epic fantasy. There was more than a dash of social satire. It had much grey in characters pretending to be black and white, and some fun and funny stuff going on all around them. Some of the Deathwing stuff particularly amused me, mainly just the idea of the domestic life of dragons. Yet all the way, it gave you what it was poking fun at: an epic fantasy.

There were times that I found it dragging and kind of wandering, but it wasn't ever enough to drop me out of enjoying the general narrative or make me want to stop reading. I liked the ending, really, but it was missing that extra something that made me "close" the book and go: wow! Even so, it was an incredibly solid and enjoyable read that I would recommend to anyone who likes a dry wit and well-played satire.

[Jasmine M · Rating 5 out of 5]

a full review should be due, coming soon :)



according to my kindle, I'm 59% of the book :)
The War between the Evil and Good is as ancient as time and every day a small battle is fought, between groups of people or inside a person’s self, and every once in a while a great Evil prevails casting darkness to the world and threatening humanity, and whenever such darkness appears, you can be sure that groups or individuals will appear and save the world from this peril, or is that the case?

I’ve ready many epic stories, you could say they are my favorite kind of fantasy, and I’ve noticed by reading reviews and joining communities that some readers actually end up siding with the “bad guy” because his actions are more reasonable and justifiable that the “hero” , well I’m not one of those, I usually recognize the author’s attempt at making me like the here so I let him or her, but it seems that Mr. Dale decided to play this game differently, by telling it from the “bad guy’s” POV

So, what am I suppose to do in this case, should I like the bad guy instead, but no, this is not what this book is about, it’s much more, it actually criticizes -not mock mind you- all the books that speak of the battle between the Darkness and the Light and so on, in a funny witty way, you don’t feel your favorite books are being trashed or mocked, you actually start seeing patterns and find yourself agreeing with Dale’s observations.

Here is a quote from the book to make my point –needless to say I laughed so hard at this one my stomach hurt and I had to stop reading immediately to wipe the tears from my eye-
” It is inescapable fact that a Dark Lord who gathers his powers and forces will not go unnoticed. Traditionally this leads to expressions such as: there is a darkness come to the world; a power is rising in the east; and, there is evil abroad in the land. All of these are roundabout ways of recognizing that a Dark Lord is Rising. Fortunately, those who will oppose you once you have Risen will do nothing while you are actually Rising. Rather than nip the problem in the bud they will dither and dally, rush around in a headless panic, and observe from afar but not actually do anything to stop you. This is good. Use the time well. While your opponent may not be willing to take the initiative and stop your Rising, he will be making his own preparations. Heroes need to be found, relics discovered, prophecies read etc. It’s all time consuming. You must use this time to be ready first and this is the real pressure you are under.”
This book is not for those who are not familiar with Epic and Heroic fantasy, as for the quote above I could fit it to at least four stories I read before ;)

Bottom line I’m not sure how the book will end but I really wish it will go on the way it so far did

[Valeottantadue · Rating 4 out of 5]

È inevitabile che un Signore Oscuro intento ad accumulare potere e risorse non possa passare inosservato. Solitamente questo fatto dà luogo a espressioni come ‘sul mondo incombono le tenebre’, ‘a est sta nascendo una superpotenza’ oppure ‘c’è del male sulla terra’. Sono tutti modi indiretti di riconoscere che sta sorgendo un Signore Oscuro.
Per fortuna, i tuoi oppositori non muoveranno un dito prima che sarai asceso al potere. Anziché troncare il problema sul nascere, non faranno che tentennare e indugiare o girare stupidamente intorno al problema in preda al panico, limitandosi a osservare da lontano senza fare nulla per fermarti. E questo è bene. Dovrai sfruttare bene il tempo a disposizione.


Questo libro mi ha attirato da subito, non appena è uscita la notizia che sarebbe stato pubblicato. Mi piace la cover, che trovo più accattivante dell'originale pur nella sua semplicità, e mi piace la trama. Non si può negare che la trama intrighi, specie per gli amanti del genere fantasy come me.

Questo libro è una parodia.

