The Lich King Reincarnates as a Baby

Blurb

Lord Dread was the greatest magical prodigy the world had ever seen. He was also the first lich in history. The Gods feared his potential and banished him. Or so they thought.

He frees himself from prison after countless millennia, but finds his powers diminished and his body now that of a baby girl. Born to an aristocratic family and given a fresh chance to relearn magic differently than he originally taught himself, he has set his sights on regaining his former glory. In order to rebuild the dark empire he once used to challenge the Gods and take revenge on the fearful divinity that struck him down, he must first learn about this strange new time period he finds himself in.

It would be easier if girls could inherit land, but Lord Dread is not one to let something like this get in his way.

Thoughts

I’m writing this review after reading the first ebook and then all available RR chapters (book four, chapter 30).

Ah mannnn this is nice. An MC with a strong narrative voice and even stronger personality. You know those self-insert protags? Weak. Disgusting. What’s better? A lich whose skill is only outshone by their arrogance and contempt for humanity. It’s not surface-level dialogue with scathing wit (though that too), but the pervasive narrative framing that tinges every observation in the world. Some of the simian comparisons to her family members in the early chapters legitimately made me laugh. This is, to be clear, a rare thing. Even later on after book one the snark hasn’t worn thin, because the character interactions and the layers behind them are still golden.

I remember with one breakthrough the following exchange in book three, I think, innocuous as it may seem, just so perfectly fit the characters and their relationship with each other that I was in happy awe.

“I can fly,” I called. “Can you fly? No, because you are an idiot.”

Without context it probably seems like a stupid line. That’s because you too are an idiot.

I kid.

So our MC is selfish, evil, out to kill the gods and rule the universe, just like any self-respecting lich. This would eventually get old, but there’s a very well-done humanisation process going on with the character that I won’t get into because it’s far more fun to read about it than read about someone who has read about it.

So, A+ characters. Great dialogue and banter. Worldbuilding is also top-notch. The MC doesn’t get caught in one particular place for four books, and especially once flight enters the mix, the barriers between countries and then continents quickly fall away.

To tie this all together, we have the overarching “All gods must die” plot, which on the plus side is good because it’s an active plotline driven by the character (instead of a reactive “I need to survive a system apocalypse” plotline), but which some might find frustrating at moments because there’s a lot of “I need to hide this specific power or the gods will find out and incinerate me.” It means the MC isn’t able to fully let loose except in vanishingly rare circumstances… but when they do, it’s great fun.

The magic system is fairly soft. There’s mana. There’s some power quantified by a measure of mana you can channel, but that’s about it. No LitRPG mechanics, and spellcasting is kept very vague about manipulating mana in general ways. Theorycrafters thus won’t get much out of the book. Hmmm. Think Mother of Learning, I suppose, with its mana layering and constructs.

Anyway, I picked this story up because I loved the cover art, and I am so glad I did because this is a new favourite. Go read it.