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Lich Lord #1
Redemption's Cost
Reincarnated in the body of a Lich. An enemy to all. And that's just problem number one...
Well, now he’d done it. Zeke was only playing the villain to blow off steam, now he was stuck in the body of one.
Trapped in a hostile world, Zeke must flee his former guild. The problem is, he can only flee into a holy kingdom ruled by the Church of Olattee. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Only his power is gone, and he must start over.
Well… Mostly anyway. He is still a lich after all and he still has his weapon, Mercy, which is more powerful than even he knows.
The real question is, is he now a villain or not? And will he survive long enough to find out?
Don't miss the next action-packed LitRPG / GameLit series by Levi Werner, the bestselling author behind World of Magic. It's perfect for fans of Sylver Seeker, Book of the Dead, and The Ritualist.
Well, now he’d done it. Zeke was only playing the villain to blow off steam, now he was stuck in the body of one.
Trapped in a hostile world, Zeke must flee his former guild. The problem is, he can only flee into a holy kingdom ruled by the Church of Olattee. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Only his power is gone, and he must start over.
Well… Mostly anyway. He is still a lich after all and he still has his weapon, Mercy, which is more powerful than even he knows.
The real question is, is he now a villain or not? And will he survive long enough to find out?
Don't miss the next action-packed LitRPG / GameLit series by Levi Werner, the bestselling author behind World of Magic. It's perfect for fans of Sylver Seeker, Book of the Dead, and The Ritualist.
402 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 28, 2024
437 people are currently reading
86 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
July 23, 2024
Flawed but enjoyable
There are... a lot of typos. Two or three words jammed together is not uncommon, which is somewhat depressing as those kinds of errors would be taken care of with a simple spellcheck. I don't know if it is an artifact of formatting, but it is indicative of the lack of care evident in the book.
There are also many homophone errors. At least one of them, bafflingly, was used correctly and incorrectly back and forth over a few paragraphs, so it's not as if the author was unaware of the correct usage.
The author also tells us that a thing is a certain way then shows us that it isn't that way. One example is the cat that doesn't act like a cat. It gives, at best, token resistance to strangers, but in the last chapter, the author tries to tell us that it is hesitant around strangers.
Another example is the main character's illusion spell. The mechanics appear to be that it reserves a portion of the caster's MP and that it also consumes MP while active. In the first half of the book this means very little. He can drop the illusion and immediately cast a spell with his previously reserved MP. In the latter portion, the author clearly states that dropping the illusion does not let the caster use the previously reserved MP, and the MC has to wait for his MP to regenerate or drink a mana potion.
As other commenters have noted there is quite a lot of naval gazing regarding the nature of good and evil. It's rather tiring as you don't really see much character progression on that point until near the end of the book, and even that seems more plot driven than character driven.
On that note, there is a rather irritating lack of agency with the MC. He pretty much just does what he's told even after a cartoonishly evil priest of a supposedly good god goes full evil. This isn't really a spoiler as it can be seen from a mile away. He does finally claw some agency from the other, but it feels like it's too late, especially as his previous lack of agency leads him to do evil deeds while trying to atone for his past evil.
The MC often throws his staff, which is in the form of a spear, 'like a javelin'. It is said so many times that I wonder if the author knows that spears can be thrown.
There is ex-machina hidden behind every blade of grass. The fight scenes are littered with passages where people 'barely dodge' so often that I basically just stopped reading the fight scenes. The MC loves to twirl his staff and 'lop off' limbs so much that I wonder if the author spent any time at all researching combat techniques other than what can be seen in anime.
So, why did this get three stars instead of zero? There's charm hidden inside and the author tried to make an enjoyable story. I enjoyed it enough to finish it and I may well read the next one when it comes out. I don't like discouraging amateur writers as we can never have enough stories in this world. I do genuinely hope the author pays for an editor or at least crowdsources editing help with the next one as the errors constantly ruined immersion and I only just made it through without shelving it unfinished.
There are... a lot of typos. Two or three words jammed together is not uncommon, which is somewhat depressing as those kinds of errors would be taken care of with a simple spellcheck. I don't know if it is an artifact of formatting, but it is indicative of the lack of care evident in the book.
There are also many homophone errors. At least one of them, bafflingly, was used correctly and incorrectly back and forth over a few paragraphs, so it's not as if the author was unaware of the correct usage.
The author also tells us that a thing is a certain way then shows us that it isn't that way. One example is the cat that doesn't act like a cat. It gives, at best, token resistance to strangers, but in the last chapter, the author tries to tell us that it is hesitant around strangers.