In ogni storia fantasy che si rispetti, lo scontro epico è tra Bene e Male. Lo sappiamo bene. Da una parte c'è il Signore Oscuro che vuole seminare morte e distruzione e piegare il mondo al suo volere, dall'altra l'eroe, il paladino della giustizia, il salvatore di damigelle in costante periglio.


Il Male è stanco. Stanco che tutte le sante, benedettissime volte il Bene vinca. Ecco perché ha scritto un libro. Un libro d' istruzioni, un manuale per diventare il perfetto Signore Oscuro. Gli si dice come si deve sorgere (si perchè un Signore Oscuro non appare, sorge) in modo appropriato, cosa deve indossare, come deve ridere e parlare, cosa deve dire e come deve comportarsi con gli Eroi/ Eroe di turno, che tenteranno di fermarlo.
Nonostante il libro, Zoon l'Oltraggiato viene comunque sconfitto da Uther (l'Eroe)durante l'ultima battaglia.
Il libro viene raccolto da un Orco che aspetterà l'arrivo di un nuovo Signore Oscuro a cui consegnarlo.
Passano 500 anni e in una notte di passione con la donna di servizio, il signor Aladimorte da vita (non intenzionalmente, a dir la verità, stava pur sempre tradendo la moglie) a Morden. Metà uomo e metà (beh! lo scoprirete) sarà lui il nuovo terribile Signore Oscuro.
A fermare la sua ascesa, niente meno che la signora Aladimorte in persona, che con l'aiuto di un gruppo di nobili, si procura un eroe- Edwin- e un esercito da mandare contro Morden.
Preoccupato per la guerra imminente e per i suoi affari, il cancelliere di Penbury tenterà di fermarli entrambi.

All'inizio devo dire che non aveva convinto moltissimo, specie i primi capitoli li trovavo scritti in modo "puerile" e mi avevano un po' infastidito. Poi la storia prende quota e mi sono fatta tante belle risate.
L'ambientazione è quella tipica del fantasy classico, cavalli e cavalieri e città con fortezze e castelli e cinte di mura, ma con qualche pennellata di modernità qua e là, che troviamo soprattutto quando a parlare dei suoi affari è il conte di Penbury.

Un personaggio che sa il fatto suo.
Il nostro Eroe è lo stereotipo d'eroe, orfano e cresciuto da un fabbro (perché così è in genere un eroe), bello e prestante,che crede nella giustizia e nell'amore e ha una damigella, l'amore della sua vita-Griselda-, da salvare. Ovviamente, è stata rapita dalle forze del male.
In questo caso il nostro ragazzo è più che altro uno sciocco, assetato di sangue, brandisce una spada magica uscita da un lago e farebbe di tutto per salvare la sua amata. Che per onor del vero, non mai stata rapita, ma è scappata con un altro ed è tutt'altro che regale, è sboccattissima (tanto da far impallidire gli orchi!)e di facili costumi.
Anche Morden pur essendo stereotipato nell'immagine di signore oscuro (veste scura, risata maligna, poteri "mortiferi" etc etc), è comunque atipico: arringa le folle con discorsi di giustizia e liberazione dall'oppressione, prova dei sentimenti: rabbia, tristezza, paura, amore ,odio...insomma è umano!!!
Tra gli altri personaggi quello che ho preferito è stato il cancelliere Penbury, un uomo che sa il fatto suo ed è deciso ad evitare la guerra. Per farlo deve fermarli entrambi.
Il libro ha un epilogo, che tira nel complesso le fila della storia, ma lascia spazio per un secondo volume. ho cercato notizie ma non le ho trovate. Attenderemo.
Un romanzo particolare, potremmo definirla una caricatura. Si prende gioco del fantasy e della letteratura cavalleresca estremizzandone i personaggi e le situazioni.
Consigliato a tutti gli amanti del genere, a chi vuole vedere in azione un Signore Oscuro atipico e a chi vuole farsi tante risate.

