As I'd thoroughly enjoyed the first part of this series, I was looking forward to this immensely. Doom versus the walking dead? Sure!

It was definitely as good quality as the first, and I very much enjoyed revisiting Latveria (who can say that?!) with all of the familiar characters and Doom himself... but it just didn't seem as gripping.

I think the issue is that there's a lot going on, and it seems to take too long to do it. Whereas the first book spent time with the human (non-superhero or supernatural) characters, this one reminded me of the movie 'Speed'. We have a limited cast facing a crazy threat with a deadline, excitement ramping up every time a solution is found and proved not quite enough. Repeat.

I did like the story, absolutely, but I was rooting for Doom and his associates to reach the Secret Weapon more quickly, and so face off against the main threat more effectively. There seemed to be NPCs dying left and right, and while Doom was concerned, we saw his incredibly practical perspective on the ruling of his country. Even more death. Scorched earth. Which doesn't always work.

As I said, I enjoyed revisiting the human characters as they move forward with this latest challenge, but they weren't onscreen as much as I'd have liked.

I'm still looking forward to the third book in the series, though. The Red Skull this time - there's an opponent!

I an unable to review this title, as it was archived before I had a chance to download and read it. This feedback is only to stop this title from adversely affecting my netgalley feedback rate. If in the future I have the opportunity to read this title, I will post a proper review here.

I'm always a little picky on how Doctor Doom is portrayed. He is one of those characters who has a voice and an attitude that can be off putting if not captured correctly. With this being a second Doom, David Annandale is very comfortable with directing Doom in the narrative. Doom can have hubris, but will always be planning.

This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.
Before I could finish reading this book it got archived and there's no way I can review a book I didn't finish reading.

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Marvel Untold novel Reign of the Devourer by David Annadale, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am also friends with David on Facebook, but I suspect that’s more about him connecting with fans rather than being a big fan of mine!

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What is Marvel

Look at this point I would bore you with a bit of background to the game/universe, but lets not, you all know the Marvel Universe, if you don’t have you been living under a rock!

The Story

This story focuses on Doctor Victor von Doom, the ruler of the Eastern European country of Latveria, and is a sequel to last years Harrowing of Doom.

In this story Dooms desire for power and control leads him to attempt to regain knowledge that was lost on Walpurgis Night in the previous book, and with the assistance of the priest turned geomancer Zargo and surgeon Orloff, he searches for a repository of stolen memories and knowledge buried beneath Latveria.

But Maleva Krogh, a former member of Latverias ruling elite has a connection to the Devourer of memories, and is granted the power of the Urvullak, a deadly strain of Latverian vampires who steal the very soul of their victims.

Conclusion

The book is a slow burner, it takes a while to get going, but once it does the action is frantic, and epic.

It’s a very different novel to its predecessor, in that book Doom knew what was coming and was planning several steps ahead, whereas in this book, he was forced to react to the Urvullak who he was not expecting whatsoever.

In the last book you got time to know the main characters in the build up to Walpurgis Night, whereas this book takes place over a shorter timeframe, and you get less of the background. So I would say that the previous book is best read before this for maximum enjoyment.

Zargos inner turmoil is really well written, he is a man who made a choice to deny his powers and take a different path, but now has that choice taken from him. He is tortured inside and he is forced to develop his abilities further to fight the threat of the Urvullak.

Orloff gets a lot more fleshed out as Doom takes her from practising medicine to developing a new science, which is eventually weaponised as she becomes a warrior and potentially Dooms greatest tool in the fight against Krogh.

My favourite part of the book really is Krogh and the Urvullak, they are written in a way that is terrifying and horrific.

What they do is so awful, they way they rip away your soul and transform you into one of them. They feel just as much a threat on their own as they do when amassed as an army.

They are chilling and something like out of a horror film, absolutely petrifying.

This book takes a turn toward horror that I wasn’t expecting, reinforcing Annandale as a writer who is one of licensed fictions best writers of the weird and dreadful.

This book gets 4 out of 5 stars from me!

This takes place in the aftermath of the first Dr. Doom novel, "The Harrowing of Doom". Latveria is recovering from Walpurgis Night when demons flooded the country. Doom has found a new obsession, The Devourer, and is working to break it out of its prison in order to obtain its memories. Meanwhile, a threat to the entire country is growing in the shadows as an old folktale returns to life. A time of vampire that feasts on memories and turns its victims into more of the same growing exponentially across the country.

The book starts a bit slow but once it gets rolling it's really good. Doom and his lieutenants must work to save the country from this overwhelming tide of hunger. It reminds me of an old movie called "Lifeforce" in the type of threat that is presented, where people are overcome and then add to the threat. I really like how Doom is presented. He's not the villain but a ruler protecting his people even though he put them in danger in the first place by refusing to stop doing something really dangerous in trying to free The Devourer. He's more than just the foil for the Fantastic Four here.

Received a review copy from Aconyte Books and NetGalley


#Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review

About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.
For more information visit marvel.com. © 2020 MARVEL

A great novel about Doctor Doom influenced by strong comic lore knowledge, Gothic and Romance literature. This was one of those books that sucked me in from the beginning and didn’t let go until I finished!

