DARK LORD

The Dark Lord of the Iron Tower of Despair at the Gates of Doom...has to go to seventh grade!?

After waking up in a parking lot trapped in the body of a 12-year-old human, the Dark Lord—renamed Dirk Lloyd by confused, puny Earthlings—is taken to the Hospital Lockup and then to a House of Detention. None of his dread spells work, and he's forced to wear jeans! Everyone thinks him insane, but thankfully, Christopher, the child of his captors, agrees to be a minion, as does goth girl Sooz. Dirk must find a way back to his Darklands before he loses his mind and his "Mwah, ha, ha!" and definitely before the White Beast sent after him by the White Wizard Hasdruban cleaves from him his evil soul. British author Thomson stands the human-trapped-in-a-fantasyland tale on its head in this cheeky first of a trilogy. The Dark Lord’s misunderstandings of our world and his hyperbolic boasts of evil can be, at times, hysterical. However, as Dirk becomes more acclimated to our realm, the tale loses steam and its sense of humor for a bit. That said, the final chapters deftly set up Volume 2, already out in the U.K.

It’s Lord Sauron, powerless and back in middle school…fun in many ways.