"Sicché vorresti una fortezza? Bene. La prima cosa da fare è affidarsi alla geografia e considerare aspetti importantissimi quali le catene montuose impenetrabili, gli animali e le vegetazioni pericolose (sarebbe preferibile la presenza di paludi avvelenate, draghi, ragni enormi e piante carnivore) e le condizioni atmosferiche. Se dovessi affrontare la questione del Signore Oscuro solo nella tarda età, probabilmente faresti meglio a evitare il freddo settentrione che potrebbe mandare a monte tutto procurandoti i reumatismi."

"Senza dubbio lo smilzo non provava alcun interesse per gli affari di Morden. Ciò che aveva detto riguardo alla birra non poteva che essere un diversivo. Possibile che conoscesse il destino del ragazzo? Sul libro però c’era scritto che le Forze del Bene avrebbero assistito impotenti finché Morden non fosse sorto completamente. D’altro canto, era da presuntuosi affermare che stesse sorgendo realmente... in quel momento, legato com’era, neanche fosse un tacchino, in lui c’era ben poco di oscuro, né tantomeno di signorile."

[Tanabrus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Divertente e ironico, questo libro gioca con i vari luoghi comuni del genere fantastico incentrati su due figure cardine di questi libri: il Signore Oscuro che raduna le forze del male per governare il mondo, e l'Eroe che gli si contrappone e, sopravvivendo a tutti gli attacchi del nemico, alla fine vince.

E se all'inizio scopriamo che Bene e Male sono entità eterne che giocano con pedine umanoidi la loro partita eterna, discutendo amabilmente dopo l'ultima sconfitta del Signore Oscuro di turno e dandosi appuntamento alla prossima occasione, veniamo anche a sapere che il Male, per cercare di cambiare le proprie sorti, ha creato un libro magico, per l'appunto il Libro Segreto del Signore Oscuro, una sorta di manuale per aspiranti Oscuri Signori che guiderà il candidato dai primi passi al dominio mondiale, parlandogli in prima persona e leggendogli la mente.

Dopodiché conosciamo il nostro protagonista, nonché designato prossimo Oscuro Signore, Morden, figlio illegittimo di uno degli ultimi draghi viventi (ma si crede figlio di tavernieri), seguiremo le sue imprese da quando viene mandato via di casa perché spaventa i clienti a quando, apprendista dai monaci trappisti, conquista il convento instaurando una propria impresa birraiola (e dominando sui compagni grazie agli sgherri), fino al momento in cui incapperà in un orco (ora sono pochi, vivono emarginati e tenuti come schiavi) che gli darà il libro e gli spiegherà il suo destino.

Nel frattempo, una congiura di nobili stufi del predominio della classe mercantile sta cercando un Eroe da usare per destabilizzare l'ordine attuale lanciandolo contro qualche potenziale Oscuro Signore, e lo trova nel classico orfano nato da parto virginale e allevato da un fabbro. Ma occhio, gli eroi son più pericolosi degli Oscuri Signori, fanatici e sanguinari oltre che ottusi.

E la storia, tra un cliché e l'altro rivoltati come calzini, assume più sfaccettature: la storia dell'ascesa di Morden, la storia dei tre ragazzi finiti intrappolati in macchinazioni più grandi di loro, il Libro stesso con le sue lezioni e i suoi consigli, il messaggio sociale della rivolta degli orchi che ormai da mostri cattivi diventano (ora che sono poveri, emarginati e sfruttati) emblema della lotta operaia e della guerra di classe.

Un libro scritto molto bene, scorrevole, che parte da un'idea ottima e la sviluppa splendidamente.

[RuthAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really 4.5 stars. Everything about this was fresh and original.

Imagine for a moment you're at the pub with the lads. One of the boys mentions that TNT (or the British equivalent, what have you) is showing the Lord of the Rings trilogy start to finish this weekend. The conversation progresses and leads the group to wonder how two hobbits from the Shire could possibly have overcome the powerful Dark Lord Sauron. Theories abound, namely that he put the bulk of his power over the world into one ring. Which he then lost.

How could he have made such a catastrophic strategic mistake?

And isn't literature and film just riddled with other examples of Dark Lords making similar errors?

Then one of your mates, the one who is, by all accounts, regarded as the smartest of the group, suggests that these could all be avoided if there were only a handbook for the Dark Lord to refer to in times of trial.

