I read the first book, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, in Django Wexler’s Dark Lord Davi duology last year, and while I didn’t love it, I enjoyed it enough to want to read the sequel, Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me.
The book continues the story of Davi, a young woman from our world who has gotten herself trapped in a time loop in a fairly standard medieval fantasy world. Every time the loop resets, she wakes up in a pool to a wizard telling her she’s the chosen one, destined to be the saviour of human kingdom against the invading Dark Lord. When she inevitably gets killed, the time loop resets and the whole thing begins again. In the previous book, Davi basically says “Fuck it” after failing over hundreds of lifetimes and decides to use her knowledge to instead attempt to become the Dark Lord herself. The first book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, and the second picks up shortly after, with Davi attempting to bring about a peaceful resolution for both the humans and the mystical creatures of the Dark Lord’s armies.
This installment continues to be very funny, with Davi’s constant fourth wall breaks and pop culture references spread throughout her narration. It’s one of those books that your enjoyment of will greatly depend on whether or not you vibe with the particular style of humour. I didn’t like this book as much as the previous one – the first half of the novel sees Davi leaving the Dark Lord’s horde to meddle in human kingdom politics, and the human side characters aren’t nearly as interesting as those on the “evil” side. It does pick back up in the latter half and the conclusion is satisfying. Overall, a fun end to this duology!
I received this as an ARC from NetGalley. This hasn’t affected the contents of my review.