Michael Barnes
This one was fun. The fantasy Dark Lord/lady/nonbinary who we get to discover is actually a good is one I never tire of reading L.G. Estrella's The Unconventional Heroes beginning with Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat, and an Elf, Hannah Nicole Maehrer's Assistant to the Villain and my first exposure to this genre Paul Dale's The Dark Lord's handbook.
The narrative driver in this one is the Dread Lord Gavrax wakes up in a summoning circle with a whole in his memories and looming dread ritual with three other evil (differing values of Evil) wizards he has to spend much of the story playing catch up with goblin minions, townsfolk used to suffering under the yoke of a dark lord, stalwart (though in many ways clueless) heroes and a kidnapped princess who is by every measure smarter than he is. Also the more Gav learns of Gavrax the less he likes and not sure he wants his memories back.
Mediation on what we are as a person, our thoughts or our actions, and a clever use of Chekhov's moat squid mean I am hoping to read more from Caitlin Rozakis after finishing this one.
This one was fun. The fantasy Dark Lord/lady/nonbinary who we get to discover is actually a good is one I never tire of reading L.G. Estrella's The Unconventional Heroes beginning with Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat, and an Elf, Hannah Nicole Maehrer's Assistant to the Villain and my first exposure to this genre Paul Dale's The Dark Lord's handbook.
The narrative driver in this one is the Dread Lord Gavrax wakes up in a summoning circle with a whole in his memories and looming dread ritual with three other evil (differing values of Evil) wizards he has to spend much of the story playing catch up with goblin minions, townsfolk used to suffering under the yoke of a dark lord, stalwart (though in many ways clueless) heroes and a kidnapped princess who is by every measure smarter than he is. Also the more Gav learns of Gavrax the less he likes and not sure he wants his memories back.
Mediation on what we are as a person, our thoughts or our actions, and a clever use of Chekhov's moat squid mean I am hoping to read more from Caitlin Rozakis after finishing this one.