Sunday 16 December 2012

Dark Lord: A Fiend in Need


First things first, I have to apologize for not having a review up last Monday. With study and Christmas shopping it was just mayhem. Complete. Utter. Stress filling mayhem. So to make up for it I shall make this review a good one.

I really did  love the book I reviewed last, Dark Lord: Teenage Years and I absolutely recommend it by the way. Usually I wait a week or two before I review the sequel of a book I’ve just read. You know to  recover from the emotional pain it has caused me, but in this case not so much. The second of the Dark Lord books was just casually sitting on my shelf before it caught my eye when I was choosing what to read next. From then on it was no longer just sitting there. It was sitting there just mocking me with its amazing cover and many other qualities. I’m afraid in a moment of weakness and I heard a voice calling to me, telling me to pick the book up. So from those events this weeks review is… drum role please… Dark Lord: A Fiend in Need. (By Jamie Thomson)

I don’t have much to go on in this review, I literally pored my heart out in the first Dark Lord review, But the review must go on!

I did enjoy this book quite much. There were the same laughs, maybe even a bit funnier then the last. The same old weird, strange and wonderful characters and a few new faces. Plus the illustrations were as unremarkable as ever, I especially love the image of the Dark Lord himself. I expected him to be a bit more scary though, for example maybe a cross between an Orc from Lord of the Rings and the Litch from Adventure Time, but it was still first-rate.

The second of two.. well I’m not sure it’s a good idea myself to tell you what it’s about I seem to go on forever with explaining so I’ll just borrow the description from the back of the book:

SALVATIONS, WRETCHED MINION!
It is I, the Great Dirk, destroyer of worlds and most gifted writer ever! My loyal servant Sooz, child of the night, is trapped in the Darklands. The horror! It is vital that I return there before she causes too much trouble…

Time for some negativity unfortunately. Since the first one was so astonishing I think he rushed the second a bit. Some obstacles were just to simply got out of and every time Sooz told Dirk to do something or stop him from doing something he would just agree with her, which I found a bit irritating. I mean he is the Great Dark Lord, is he not and he seems to be taking orders from a child. I was disappointed at this point, but then the disappointment was replaced with suspense and fear when he… well you’ll have to read it to find out. The ending to me was over quite fast and I wasn’t happy knowing this is how it would end, but with that last single line I just stopped thinking about the negative things and was staring at that line for over an hour shocked to the very core.

“Mental problems! Typical of you humans that is, typical. You find someone with an intellect way beyond your own feeble capacities and what do you do? Honour them? Give them the respect they deserve? Put them in charge of bio-weapons research or something useful like that? No, they label you insane and put you in s home with some kid named Christopher! Pah!”

“Sooz’s haw dropped. For a moment she thought it was Darth Vader himself, right out of the Star Wars films, but as the figure drew nearer, she could see that the helmet wasn’t right, it was black and shiny but more like a crusader helmet from medieval Earth, and black clothes and a cape were cut differently.”

“Oh, it’s like that, is it?” said Belchvile. “just coz I’m an Orc I must be stupid, eh? that’s just racist, that is!”

“How dare you!” said Grout. “That’s a detention right there, boy!”
“Of coarse, sir” said Dirk. “but don’t you think you should send me out of the class as well? Only I have an important call to make. If not, I will simply sit here and loudly sing “La Marseillaise”, easily the best of all your absurd Earthly national anthems, until you do.”

Over all it was an amusing, witty, adventurous and bizarre book and with the way it ended, I’m sure a third is not far away.

I shall not end with threatening you to buy this book. I will leave you with the threat from the Great Dark Lord, destroyer of worlds himself, left of the back of the novel:

BUY THIS BOOK OR SUFFER ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

* An unwanted surgical procedure.
* Being turned into a zombie servant. 
* Being cursed with the Cantrip of Uncontrollable Flatulence. 

THE CHOICE IS YOURS. 
MWA HA HA!