A Practical Guide to Evil

Blurb

The Empire stands triumphant.

For twenty years the Dread Empress has ruled over the lands that were once the Kingdom of Callow, but behind the scenes of this dawning golden age threats to the crown are rising. The nobles of the Wasteland weave their plots behind pleasant smiles while rebellion stirs beyond Peren Woods, for dreams of crowns were buried in shallow graves.

The greatest danger of all lies to the west, where the First Prince of Procer restored order at last: her people sundered, she ponders if a crusade might not be the way to secure her reign. Yet none of this matters, for in the heart of the conquered lands the most dangerous man alive sat across from an orphan girl and offered her a knife.

Her name is Catherine Foundling, and she has a plan.

Thoughts

A Practical Guide to Evil is now my go-to recommendation for when anyone asks for a smart or cunning lead. Catherine Foundling might prefer hard power to soft power, but damn does she like it when the dominoes fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

So let’s break it down a bit, more than the blurb does. Catherine lives in a conquered nation, and her life has not been great. This means she wants to fix things. But a lifetime of seeing nascent heroes rise up just to be purged has taught her a valuable lesson. The way to change things is from within. Co-opt the existing Villainous power structure, make it her own, and effect change that way. It’s a great plan, but it involves her having to, you know, become Evil. This means lots of hard choices. Lots of ruthless and intelligent antagonists vying for power. Machinations. God damned Heiress.

The plotting, both overarching and arc-specific, is masterfully done. The reader is kept in the loop enough to understand the stakes and the broad plan, but not so in the loop that twists and turns become impossible. It’s executed brilliantly.

What makes all the twists and turns possible is the fantastic character work. Not just Catherine and the friends/villains she gathers into her group (the Legion and then the Woe), but her mentors (including the Calamities), her adversaries… so literally everyone.

As to the power system, it’s a very soft one and also very unique. It all revolves around “roles”, or another way to put it: magically enforced tropes, arcs, and conflict resolutions. There’s a mix of general principles (like the greater the odds the heroes face, the more likely they are to succeed) along with specific powers attached to people’s roles. Catherine is the Squire, destined to either replace the White or Black Knight. One of the first aspects she gets is Struggle, and so when she’s reallllly struggling, she gets an inrush of power. Learn, Wish, Decree, Flow, Rise, Dawn, there are tons of aspects and how they are used (which isn’t always in a simplistic sense like I’ve outlined for Struggle) is imaginative and very satisfying when a use-case you didn’t think of waltzes up and changes an entire battlefield in an instant.

Anyway, enough with the good, onto the bad! No, bad is the wrong word. Onto the “This is why some people may not enjoy it even though it’s not a bad thing at all.” I’d say this story is more PF-adjacent than pure Progression Fantasy. Progression is slow. Many arcs focus on material resources (like armies) and outthinking opponents (strategy) over simple “Train, get stronger, punch harder” methods of achieving victory. This is good for those who are also fans of epic fantasy, but people who love binge reading LitRPG or OP MC stories will be left wanting more rapid progression and pacing.

Anyway, this is a masterpiece.