Enter the genius plot of the Dark Lord's Handbook.

I had a fantastic time reading this book. My particular favorite chapter was the monologue instruction, closely followed by the handbook's suggestion that the Dark Lord should try to, if not in actual fact but in appearance, be the Hero's father.

Even though you think the story within will be predictable, much like the formula most fantasy follows, it's not. I love how the Hero in this novel believes he is noble, but in fact is anything but and the Dark Lord really isn't all that committed to the handbook's evil machinations.

Who is really running things, you ask? Ah, well, you'll have to read the book to find out, but suffice it to say, it was a brilliant bit of satire of our own present-day society.

I've heard that Paul Dale intends to pen a sequel, and if that's the case, hooray! I'm sure I'll enjoy it every bit as much as this.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wasn’t what I’d expected it to be. In fairness that’s my fault it was only a dollar or two so I bought it honestly based off the title alone. Not a book buying strategy I recommend or one I employ often. I’d expected an actual handbook with sections like “Tips for fortifying the walls of your dark fortress against trebuchet fire” and “Best torture methods to make a hero reveal his secrets.” This is not a handbook like that. This is a novel about a character who obtains a handbook like that.

Plot:
As I mentioned above, the book is about someone obtaining a handbook that will teach him to be a darklord. The someone being discussed in this case is Morden, the half-dragon Dark Lord to be. The book starts on Morden and he is certainly the main character of the novel but there are three point of view characters the Hero Edwin, Chancellor Penbury, and Count Vladovitch.

The book covers Morden’s “rising” which is described by the eponymous handbook as his gathering of power and resources. During this time Edwin hunts after Morden and the Chancellor and Count have their own plots which they are involved in that of course are related to Edwin and Morden.

Characters:
Morden - I really didn’t like Morden’s character for two main reasons. First: he has no ambition of his own. At the start of the book he’s set up some small criminal ring in his hometown and is happy to simply sit around collecting the rewards for his effort. The only goal Morden ever has on his own is lost after about seven minutes when he seems to nearly instantly forget about it. He spends the vast majority of the book doing what the handbook and a couple of other characters tell him to do. My other problem with Morden is that the only thoughts he seems to have on his own, what precious few there are, are all annoying. Instead of actually being an evil overlord he is going around instituting some actually fairly reasonable sounding government and spends a large portion of the book pining after some dumb girl. We’ll get back to her.

Edwin - The first scene with this character was actually hilarious. Unfortunately, every scene with him in it thereafter, I disliked more and more. Edwin is incredibly flat and one dimensional. Literally the only thing he care about at all is a girl named Griselda. Yes it’s the same girl Morden is interested in. I got so sick of hearing this character (I listened to the audiobook for most of this) shouting “GRISELDA!” because her name probably has to be a third of everything he says. Attempting to get to Griselda is the only thing Edwin cares about in the slightest.

Penbury - Penbury was by far my favorite character, though with how much I found myself disliking all the other character, that might not be overly significant praise. He had both a brain and clear understandable goals of sensible design. His goals all revolve around him maintaining his life of luxury and power. He is really not that remarkable of a character, though I enjoyed seeing how his story plays out nonetheless.

Vladovitch - The count is really not an important character himself. This point of view seems to exist mostly to give the reader information about certain things going on which they would otherwise not be privy to. The count serves this purpose well enough and doesn’t get annoying about it so I have no strong praise or dislike of him.

Griselda - While she is not a point of view character it would be remiss of me not to mention this character. “Character” however, might be a bit of a grandiose term. Griselda could have fairly easily been replaced with a yappy dog or a fancy sword or a slightly shiny glass bauble. She seems to exist exclusively for the purpose of being wanted. She is almost entirely devoid of personality herself aside from being rude and spends the entire novel being fought over by the Edwin and Morden and carted around from place to place like she is in fact just a dog or a bauble. If you actually manage to get through the whole book and aren’t thoroughly sick of hearing her name, I applaud you.

Setting:
There isn’t really much for me to say about the setting. The setting exists pretty much exclusively for the story to occur in. There are towns. There are people in the towns. All of it is largely unimportant and uninteresting though.

