It's not a bad swords & sorcery book. But I expected more than that.

What is supposed to set it apart from a million other fantasy adventures is the concept of Roles. Being a Lone Swordsman or an Heiress is not just a cliche here. It has tremendous power. The force of narrative compels people and makes miracles possible.

That sounds great. I was so excited for the clever twists this setup allows! And maybe this series goes there and it's awesome. But after reading the first book and part of the second I can tell you that if it does go there, it's taking a slow and scenic route. I felt like the whole first book was just filler. Sure, you want to introduce characters, build up relationships, etc. And it's not boring. Exciting things happen throughout. But I came here to read about cool uses and abuses of Names! There was too little of that for me.

I read it right after reading [b:Sufficiently Advanced Magic|34403860|Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Arcane Ascension, #1)|Andrew Rowe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1488182235l/34403860.SY75.jpg|55506810] and its sequel. So that was my baseline. I loved it. It has way more cool twists on cliches. And I even liked the Young Adult stuff better there. A Practical Guide to Evil could be enjoyable as a fun adventure, but that is marred by what I thought was a dose of unnecessarily gruesome violence.