A Practical Guide to Evil [Book 1 Stubbing August 2nd]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The Empire stands triumphant. For twenty years the Dread Empress has ruled over the lands that were once the Kingdom of Callow, but behind the scenes of this dawning golden age threats to the crown are rising. The nobles of the Wasteland weave their plots behind pleasant smiles while rebellion stirs beyond Peren Woods, for dreams of crowns were buried in shallow graves. The greatest danger of all lies to the west, where the First Prince of Procer restored order at last: her people sundered, she ponders if a crusade might not be the way to secure her reign. Yet none of this matters, for in the heart of the conquered lands the most dangerous man alive sat across an orphan girl and offered her a knife. Her name is Catherine Foundling, and she has a plan.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2025
Author: ErraticErrata

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.8/ 5.0
Followers: 3,734
Views: 3,596,547

What readers say about A Practical Guide to Evil [Book 1 Stubbing August 2nd]

“A practical guide to evil is a love letter to the fantasy genrer that will blow away any long time fan of fiction. Its use of cliche tropes as direct part of the story makes for unique reading that includes everything you love about fantasy, without any of…”
BloodedBroadAxeRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“A story about a good girl learning to be evil by necessity. I don't wanna spoil anything so I'd rather just keep the description of the contents to that, read this, go in as blind as you can if you're unfamiliar with it, you will not be disappointed. I read…”
CestarianRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

BloodedBroadAxeRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A practical guide to evil is a love letter to the fantasy genrer that will blow away any long time fan of fiction. Its use of cliche tropes as direct part of the story makes for unique reading that includes everything you love about fantasy, without any of it becoming that annoying predictable thing that always happens.
Unlike anything else you have read, you will not be annoyed when the villian of the story survives falling off the cliff like in all other stories, because in this world that is a given for the characters themselves.
The tropes and cliches are part of the world, and will be purposefully used, in other words a villian might even fall off that cliff on purpose to escape, knowing it is safe, because thats the story they are part of, possibly the hero might have countered this by getting romantically entangled with the villian and changing his fall to a tragedy story ensuring he actually dies from the fall, and so on.
it is in other words a fantastic breath of fresh air, for the experienced reader and for good reason was the higest voted web fiction on the internet for multiple years while it was being released.
assuming the writting has not been touched up since, there will be a number of missclick mistakes throughout, but it is otherwise a highly skilled storytellers execelent writing.
With deep, independent characters, that all manage to be interesting an relevant.
the writing is often funny and extremly insightful into the art of writing fantasy itself.
CestarianRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A story about a good girl learning to be evil by necessity. I don't wanna spoil anything so I'd rather just keep the description of the contents to that, read this, go in as blind as you can if you're unfamiliar with it, you will not be disappointed.
I read this many years ago when I was just getting into webnovels, right on the heels of worm which was my first, and this is one of the only few webnovels that was almost as good as worm too, like direct competition, wouldn't be surprised if there are people who think this is the better one.
I've been reading webnovels aggressively for many years, but now that this story is on RR I would call it a very safe bet that this is the best story on this website right now hands down, none of the current top completed fics can compete with this, not a snowball's chance in hell.
This story is likely to steal that top spot for completed fics on RR. If it won't, that means the top fic system is broken.
Now this story is long overdue for a re-read from me so I'm gonna get right on that!
FriedbrainRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Disclaimer: I read this as the author released it years ago on his own website. leaving a review so this doesn't get lost in noise of this site.
Review: It's great. Go read it.
The worldbuilding is topnotch and it does something difficult, where it takes a concept (the world runs on tropes and narrative payoff) and treats it so seriously and with such a sense of consequence, that it elevates every single bit of characterization and decision making by the characters, in this world that functions in such a peculiar manner.
The characters are one of the strongest suits of the fiction. Protagonists, antagonists, and even side characters, are interesting, unique, funny, and often badass to the detriment of the protagonist. Even so Catherine never feels overshadowed in her own story.
The plot is great from beginning to end, even if it feels like it meanders a bit in the middle. All the conflicts that drive each of the books, are interesting and carry consequences for the following books.
IMHO one of the best, if not the best fiction now on this site.
General ChaosRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I've been following "a practical guide to evil by erraticerrata do wrong right" since 2018 and it remains my favourite story of all time.
Incredible worldbuilding, with all the separate cultures genuinely feeling like different people with their own long histories. The character work is also quite strong, with solid character growth and motivations that make sense, though I personally find the author's latest work, Pale Lights, blows it out of the water (that's really more of a comment on how good Pale Lights is rather than anything about pgtebeedwr). The plot is very good, it's smart, with a very satisfying conclusion that feels earned. The prose is insanely good; as someone who wants to write fantasy, this is the epitome of fantasy prose for me, what I aspire to write. It's not perfect, it does drag sometimes in some arcs (which in all honesty is not as big of a deal when bingeing) but that's presumably going to be fixed in the rewrite that's getting published. Typos are also fairly frequent.
On the whole, however, it's a must read if you're into fantasy, political manoeuvring, large scale medieval military conflicts (I'm told the author does that last one extremely well, though in all honesty it goes over my head) or metafiction.
Oh, and it's extremely hilarious.
MurphysLawRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Just last week I was thinking about how I would love the story in novel form. My esp must be going off cause I found this here a week later. Can't wait for it on kindle too. Might be reread time. Best story to date I've found. Def won't regret it.
PyrdweinRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The characters, world building, plot, stakes, just everything is so unbelievable well developed and original that it's almost criminal that we got it all for free. Support the author!
Stories like this are the premise and dream Royal Road is built upon. Not only for the sheer brilliance but also for having a proper narrative arc with a fitting finale and send-off.
SamuraiHunterRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
One of my all time favourites.
The concept is unique and very well executed.
The characters and world feel very real and alive.
The history of Praes alone could make for a greet book (Dread Emperor Traitorous is one of my favourite characters. And he died hundreds of years before the story begins)
A must read for fantasy progression fans.
Termi244Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I already read before the whole novel, and I can only say that this is definitely a masterpiece for the fans of web serials, because of its length it can be tedious at the start for some, but reading the whole thing is definitely worth it.
This novel has several moments of tragedy, of emotion, even some minor but important aspects of romance later on, it has a good progression, good comedic moments and camaraderie.
And finally, a fantastical ending that will not let you down!
If you like war chronicle novels, politics/intrigue arcs, protagonist with a spine that know what they want and work towards it, or just worldbuilding in general, this novel is for you! Give it a try! If you are not sure, you can ask for one of the many quotes at the start of the chapters, there are some very good ones.
If you prefer some minor spoilers, you can ask around for the "Discourse of Black", which I think happens in the "Madman" chapter, a lot of people found it amazing, and motivated them to start reading this beautiful novel!
WildeReaderRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I accompanied this story over the years in Wordpress.
This is one of, If not the best story i have ever Read.
The first book starts well enough, you have to think through the ‘cliche’ of the story beats, because the world revolves around those.
The first book is good, don't get me wrong, but the real deal comes after, everything just keeps on improving, better and better.
The writing takes a qualitative improvement, the world building grips you, the characters ? On point.
This is one of those stories where you just have to recommend, because it's that good, It stays with you.
For those starting out. Good Read. It is a ride.
bladerocksRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
One of the best books i have ever read. The lore, the worldbuilding and the characters are all outstanding. I would 100% recommend it to everyone remotly intrested in fantasy. The unique use of plot armour, the Heroes, the Villians, Good ,Evil is such a unique and refreshing concept that had me hooked from page one.