Another example is the main character's illusion spell. The mechanics appear to be that it reserves a portion of the caster's MP and that it also consumes MP while active. In the first half of the book this means very little. He can drop the illusion and immediately cast a spell with his previously reserved MP. In the latter portion, the author clearly states that dropping the illusion does not let the caster use the previously reserved MP, and the MC has to wait for his MP to regenerate or drink a mana potion.
As other commenters have noted there is quite a lot of naval gazing regarding the nature of good and evil. It's rather tiring as you don't really see much character progression on that point until near the end of the book, and even that seems more plot driven than character driven.
On that note, there is a rather irritating lack of agency with the MC. He pretty much just does what he's told even after a cartoonishly evil priest of a supposedly good god goes full evil. This isn't really a spoiler as it can be seen from a mile away. He does finally claw some agency from the other, but it feels like it's too late, especially as his previous lack of agency leads him to do evil deeds while trying to atone for his past evil.
The MC often throws his staff, which is in the form of a spear, 'like a javelin'. It is said so many times that I wonder if the author knows that spears can be thrown.
There is ex-machina hidden behind every blade of grass. The fight scenes are littered with passages where people 'barely dodge' so often that I basically just stopped reading the fight scenes. The MC loves to twirl his staff and 'lop off' limbs so much that I wonder if the author spent any time at all researching combat techniques other than what can be seen in anime.
So, why did this get three stars instead of zero? There's charm hidden inside and the author tried to make an enjoyable story. I enjoyed it enough to finish it and I may well read the next one when it comes out. I don't like discouraging amateur writers as we can never have enough stories in this world. I do genuinely hope the author pays for an editor or at least crowdsources editing help with the next one as the errors constantly ruined immersion and I only just made it through without shelving it unfinished.
September 15, 2024
Fairly flawed
- The editing is pretty bad, many spots with spelling and grammatical errors. If there was an editor involved, they probably shouldn't be used again.
- Pacing is inconsistent. Several spots where things are bogged down, especially in the mindscape scenes. Sometimes it's great, other times it's a atrocious.
- Flat characters. The MC was pretty enjoyable, but the other characters felt very flat and two dimensional.
On a more personal level, the lich premise was awesome, but the Isekai into a game world that turns out to be real was just... cringe. Parts of this story seemed to want to be sword art online, while others wanted to be the ripple system, and with the two meshing, it didn't really vibe well with me. I think the Isekai thing into a game world is dead and overdone. Ultimately this just wasn't what I was hoping for. I was really crossing my fingers for a book of the dead and Sylver Seeker fusion with a tiny bit of First Necromancer sprinkled on top, but it fell short of those hopes and dreams. That's not on the author or the book itself, but rather the design choices for this specific story. I really think there was a good story buried in this book, but I think the author didn't receive the help they needed to polish it to its potential.
- The editing is pretty bad, many spots with spelling and grammatical errors. If there was an editor involved, they probably shouldn't be used again.
- Pacing is inconsistent. Several spots where things are bogged down, especially in the mindscape scenes. Sometimes it's great, other times it's a atrocious.
- Flat characters. The MC was pretty enjoyable, but the other characters felt very flat and two dimensional.
On a more personal level, the lich premise was awesome, but the Isekai into a game world that turns out to be real was just... cringe. Parts of this story seemed to want to be sword art online, while others wanted to be the ripple system, and with the two meshing, it didn't really vibe well with me. I think the Isekai thing into a game world is dead and overdone. Ultimately this just wasn't what I was hoping for. I was really crossing my fingers for a book of the dead and Sylver Seeker fusion with a tiny bit of First Necromancer sprinkled on top, but it fell short of those hopes and dreams. That's not on the author or the book itself, but rather the design choices for this specific story. I really think there was a good story buried in this book, but I think the author didn't receive the help they needed to polish it to its potential.
June 23, 2024
Mediocre
The writing clearly showed that the writer did not even read his own work, much less use a proper spelling and grammar checker. Spaces are missing, sentences are garbled and the wrong words used frequently (bow instead of bough, grizzly instead of grisly, and burqa instead of parka). The story itself is badly paced, jumping frequently around and skipping the most interesting parts. It is a book about a powerful mage who uses almost no magic, being primarily a fighter instead, and doesn't begin to bother with a magic system. Magic and abilities pop up when convenient and the writer insists on telling, not showing. The story is self contradictory, with conflict manufactured out of whole cloth simply to exist. I half wonder if this was written by an AI.
