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Title: Villains by Necessity by Eve Forward ISBN: 0-312-85789-6 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: March, 1995 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.63 (51 reviews)

Rating: 3
Summary: Standard heroic fantasy quest novel with one twist.
Comment: If you read much fantasy, you've read this one at least half a dozen times: the World Will End unless a grab-bag band of adventurers (a centaur, a sorceress, a knight, etc.) can carry out a heroic Quest. Naturally, the Quest requires them to travel around a fair bit, and each member of the band faces an individual challenge. Naturally, there are powerful forces opposing them... The (only) twist is, the "heroes" are villains, and their task is to bring Evil back into a world that has become unbalanced by too much Good. You might ask why bother if that's the only piece of novelty. Well... first-time novelist Eve Forward has done a workmanlike job with it. Sure, it's derivative; she acknowledges that (there's a scene where the thief is stuck in a tunnel under a mountain, telling riddles in the dark...). But she keeps the story bouncing along at a lively pace, the quest is tolerably well designed if somewhat predictable, and we even grow to like a couple of the characters. A tolerably amusing light read, this would make a good gift for a young adult fantasy reader, or someone who enjoys fantasy role-playing games. Let's see what this author does next.

Rating: 5
Summary: One of the Best Ever
Comment: This book is a classic, a must read for any fantasy fan with a well designed twist on the stereotypical fantasy/Dungons and Dragons line. Keep an eye open for it on ebay as you can get a good deal sometimes if you watch carefully.

Rating: 5
Summary: Incredible fantasy book
Comment: I read Villians by Necessity over my summer vacation. Not just once, or twice, but three times in the space of the two and a half weeks I had it. This book puts a twist on the cliched good v. evil storylines by completely reversing it. It explores some interesting themes of what good and evil really are-- for instance, without evil, how can good be defined? The characters are, in my opinion, fairly well-developed: the normal stereotypes of the Questing Hero, his One True Love, the Knight, the Wizard, ect are all skewed for the evil versions of such characters. It's a fairly long book, but fast paced enough that it hardly seems long at all. The wit and humor in the book is wonderful-- it can make fun of itself and the entire traditional fantasy genere without sounding trite or annoying. Villains by Necessity is a fantastic read. The only problem is finding a copy to purchase for yourself!