There and Never, Ever Back Again: Diary of a Dark Lord

A Dark Lord writes a journal to the Chosen One who is on the way to kill her...

While this is obviously a parody of the Lord of the Rings, it is more about the human condition really. Mob mentality, winners writing history, the good and bad of the way humans think... It really gets into it. So even as a satire of fantasy, and a funny one at that, it's also rather profound. I really didn't know what to expect with this, but it was both deep and funny.

Orcs, and goblins and other creatures of “darkness” are shown to only be so because humans have driven them underground. It's a big huge world full of monsters, but only because humans have labeled them so, and thus made them so. Controlling the narrative is a big theme in this.

The White Wizard is just an attention-loving psychopath, who barely knows any magic, and picks countless “Chosen Ones” to throw at the Dark Lord knowing eventually one will make it through and kill her. The whole quest is not about saving humanity, but for his own glory. The Chosen One that the story follows as well as the Dark Lord, begins to question this all...

Admittingly it does get repetitive at times, I imagine to get it to novel length. But I suppose it also drives the themes and point of the whole thing home to make sure you get it. The plot is also done entirely in journals and letters from both Chosen One and the Dark Lord, so don't expect big action scenes or anything. They are there but only related.

An amusing parody of fantasy, grounded with great insights into humans and their ways, There and Never, Ever Back Again was a clever way to revisit all the old tropes and maybe gain a few new things to ponder about people and why they do what they do.