Front Cover
Description
The Kingdoms of Evil cast a shadow of death and horror over half a continent and Freetrick Feend is next in line to be their king.
A college student in a comfortable and civilized nation not so different from yours, Freetrick suddenly finds himself kidnapped by monsters, engaged to a dominatrix, and put in charge of a country where Maniacal Laughter is a performance art and Assassination a competitive sport, with extra points awarded for creative cruelty.
As the new focus of all evil in the world, Freetrick must survive court intrigues, well-justified foreign invasion, internal rebellions, and a looming environmental catastrophe that might just kill everyone anyway. Because in a land of constant shadow, what do the monsters eat?
Aside from each other.
The Kingdoms of Evil is an epic fantasy humor novel for those of us who root for the bad guy.
My Review
While waiting for the sequel of Waldo Rabbit - which is out now - an Amazon reviewer suggested this book as similar to Waldo Rabbit. Intrigued, I went and bought it.
The book follows Freetrick, a young man that suddenly finds himself heir to The Kingdom of Evil. All of his beliefs are turned upside down and he finds himself in a position where he has to act evil to survive. And if that wasn't bad enough, he has a dominatrix fiance who herself disgusted by how weak and pathetic Freetrick's is and abuses him every chance she gets.
The book did remind me in many ways to Waldo Rabbit; its satirical humour, mocking of cliche villains and the slightly absurd storyline. But what separated this book from Waldo Rabbit was that it focused more on the storyline than humour, and I liked that. I'm all for having a laugh whilst reading a book, but not at the detriment of the storyline.
I enjoyed seeing the development of Freetrick as he goes from a indecisive young man to a confident leader. It was also nice seeing Bloodbyrn (the fiance) transform from a harsh taskmistress to a softer, more gentle woman.
Some of the cons...
Main issue I had with the book was the slow start. It took me a while to get into the book and there were times during the beginning when I was itching to give up and start on the next book on my to-read list. I'm glad I did stick with it, however, and the pace of the story did pick up.
Conclusion
A cleverly written book that I enjoyed reading and found myself smiling numerous times at the witty dialogue. If you're looking for a book similar to Waldo Rabbit then this is it.
Out of 10 Stars:
6 Stars
***
Buy it here:
I don't know if you're the one I should thank for my sudden spike of sales in May, but thank you for a kind and thoughtful review. I absolutely agree I didn't know what I was doing when I wrote it, but I'm very glad you enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteIf you're interested, my website http://www.thekingdomsofevil.com/ has illustrations for Kingdoms of Evil as well as some other stories and my podcast.