Beware of Spoilers for How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying…
Sometimes, if you can’t beat them, join them. That’s where things left off for Davi at the end of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying. After tens of dozens of times trying to live a life that would put her in opposition to the Dark Lord, Davi thought she’d try to save the world by becoming the Dark Lord. Chances are if you enjoyed the first half of this duology, you are ready to catch up with Davi to see how she’s making out with her plans.
Dark Lord Davi rules the kingdom, but she must now break the time loop that binds her in this hilariously bloody conclusion to the Dark Lord Davi duology.
Davi has left the horde behind her, hoping to find a peaceful solution to keep the Kingdom from being destroyed this time. But her plan to guide the Kingdom to peaceful prosperity is thwarted when she finds her usual love interest, Prince Johann, already married and the bloodthirsty Duke Aster running the government. Johann’s new husband is everything Davi is not, but he holds a key to the one mystery she can’t solve – the origins of the time loop that has entrapped her.
With restless armies at her doorstep, Duke Aster reaching for power, and an ancient magician hounding her every turn, Davi must scheme her way to peace and uncover the truth behind her curse if she is to break the spell that binds her once and for all.
What happens when you decide to become that which you were meant to fight? It means as the Dark Lord, you have a horde to command. It means you are the enemy of the world. But not everybody knows Davi was anointed the Dark Lord at the convocation, so she is able to connect with some old allies to hopefully draw them down the path that will lead to peace and save as many lives as possible. As the Dark Lord, Davi is the lord of all the “wilders” (i.e. non-human races) who seek destruction of the human races. Davi is also romantically involved with an Orc named Tsav, who Davi trusted with the secret of her many lives over many years.
Davi’s plan is to hit up an old flame, prince Johann. Well, a lover/spouse/sex buddy from her past lives in the hopes she can seduce him again and bend him to her will of keeping as my lives as possible. Unfortunately, prince Johann is now married to a man named Matthias and is being installed as a puppet leader to his uncle Duke Astor.
Intertwining this political challenge along with Davi’s underlying need to learn why she was pulled out of “our world” makes for a fun read. Of course Davi’s snarky, quick-witted manners (as our first person narrator) make this an even more entertaining novel. After 1,000+ years and 200+ life resets, it is tough for Davi to really see the lives around her as not disposable. Tsav helps her to see the value of those lives and makes it so that Davi cares enough and has invested enough into her current life that she doesn’t want to do another hard reset.
Wexler gives Davi a great deal of insight and layers in some more depth as she comes to appreciate what she has in this turning of her life. I appreciated her leveled up maturity. I was very much hooked into Davi’s search for her origins, the how and why she was pulled from our world and what she discovers of our world in the Kingdom along the way. This also allows for some fun myth-exploration of the world where Davi finds herself as the Dark Lord.
Dark Lord Davi is an enormously fun fantasy duology. I’m not sure if the second book was intended when How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying was initially written/pitched, but the two form a complete story. There’s enough left in the world and the possibility certainly exists for other people to be pulled across the barrier of worlds that Django Wexler can spin off another story. Whether that happens or not, I’d recommend the Dark Lord Davi books as a story that both honors the fantasy genre (particularly portal fantasies) while also sending them up with love.
Recommended
© 2025 Rob H. Bedford
Trade Paperback | May 2025
https://djangowexler.com/
Excerpt: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/django-wexler/everybody-wants-to-rule-the-world-except-me/9781668647769/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Orbit Books