My Thoughts:
This book was almost pretty good. The start of the book was actually really fun as it joked and played on all the old fantasy tropes. Edwin is described as being a very archetypal her; he has golden hair, a ripped body and, of course, a hairless chest. He is, of course, also an orphan. All of this is played off in a fun way and Morden sees his fair share of tropes as well what with the book giving him extensive advice on monologuing.

I think this book suffers mostly from not knowing exactly what it wants to be. The book seems to suffer from trying to have its cake and eat it too. The start of the book is trying to be humorous and playing on a lot of tropes and is, in my estimation, more about the fun of the novel than any grand story unfolding. The mid and later sections of the book seem to want to be taken seriously after the book had already established itself as being funny and irreverent.

Ultimately I think the book has some good stuff in it, but has some heavy negatives too. Honestly, I can’t help but feel like this book would have been far better were it actually just a handbook like I mentioned in the intro. Something similar to Max Brooks’ Zombie Survival Guide I think would have been great. My favorite parts of the book, aside from the first Edwin scene, were the excerpts directly from the handbook itself. It’s really rather disappointing that there are so few of them through the novel.

**Spoilers Below**
I also found the ending of the book really rather frustrating. After having pushed through the mid and late sections of the book with my hatred of the main characters growing, the ending looked for about five seconds like it was actually going to bring it back. Everything I wanted happened; Griselda dies, Edwin is ruined, Morden becomes properly evil. Then the author throws all that out when Griselda gets up because she wasn’t actually dead. And this is some set up for a joke that isn’t particularly funny and honestly just wound up feeling like I got teased with a good ending only to actually get a much less good one.

[Mikhail · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent popcorn/nerd read, though it's got a few characterization errors that keep it from being properly good (funnily enough, the titular main character is one of the less interesting and active characters in the book -- the Count and Penbury are far more likeable and active 'heroes')

[Dexcell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly enjoyable. It was definitely more funny then I was expecting. Morden isn't terribly interesting so far, but we'll see where he goes.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun take on fantasy tropes and cliches with enough new flavors to keep things interesting.

[James Vernon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dark Lord's Handbook was a highly entertaining read that I had trouble putting down. The story follows the rise of the dark lord from humble beginnings to his growing power while following the handbook written by evil itself. At the same time, the story follows his predestined orphan hero opposition as he grows in power and esteem. Both characters were well developed and were supported by a great set of minor characters. The world where the story took place was well put together and interesting, which can be a difficult feat for a stand alone book.

The overall story was a wonderful mix of fantasy and humor. The novel was full of your typical fantasy stereotypes; heroes, villains, dragons, and orcs. At the same time, the book was able to make fun of the usual good vs evil battle without coming off as insulting to fantasy enthusiasts. A great deal of the humor comes from the Dark Lord's Handbook in the story itself, which often makes humorous references to evil-doers in other well know stories.

Overall I found the Dark Lord's Handbook to be a fun read that leaves you wanting more. The story is interesting, the characters are entertaining, and the humor is well played. A great book for anyone that is a fan of fantasy and also has a good sense of humor.

[M. P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending was pretty anticlimactic, and I must admit I wasn't very impressed with the female characters, but overall I really enjoyed this book. It was, well, fun - not laughing out loud type of fun, but very entertaining nonetheless. I did smile on a few occasions!

The fantasy tropes The Dark Lord's Handbook makes fun of were well twisted, but what really made this reading experience for me was the apt social satire sneaked into the story line. Not to mention how the side stories - the main one naturally being that of the Dark Lord Rising, Morden, and that of the Hero Edwin - gave some perspective to the side of the people caught in the middle of the battle between the Hero and the Dark Lord. Namely, this perspective was shown through the character of the count, while the social satire was namely shown through Penbury's story line. It was refreshing to see. As was seeing actually intelligent, likable orc characters!

Bottom line: A very refreshing high fantasy farce that'll have you rooting for the villain.

