“No, of course I’m not sure it’s a good idea. I am sure, however, that it’s something I want to do. Something I need to do. This world needs saving, Ken.”

How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps by Andrew Rowe

My Review

I may not be a Hero, but I will not wait and watch the world burn. I will not take comfort in the knowledge that the goddesses will send someone else to save us. It may not be something I was chosen for, but I will make my own path. I will break the cycle. And I will show this world that anyone can save it, if they try.

I’ve been a Legend of Zelda fan for many years. I love the puzzles, the exploration, the story and the characters – as well as the gameplay, of course. Everything about it is just amazing to me, even with all of Zelda’s evolutions and changes over the years.

Why is this relevant, you may ask?

Because How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps is a love letter to The Legend of Zelda series. As well as a parody. And it’s great at being both of those things. The author clearly knew what they wanted to do with this novella, and did a great job of doing it.

Anyway, math aside, Ken barely managed to yelp and jump to the side of my sudden jet of a thousand gallons of water flying in his direction. He glared down at me, folding his arms. “You put the sacred lake back where it belongs right now.”

“Don’t wanna.” I stuck my tongue out at him. If he was going to talk to me like I was a child, I’d play along.

Our protagonist and POV character is Yui Shaw. She’s very determined and is not afraid to take crazy risks, and I enjoyed following her point-of-view. She’s quickly joined on her adventure to save the world by Ken Sei, a sword-wielding, fashionista of a healer. They played off of and complemented each other pretty well – I loved their friendship.

There are other characters introduced that also join the party in one form or another, and another character that doesn’t truly join the group but helps in other ways, who are all plot crucial. But they’re all kind of spoiler-y, so I’ll stop where I’m at. I did really like all of them, as well as the punny names that pretty much all of the major characters had.

The plot was pretty barebones, but that’s okay because it was a parody. Not that it didn’t have any flavor or uniqueness to it, it did, it just wasn’t the main focus until later in the second half of the novella. As much as I loved the riffing on the Zelda stuff, I also loved a few of the plot twists included nearer to the end, even if they were kinda predictable. The humor in this book was also on point. (I think I normally would’ve figured all of them out, but I was just kind of cruising along with this book and enjoying myself. I also finished it in one sitting, so I didn’t really take any time to try to predict stuff or guess what was gonna happen next.)

The references were probably my favorite part of the book. I just… love the Zelda series and you can tell the author does too, so the references felt really nice. Especially to a long time fan like me who’s been into the games for like twenty years. I think I’ll include some of my favorite quotes that are references (or sort of references) at the end of this review.

“Am I going to regret helping you with this?” I gave him a shrug.

“Do you regret helping me so far?”

“I’m undecided.”

So yeah, I really enjoyed How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps. It wasn’t purple prose or anything gloriously written like that, but it didn’t need to be, and it was fantastic for what it was. If you like Lit-RPG fiction, or are a fan of The Legend of Zelda or both, you’ll probably like this book. I highly recommend it.

Not only was this novella rereleased this year with a beautiful new edition on Kindle, but there’s an awesome hardcover version coming out this September with sprayed edges that I’m definitely interested in. There’s also apparently a sequel in the works, which I’m excited about. I’m looking forward to seeing how this parody continues!

And as always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have an amazing day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Favorite Reference Quotes and Stuff:

“And then there was Water Temple Hero, who was supposedly the most powerful Hero of all time, but disappeared into the Water Temple, never to return.”

I walked over to the block, then shoved it. It slid to the left. There was a melodic sound, then the seal on the left door opened. Ken stared at me in wide-eyed shock.

“Yui…how did you…?”

“It’s a block, Ken. There are really only so many things you can do with it.”

Two fires burned on the left and right sides, seemingly without origin. In the center stood a bearded old man. “So. You have finally come…” he said, then broke into a cough.

The old man cleared his throat, standing up a little straighter. “Behold: The westmost peninsula hides a great secret.”

I blinked. “O…kay? What sort of secret?”

The old man shrugged. “I have no idea.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Thank you, that’s very kind of you. I don’t suppose you could tell us who you are, or how you knew we were going to be here? Are you one of the descendants of the sages, perhaps?”

“Hmpf.” The figure crossed their arms. “I am nothing. No one. Simply a wandering ninja, and definitely not a princess of the royal family.”

With a moment of concentration, I removed a magic torch stolen from the Wood Temple’s walls from my Inventory. It bathed the room in light, but little else.

“You…dare…bring…foul…light…into…my…domain…?” The voice seemed to echo all around me.

MY LINKS: