How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps

Andrew Rowe has pulled off something difficult: he's written a parody filled with gentle humour and which also works as a story in its own right.

He takes us inside the kind of world you'll be familiar with if you've ever played Japanese, quest-based, dungeon-raiding Role Playing Games like Dragon Quest or The Legend Of Zelda and shows it to us from the point of view of a bright young woman, who not only thinks outside the box but wonders why anyone put the stupid box there in the first place. She sees that the current Demon King will burn her world long before a Hero arises, in another seventy-seven years so she sets out to do something about it.

Parodies, especially novella-length parodies, are risky things. They can easily be a show more one-liner joke that's over-extended itself or sink so deeply into ridicule that they become a rant rather than a story. Rowe avoids both of these traps by keeping the humour gently affectionate and by keeping us guessing as to how Yui, whose first set of skills is about shifting inventory and who has no Hero skills at all, will gain the levels and the skill needed to defeat a Demon King.

I enjoyed watching Yui puzzling over the things that gamers everywhere take for granted but which don't stand up to much analysis. Why do skeletons attack the Hero one at a time rather than swarming him? Why does the wall that's hiding the treasure always have a crack in it? And what is it with Heroes and explosives - do they just like to hear things go boom?

The characters (and they're all characters, not people) are great fun. I loved Yui's overly-serious Sword-Saint companion who accepts all of the rules of the game as sacred script and is initially scandalised by Yui's disregard for tradition. My favourite character was Vex, the fairy, AKA The Fairy Who Failed. She's all temper and tears, even though, as one of the other fairies reminds her, Vex is only an anthropomorphic construct designed to support the Hero.

Yui's creativity, wit and refusal to march to the beat of any drum other than her own, kept me engaged right to the end. Her solutions didn't just amplify the parody, they were clever enough and novel enough to keep the puzzles fresh.

I had much more fun listening to this novella for five and a half hours than I would have had trying to level up in Dragonquest. show less

I received an advance copy from NetGalley.

This is a breezy, super cozy LitRPG read that comes across as a blatant homage to classic role playing games. The set up is simple, the main character loaded with agency: Yui Shaw is not born to be the Hero, but decides to build the role for herself, as otherwise the Demon King will obliterate humanity before the real Hero comes along.

There are direct references to beloved game monsters, such as my own all-time favorite Dragon Quest slimes. A certain ninja royal from Final Fantasy IV gets a tribute, too. The characters who enter the book in disguise aren’t disguised at all to the reader, and that still works fine within this cozy set-up. The way technical game play aspects are converted into show more a novel is incredibly innovative; I loved how Yui manipulated her inventory skills to subvert the natural order. This book feels like a wink-wink-nod to RPG lovers of my generation and younger folks who also would get the references (my 20 year old son would love this book, but then, one of his favorite toys as a toddler was a plush slime). show less

Cute LitPRG which is basically Legend of Zelda fanfic. Some of the plot was predictable (especially if you know the Zelda games) but that's okay. The characters are what made this so enjoyable. I do like Yui's tricks to get around not being a true hero — it reminds me of some of the ways speedrunners will break the games they play in order to get faster times.

LitRPG doesn't usually attract my attention. The ones I've come across tend to be either portal fantasy (not something I particularly enjoy) or to stress the number-crunchy mechanics more than I have patience for. (But then, I'm not the right target readership).

This book doesn't take itself at all seriously, which suited me just fine. It's told fully from the first person point of view of Yui, the not-Hero who's trying to do a Hero's job. Although Yui has occasional moments of self doubt, the ultimate challenge in this book is solving the puzzle of how to deal with the Big Bad, rather than dealing with a deep personal crisis.

The writing was tidy and easy to read, and I didn't notice any typos. Yui came across as witty without tipping show more into obnoxiousness. The other characters were distinct, and it was pretty clear what roles they were going to play.

Overall, a fun diversion. show less

Listened to audio narrated very well by Suzy Jackson and Steve West.

This is an Audible Original which I choose in May's monthly free selections.

This book attempts to make a fun story out of a role playing game. Their world has a one hundred year cycle, a time for the Demon King to rise and conquer and in a hundred years a Hero will rise to defeat him. Unfortunately the latest Demon King isn't following the script and after only 23 years has already conquered over half of the world.

With fears that there will be nothing left by the time the Hero is reborn Yui Shaw is determined to find a way to defeat the Demon King before he takes over the entire world. She seeks out skills and training in hopes to acquire the legendary hero sword and show more acquires a sidekick and a fairy along the way to help her on her quest.

While I like the idea of converting game play to a story, the author sticks too closely to game language, skills and leveling design and less on a believable, seamless story. There are a lot of fun, quirky moments, but the author is always telling us what happens instead of letting us experience it. It's very clunky reading about her leveling up and how she's applying her skill points, as well as always using game commands instead of describing the action.

This might be a great story for younger readers or GameLit/LitRPG fans but it missed the mark for me as fantasy fiction.

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It's an easy and accessible and vaguely interesting read if you enjoy video games or D&D campaigns. Some funny characterization, but it's more about gaming the stats/tropes than character development, at least at the point that I put it down (very early). Nothing wrong with it, just not my cup of tea.

Kind of like a live-action D&D adventure, with a little Magic the Gathering thrown in. I liked the narration, and other than a few very "convenient" abilities earned by the characters, it was a solid story in an interesting universe.