[David Golden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light fantasy satire with a novel twist

I was intrigued by Dale's concept of reversing the hero's journey by showing the rise of a villain. For the most part, it paid off. The villain is kept in the moral gray zone where we never stop rooting for him. The hero we can safely root against. Fantasy cliches abound as in jokes. The modern finance minor plot could have been cut as could have many other modern references and minor characters. But the plight of orcs as a workers underclass being liberated by a "benevolent" dictator was clever and worked for both plot and satire, and there were other similar twists on usual good/evil tropes. Overall, a fun read for anyone who has read a lot of fantasy and gets the references.

[Cheryl M-M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conceptually it is a superb idea.
I mean it is only natural that Dark Lords, who intend to take over the world with their minions, would need a basic step by step manual to do so.
The author has quite the flair for irony and a witty repertoire. Quite a few times I found myself shaking my hand and grinning.
However I do think it could have so much more.
The story often slips in and out of banal storyline and then whips back into a great comedic dryness. This roller coaster is what made it less than what I think could have been a brilliantly funny and satirical book.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a fun read and a clever send up of the whole dark lord vs hero tropes you see in so many fantasy novels. Mixed in with sly commentary on our current international financial woes its an odd mix but one I nevertheless enjoyed. In a supposedly black and white world there is a lot of grey in this story about archetypes and I'm looking forward to book 2 in this series.

[Kurt Springs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was first published on Kurt's Frontier.

Synopsis:

From being a half-breed son of a dragon named Lord Darkwing and a tavern wench, Morden’s fortunes change when an orc presents him with a book: Evil’s own Dark Lord’s Handbook. Now Morden is on the path to world domination. He’s raising his army and heading for the last dark lord’s fortress. The handbook will provide him with simple, easy-to-follow instructions on how to do it right.

However, other forces have noticed his rise and are moving to counter him. They’ve found a hero named Edwin, to whom they give a magic sword. Incidentally, the sword drives Edwin insane. Lord Darkwing has also taken an interest in what’s happening. The merchant and banking class meet to figure out who they want the winning side to be. Morden is left to wonder if he is the real bad guy.

Review:

The Dark Lord’s Handbook is another book of subverted fantasy tropes. Being a dark lord is not easy. Dominating and bending the world to your will is not as straightforward as it sounds. Many would-be dark lords have failed rather spectacularly, so Evil decides to step in and provide guidance for the next would-be dark lord in simple, easy-to-follow instructions: The Dark Lords Handbook. Morden, the latest owner of the handbook, is prepared to give it the old college try.

Paul Dale pokes fun at the epic fantasy genre, with some social commentary snuck in for good measure. The result is dry-witted entertainment fun. You may find yourself expecting one of the orcs to ask, “Are we really the baddies?”

[Russell Gray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting premise, but lackluster execution.

I made it about 200 pages (65% on my Kindle) before finally deciding there wouldn't be any redeeming qualities to swoop in like eagles and save this book. I feel like the story really never left 1st gear and it seems the author might have believed that making some snarky references to LotR tropes was enough to compensate for one-dimensional characters and an extremely boring narrative with zero tension.

While I've gotten over my aversion to dropping books, it's still a bit painful to quit after giving something so many pages, but honestly, life is too short to finish books solely out of some misguided sense of obligation. The obligation is for the author to provide content that makes me want to continue, not for me to delude myself with shallow justifications to do so.

For anyone who wants to know what kind of story this book aspired to be, I'd recommend reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman.

[Valentina Tini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Voto: 3.25

Questa storia nasce con l’idea di divertire prendendo in giro i cliché e gli stereotipi del fantasy vecchia scuola, quello del Bene contro il Male nella sua forma più pura, e lo fa narrando le vicende dal punto di vista del cattivo. Con una premessa simile credevo che l’avrei adorato e in effetti l’ho apprezzato parecchio, ma non fino in fondo. Il problema è che, proprio nascendo dall’idea di scherzare sui cliché, ne fa ampio uso e quindi è inevitabile che non riservi grosse sorprese. Poi però non riesce fino in fondo neanche a divertire perché si prende un filo troppo sul serio per poterlo fare e quello che ne viene fuori è una via di mezzo in cui nemmeno l’autore sembra troppo sicuro di cosa voglia.

Il genere di storia con la nascita di un Signore Oscuro è qualcosa che adoro (ho ancora gli occhi a cuoricino per Overlord!) e per questo il libro mi è piaciuto, ma capisco bene che se viene letto da una persona che ama il fantasy, ma senza una particolare ossessione per i Signori Oscuri finisce per perdere tutto il suo fascino perché come fantasy puro e semplice non è un granché: ha troppi cliché per riuscire ad intrattenere chi cerca qualcosa di serio e non è abbastanza divertente per chi invece cerca il comico. È una strana via di mezzo che non convince. Puntando eccessivamente su un'ironia che non riesce del tutto a divertire, ha finito per adagiarsi troppo sui cliché.

Alla fine ho apprezzato il libro e non escludo un giorno, se dovessi essere annoiata, di dare una possibilità anche ai seguiti in inglese, ma credo che rimanga un esperimento non del tutto riuscito proprio perché non sa nemmeno lui se vuole essere più comico o fantasy serio. Io l’ho apprezzato perché adoro le storie di Signori Oscuri e quindi rientra perfettamente nelle mie corde, ma capisco che per la maggior parte della gente non sarebbe così.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book that shows the other side of the Hero/Villain dynamic and does so with a great deal of humor. The characters are fleshed out where needed and while not all are likable they do fit their role.

The homage to the 2008 banking crisis was also well done and humorously pointed out the systems inherent stupidity. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who likes the fantasy genre and looking for a lighthearted story.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining

I only found one mistake in the entire story, a word was missing it's first letter.
Over all the story was decent and I enjoyed it. However it was more the way that the story is written than the Chas that had me buying the next book.
To me the characters didn't really come alive, well one does but it wasn't the MC.
I can recommended this story based just off of the story alone.
Pick it up and see if you agree with me about the MC.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm really not enjoying this book. I don't know if it's suppose to be taken seriously or jokingly. I just know I want it to end. It's the usual "good" being the ones who can ham it up and present the best false face to the masses.

The first half of this book left a lot to be desired. It started to pick up (kind of) near the end, but it's too late. I don't think I will be reading anything else by the author.

2/5 Stars

[Denverjem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mi sono abbastanza appassionata al libro grazie ai personaggi molto coloriti e particolareggiati. Ma non comprendo...che genere voglia essere il libro. Sicuramente parodico ma non sempre tiene questa linea di cui ammetto la difficoltà comunque...se fosse catalogato come fantasy dovrei dargli un voto ancora più basso a causa della poca chiarezza dell'ambientazione almeno per i primi due, tre quarti del libro...

[Eric Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it

Morden was heavily restricted from doing anything so he was a pretty useless main character and after a certain point the ending becomes predictable but the predictability in no way makes the story any less entertaining. I only took off a star because Morden was pretty useless.

[Karina Iskhakova · Rating 5 out of 5]

The closes book to Sit Terry Pratchett I read.
Lovely book and there is very well narrated audio book version. The books is funny, clever and human. I read almost all authors recommended to fans of Sir Terry Pratchett but often couldn’t find any similarities. Here I felt as if it was written by a very talented apprentice of the great man. Off to read next one in trilogy!

[Brewergnome · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, amusing, interesting ideas. Overall I liked the story and the twisting of the tropes the story itself built. I felt like it lost a bit at the end, though, not really justifying the change in the main character.

[Kristin Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a book to be taken seriously, and I enjoyed this whimsical tale of a promised dark villain and his counterpart the hero. I loved how the lines blurred in this tale, and how ridiculous the whole thing is while it still gives a little food for thoughts... I have to give a plus for the audiobook, which was just perfectly read. Very entertaining!

[Kian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't like how it ended.

[Logan Horsford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Friend was reading this, thought I'd give it a try.

Got bored, gave up after nearly 4 hours into the 13:45hr recording.

[Lacey Caselman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humerous. Not great.

[Teryn Hubly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for this to be a bit more exciting. It started out on the exciting side but then became a bit bland throughout. The concept is great but I feel the execution could have been better.