Centuries ago the Heroes of Light won. The power of Darkness was forever defeated and the Six Lands lived in peace and prosperity.

This is a bad thing.

That's the main point of Eve Forward's foray into the epic fantasy genre. It's the story of a world on the brink of extinction because the natural balance between Light and Dark is disrupted. Instead of needing Heroes to answer the call to save them all, the world needs Villains. That is where the last of the assassins, thieves, evil sorceresses, and black knights come in. They are led by the final druid, a protector of Balance, to find the Keys to bring Darkness back into the world.

Basically, it's a D&D all evil campaign done right. In fact, if you told me this was Forward's DM notes written up as a novel, I'd believe you. It's a little goofy, and every character seems to have a random sidequest. Carefully laid out plans go haywire because someone rolled a Nat 1. In this regard, as an avid D&D player, I love it.

The characters are likable. Though they are all unrepentant villains and are evil, none of them are too evil. Yes, they'll stab you in the back because they're paid to do so, but they're not going to be a jerk about it. They show that villains have loved ones, hopes, and dreams.

Everyone gets time to shine as the POV bounces back and forth between every character between paragraphs. At first, it was a little jarring, but as I thought of it as every player wanting to have a chance to do something, it made sense. However, with so many characters there's no real chance for depth. Everything just feels a little shallow by the end. Still enjoyable, but not a masterpiece.

The main problem with the book is the medium. Both the hardcover and paperback versions are long out of print, but thankfully it was recently released on Amazon as an ebook. Rejoice! Except, that there are so many errors in the text it's beyond frustrating. The ebook is obviously an OCR scan of a PDF that no one proofread. There will be random periods or apostrophes. Lines may have been dropped, especially at the scene involving the riddle contest. Also, the ebook tends to combine "r" and "n" together. It's a little silly to see someone fight a fire-breathing dragon and then tending to their "bum."

So the ebook gets about a 2-star rating. It's just so sloppy. However, the story itself is a really enjoyable popcorn fantasy. CHeck it out, especially if you love a good D&D campaign. ( )

The book did not captivate me as much as Animist did (Eve Forward's second book). It felt rather derivative of other fantasy/adventure books. Animist works well because of all the biology mixing with the sorcery but this book doesn't have that. It really doesn't have anything beyond the premise of what if evil is necessary and that alone isn't enough to keep the plot going through 500+ pages. ( )

Not taking itself too seriously is this book's greatest asset. By taking a fairly typical fantasy plot and turning it on its head, Forward creates a hapless team of 'evil' adventurers out to save the world for their own benefit. Marvelous. ( )