Review Summary
I must admit to being biassed towards these types of stories.
I love stories featuring a poser playing at a stereotypical edgelord, but who would only go as far as hurting stereotypical villains. A self-indulgent protagonist in a self-indulgent story who is, in essence, harmlessly horsing around. The world treats it seriously but the protagonist does not.
With that disclaimer out of the way:
“I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! Vol 1” is an underdog story set in an isekai (other world) that relies on the juxtaposition between the protagonist’s and the world’s point of views — and a few absurd situations — for its comedy.
I was thoroughly entertained by his fumbling towards becoming an evil lord as his morality and aimlessness got in the way of his ‘evil’. He’s mostly just a lord, as a result, and an incredibly competent one at that.
If you like this type of story as much as I do, the boring prologue and unsubtle writing become trivial flaws as you follow Liam’s ascent to “evil” lordship.
TURN TO THE DARK SIDE (MAYBE)
Summary from the store page on Bookwalker.
In his last life, Liam lived as a moral, responsible person…but died deep in debt and betrayed by his wife. Reborn into the ruling family of a vast interstellar empire, Liam knows that life is divided between the downtrodden and the ones who do the stomping, so this time he’s going to take what he wants and live for himself. But somehow, things refuse to work out that way. Despite doing his best to become a tyrant, Liam’s decisions lead to nothing but peace and prosperity for the empire under his rule, and he just gets more and more popular!
Boring, Misrepresentative First Pages
But wait! Before we get to the fun part, let me tell you about the mind-numbingly boring first pages.
The book begins with an overly dramatic introduction of a one-dimensional evil lord; the protagonist. It tries too hard to sell you on the immorality of its main character.
He gleefully kills tens of thousands by his own hand and revels in trampling over those weaker than himself.
Even if his careless decimation of lives didn’t immediately kill my interest in the book, the trite exposition would have.
It is stated plainly, again and again, that this protagonist is evil, that he is lord over his domain because of some reasons. It is overplayed and drags on a few pages too long.
When I first started reading, I dropped it within the first 3 pages.
“Yet another “morally grey” edgelord’s power fantasy,” I had thought to myself. “What a waste of money.”
I returned to it a month later and I’m happy to report that it’s actually the exact kind of book I wanted when I first bought it; a poser who plays at being evil, but fails spectacularly.
But wait! Before that, there’s more inelegant exposition to get through.
In the exact same artless directness as the first pages, the Guide is introduced. A suspicious character from the get-go, the fathomless man is unceremoniously robbed of all mystique as he rambles about his motivations and personality aloud for all readers to read.
Decked out in black garments that hide his features and equipped with blatantly sinister laughter, it is painfully obvious that he is meant to be an evil god, yet the introductions just keep going.
It is, in a word, cringe.
Fortunately, it eventually ends and we get to the fun part.
The Fun Part
Now forget the very beginning when you learnt of the protagonist’s atrocities.
The protagonist has reincarnated from an unfair life of deceit and betrayal to a new life as a 5 year old lord of an entire planet.
However, there are many caveats to his premature lordship.
It soon becomes apparent that the Guide has dumped him onto an impoverished and underdeveloped planet — its upper echelons corrupt and wasteful. Desperate to escape their debt and domain, his parents had sought permission to foist all responsibility unto their underaged son — and succeeded.
Ignorant of the Guide’s and his parents’ machinations, the young lord, Liam, smugly takes his post.
The first order of business is to immerse himself in a pod for a year in order to install most of the necessary education into his brain. Meanwhile, he entrusts the planet’s administration to his extremely intelligent, personally customised robot maid.
Yes, he has a conveniently intelligent and customised robot maid.
Yes, there exist convenient devices to install knowledge.
Each convenience is given its rational handwaving and world-building background, so don’t sweat the details — especially since the Guide “generously” reincarnated Liam into this world.
After one year in the education capsule, and with his butler’s and his robot maid’s counsel, he comes to the conclusion that he needs to reform and develop his planet. Before he can exploit his citizens as evil lords should, his citizens first need to be exploitable.
So he does just that; gradually transforming his domain into a wealthy planet free for him to exploit.
His prospering domain infuriates the Guide.
When Liam expresses a desire to train and attain physical power, the Guide is all too happy to influence events against him.
A dubious katana-wielding instructor is soon found, one who inspires childlike wonder in Liam with his signature technique. Through a combination of martial arts basics, competent acting and simply watching free instructional videos, the conman is able to keep up appearances for years — at least to Liam.
But here’s the kicker: Liam actually learns and improves dramatically under his instruction. Much to the frustration of the Guide, Liam and his planet keeps thriving.
Despite the Guide’s malevolent intervention, Liam’s life only gets better and better. With every one of his schemes, Liam comes out on top ever more grateful than before.
It could even be said that the Guide was instrumental in Liam’s success.
You love to see it.
It is deeply satisfying and amusing to see a deadly powerful and malicious being get upended by an unexpectedly oblivious and earnest person.
A Decent Man’s Idea of Evil (He has no idea)
It is easy to forget that Liam was boiling over with resentment when he first died, given how easily enamoured he was with the opportunity to live a freer and happier life. Although he never forgets his past life completely, it is mostly put on the back burner.
Instead, the juxtaposition between Liam’s self-image and his public image comes to the forefront and gives the book an amusing, sometimes absurd, tone.
In addition to Liam’s accidental destruction of the Guide’s schemes, Liam is often under the false impression that his evil deeds have earned him notoriety with his people.
As Liam relishes in smug self-satisfaction, our point of view switches over to someone he is lording over, where we find that many are praising him for his virtue.
This comedy routine amuses me to no end as Liam keeps finding new ways to be “evil”, but failing wonderfully in every way — whether because he’s comparatively humble in this world of conceited nobles or because he is unable to shake his sense of practicality amidst all the decadence.
Liam is earnest, and it is fun to see that his decency always overwhelms the resentment from his unjust past.
Although I didn’t find the jokes hilarious, they maintained a levity that made the book fun to read. I was engrossed in Liam’s story to see where his brand of “evil” takes him, and to see how revered he becomes along the way.
Writing that Accentuates the Comedy
Since the book switches the point of view for the sake of comedy, the writing is not subtle, often spelling out the absurdity of the situation. Liam is so completely competent at being a noble, he ends up seen as anything but evil. In spite of his best efforts, he’s bad at being bad.
It’s ridiculous, it’s funny, and the writing enhances that.
The author, Yomu Mishima, paints Liam’s silly evils smugly — his self-assuredness emanating from the pages and carrying over to the next passage. When we switch perspectives, it is easy to picture Liam grinning wickedly as the other party looks on in confusion, admiration, or any number of emotions except fear or anger.
Barring the rocky prologue, the author doles out exposition judiciously and swiftly; only pausing the action as is relevant.
Exposition is also often written as Liam’s inner monologue, who interjects with his own non-evil observations and feelings, giving a bit of flavour to what may otherwise be bland text.
Granted, this book’s prose is not particularly colourful or especially elegant. However, given the genre and the characters involved, flowery and highly descriptive language may actually detract from the tone it’s going for.
I Highly Recommend This
If you love stories with a puerile protagonist playing a pretentious and “cool” villain, you’ll love this too.
It’s a comedy of two opposing viewpoints on the same world. An amusing story where the protagonist wants to be evil out of spite but fails miserably. It’s mostly a fun time reading about Liam accidentally making a happy life for himself and others after a tormented past life.
If what I’ve described sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend pushing through the rough introduction and reading “I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! Vol 1”.
“I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! Vol 1” is digitally available on Bookwalker and Amazon.
A Space Carved from the Unrelenting World 