The writing clearly showed that the writer did not even read his own work, much less use a proper spelling and grammar checker. Spaces are missing, sentences are garbled and the wrong words used frequently (bow instead of bough, grizzly instead of grisly, and burqa instead of parka). The story itself is badly paced, jumping frequently around and skipping the most interesting parts. It is a book about a powerful mage who uses almost no magic, being primarily a fighter instead, and doesn't begin to bother with a magic system. Magic and abilities pop up when convenient and the writer insists on telling, not showing. The story is self contradictory, with conflict manufactured out of whole cloth simply to exist. I half wonder if this was written by an AI.
July 27, 2024
I had suffered to finish this book. Honestly this book had a lot of potential. I got hooked on the 1st chapter but the story is ruined after the wroting style turned into an isekai. The MC is an overpowered lich but the way his fighting is like a melee fighter. He dont even bother to improve himself. He can go solo instead of hanging around people. He can do better than this. Im dissapointed cause initially this book is really good.
June 8, 2024
This is less an adventure and more a slice of life book. But the characters are no where near strong enough to pull off carrying the story. The choices are forced, the action is boring and the ending is just ridiculous.
June 1, 2024
An interesting take on isekai
So the premise is an interesting one that I’ve seen once or twice before where the game world isn’t actually a game. So points for not using something I’ve seen a hundred times!
On to notes: this has a very light amount of crunch, hardly enough to justify calling it litrpg to my mind. Also there’s a lot of handwavium on levels as tetra time skips and suddenly the MC has more.
The lich race I definitely did enjoy, especially the changes as he grows more powerful again. But I could have done without an entire book of “I can’t use fake magic because I won’t be an evil monster”. The moral philosophizing definitely needed wrapped up faster.
I would have also liked to see more varied combat, and in one early fight he used a boosting spell on himself and then never did the rest of the book. Which just seemed dumb.
So the premise is an interesting one that I’ve seen once or twice before where the game world isn’t actually a game. So points for not using something I’ve seen a hundred times!
On to notes: this has a very light amount of crunch, hardly enough to justify calling it litrpg to my mind. Also there’s a lot of handwavium on levels as tetra time skips and suddenly the MC has more.
The lich race I definitely did enjoy, especially the changes as he grows more powerful again. But I could have done without an entire book of “I can’t use fake magic because I won’t be an evil monster”. The moral philosophizing definitely needed wrapped up faster.
I would have also liked to see more varied combat, and in one early fight he used a boosting spell on himself and then never did the rest of the book. Which just seemed dumb.
June 4, 2024
At first I wasn't sure about what I was getting, I just knew that Aethon publishing offered it... but as soon as I started listening I instantly knew it was fantasy litRPG and was my cuppa joy. Zeke was a wholesome individual albeit bein a lich and all, normally not being a creature I cared about. Even though Zeke used death magic casting spells that only a lich could cast and raise zombies he never lost himself to evil! He always fought for the right side... And just wait until the end, to see what happens as Zeke loses himself to his fury, amazing. Just amazing!!!
March 14, 2025
So this one came from a recommendation and I have to thank my friend because it really works. Werner has got a good story on a trope. The change, his character is a Lich. Yes, a Lich so the instant repulsion kicks in and we see the issues he has got to fix before he can have his redemption.
When Zeke gets transported into his game he figures its a joke. But as it turns out he is going to have a ton of troubles. The action starts early on this one and between his troubles in the normal universe and his issues within his mind the fighting never ends.
When Zeke gets transported into his game he figures its a joke. But as it turns out he is going to have a ton of troubles. The action starts early on this one and between his troubles in the normal universe and his issues within his mind the fighting never ends.
July 25, 2024
A good story
I wasn’t expecting the entire story to revolve around redemption but it does. However, I still liked the story a lot.
The idea behind the story is quite unique. MC is person who plays the game to let out some steam. Meaning he plays as a villain and becomes a lich. Then he realizes that it is not a game but in fact another world. Hence his path to redemption starts. The entire book is about how he goes about this redemption.
I wasn’t expecting the entire story to revolve around redemption but it does. However, I still liked the story a lot.
The idea behind the story is quite unique. MC is person who plays the game to let out some steam. Meaning he plays as a villain and becomes a lich. Then he realizes that it is not a game but in fact another world. Hence his path to redemption starts. The entire book is about how he goes about this redemption.
January 12, 2025
“I am an all-powerful Lich lord with a mighty weapon! No, wait, I’m a skeleton with a stick. Watch as I slowly fight peasants who keep tripping over their own feet for ooh, at least a hundred pages. And some weird crap about a magic Friar Tuck. What do you mean, false advertising?” It felt like he was just bumbling around at random, going “eh, whatever, so I’m a wimpy skellington now”. Not what I expected at all.
April 16, 2025
What Makes a Monster a Monster?
The concepts of "Good" and "Evil" are central to plot of this novel. Is a monster evil because it is a monster? Or, is being evil what makes a being a monster? These questions, and more, occupy Zeke's mind as he deals with his new existence as a lich.
Despite dealing with such weighty subjects this novel is a fun and engaging read.
The concepts of "Good" and "Evil" are central to plot of this novel. Is a monster evil because it is a monster? Or, is being evil what makes a being a monster? These questions, and more, occupy Zeke's mind as he deals with his new existence as a lich.
Despite dealing with such weighty subjects this novel is a fun and engaging read.
June 14, 2024
This was interesting
This is a walk on the wild side. Really interesting motivations and thoughts. I'm not a fan of Marissa at least currently I don't think she adds to the story. We'll see in the next book.
This is a walk on the wild side. Really interesting motivations and thoughts. I'm not a fan of Marissa at least currently I don't think she adds to the story. We'll see in the next book.
June 14, 2024
New author for me. This grew on me, a bit slow going and seems more like a self development exercise (deeper than that), but the combat is awesome and I love how he goes all John Wick on the scum who murdered his kitty.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 27, 2024
Very good book.
However...
SO many typos. some grammatical errors...
Seriously, running it through a proofreading program like Gr*****ly or something similar would have helped so much.
I DID enjoy it.
I DO plan on reading more of the series.
But seriously.
However...
SO many typos. some grammatical errors...
Seriously, running it through a proofreading program like Gr*****ly or something similar would have helped so much.
I DID enjoy it.
I DO plan on reading more of the series.
But seriously.
March 2, 2025
Great start to this series about a "good" lich. Isakai LitRPG about a guy who died in the real world but was reborn in game as a game character from his main MMORPG. Good action, good explanations. I'm definitely intrigued.
September 21, 2025
Death is not the end
Our main character lost everything but gained a new life if you could call it that as a Lich, a supreme undead magic user. I love how he still cares about the people he left behind.
Our main character lost everything but gained a new life if you could call it that as a Lich, a supreme undead magic user. I love how he still cares about the people he left behind.
October 5, 2025
New proofreader needed
There are sooooo many grammatical errors it’s sad. I’m not sure if the editor used a proofreader or not, if so, fire them, if not then hire one.
Other than that it’s a pretty good story with decent flow.
There are sooooo many grammatical errors it’s sad. I’m not sure if the editor used a proofreader or not, if so, fire them, if not then hire one.
Other than that it’s a pretty good story with decent flow.
December 22, 2025
Great Book from a new point of view
Great series! Love the point of view being from an "evil" ouch lord.
Only complaint is the editing is not great and is getting worse as the series goes on.
Otherwise, love it!
Great series! Love the point of view being from an "evil" ouch lord.
Only complaint is the editing is not great and is getting worse as the series goes on.
Otherwise, love it!
January 2, 2026
Undead progression
Loved the story line, it was unique in many ways and similar in some others. The story is different from any others I've read while still being easy to follow and understand. My biggest issue was the spelling and grammar made the story fall apart at times
Loved the story line, it was unique in many ways and similar in some others. The story is different from any others I've read while still being easy to follow and understand. My biggest issue was the spelling and grammar made the story fall apart at times
June 14, 2024
Not bad but..
The mindscape stuff just felt boring. I honestly skipped a bunch of it. The main story is pretty good. Ravens super cute. Ill try the next one too.
The mindscape stuff just felt boring. I honestly skipped a bunch of it. The main story is pretty good. Ravens super cute. Ill try the next one too.
June 27, 2024
Enjoyed
Good book, enjoyed it more than I was expecting, and I look forward to continuing the series as soon as the next book is released.
Good book, enjoyed it more than I was expecting, and I look forward to continuing the series as soon as the next book is released.
July 11, 2024
Real good
This was a really fun read. It's in the World of Magic universe, so you will see some familiar faces and names.
Highly recommended.
This was a really fun read. It's in the World of Magic universe, so you will see some familiar faces and names.
Highly recommended.
July 26, 2024
Discovering the knight inside the lich
Very well put together as a story. I enjoyed it immensely and am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
Very well put together as a story. I enjoyed it immensely and am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
September 10, 2024
Leery of the MC even before he got isekaied; dropped this fast.
didn-t-like-it
March 25, 2025Note to self: just not for me.
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