A Marvel Untold novel

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the sequel to The Harrowing of Doom, which focused on the character of Dr. Doom while featuring a handful of other Latverian characters.

Doom is presented as a complex ruler; demanding competency and loyalty while rewarding those who possess unique talents and initiative. Latveria is a meritocracy where people of all backgrounds can rise within society based on their achievements. One of the things I like best about this book is how Doom was characterized – his intellect and mastery of technology and sorcery are awe-inspiring, but his arrogance and occasional over-confidence lead him dangerously close to failure. As with the first book, I enjoyed Doom’s three supporting Latverian characters. They add the humanity that Doom often fails to display and give readers some regular people to care about.

I gave Reign of the Devourer five stars. It doesn’t seem like this book is the end of the story, so I’ll be on the lookout for any additional volumes that may be down the line.

#Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review

About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.

For more information visit marvel.com. © 2020 MARVEL

Reign of the Devourer marks the second time that David Annandale has written a prose novel dedicated to the 'super villain' Doctor Doom, and, much like the first book in the series, Annandale continues to make Doom one of the most interesting characters in Marvel; turning my perception of him from a moustache twirling villain into a complex and caring leader of a nation that genuinely seems better for having him around.

With that being said, it's important to know that this is indeed a sequel book to The Harrowing of Doom, and whilst I wont say that it'd be impossible to read this on its own and still enjoy it, I think that reading it alongside the first would definitely provide the most enjoyment, as not only does it carry on a number of plot threads established in the first, but several minor characters make a return too.

The story takes place several months after the events of the first book, where Doom and his people had to face off against a horde of demonic entities that were let loose across Latveria. Since then Doom has been attempting to find a way to regain the knowledge he lost during that event, knowledge of the future. To this end he's been using science and magic to investigate strange mental activity found in corpses with the help of Orloff, a star doctor who's now been brought into his project; as well as searching the very earth of Latveria for a depository of memories and knowledge with the help of former priest and geomancer Zargo.

Eventually Zargo discovers something hidden deep within the ground, and Doom leads a drilling team beneath the surface to find chambers filled with strange artefacts and half remembered things, as well as an unusual, impossibly resilient stone that seems to hold some ancient presence within it. This prison is home to the Devourer, a force that feeds upon memories, and could hold the secrets to regaining the knowledge that Doom has lost.

Unfortunately, the Devourer has a will of its own, and does not want to go willingly to Doom. The entity reaches out across Latveria to find Maleva Krogh, a former member of the ruling class of Latveria from the time before Doom freed the people from the despotic regime that enslaved them all. A supporter of the former king, Krogh was one of the most feared and hated people in all Latveria, seeing the common people as nothing more than her playthings for her twisted, psychotic games. The Devourer reaches out to her, and with promise of power and the chance for revenge against Doom, transforms her into an urvullak, a deadly vampiric creature who feeds upon the memories of others, and whose touch can transform humans into monsters under her control. Now, as Doom tries to find a way to reach the Devourer he must contend with an army of monsters that begins to sweep across the country, changing all they come across in their mission to reach the Devourer before Doom.

The first Doom book was something of a slow burn, a novel that let you spend time getting to know the characters over the course of months as Doom prepared himself for something he knew was coming, as he was able to formulate plans far in advance and set things in motion to his own will. Reign of the Devourer is very different. Things move fast here, with the main events of the novel taking place over a much shorter time. It also has Doom and his allies being on something of a back-foot for most of it too. Instead of knowing what's going to happen and being able to prepare in advance Doom is very much taken by surprise by the appearance of the urvullak, and has to think and act quickly in order to save his people and his country.

This change might not seem like much, but it shows us an entirely different side to Doom. Instead of being the man who's always thinking several moves ahead, who's always got a plan, we see a man struggling to catch up, who's having to do all of his thinking and planning mid-battle, and who's watching everything he cares about slipping through his fingers. It allows us a different kind of insight into the man, and at times shows the more 'villainous' side of him as he's forced to become more ruthless and uncaring in order to do what needs to be done to save everyone.

It's not just Doom who gets a chance to shine, however, as two of the returning characters, Zargo and Orloff, get pushed in new directions; taking the foundation that was established in the first book and going in some unexpected places. At the start of the book Zargo is still a man questioning who he is, especially in relation to his geomancer powers and his position as a man of god. He can't reconcile those two parts of himself, only ever seeing them as two things in conflict with each other. Over the course of the book he very much learns to rely on his powers more, coming to understand them better, and even having to use them to greater heights in order to combat and survive the urvullak.

Orloff also gets challenged in similar ways, starting the book as a doctor in Latveria's best hospital, but then being assigned to work on Doom's special project. This project introduces her to whole new realms of science and understanding that she was unaware of, and in order to help fight the urvullak she's even forced to become something of a warrior; becoming one of Dooms best weapons in the fight. The two of them feel so much more fleshed out and alive in this book than they did the first, and they get huge amounts of room to grow and develop as the story goes on. If there are more books to come that focus on Doom I really hope that they'll be incorporating both of these characters too.

What I probably liked the most about this book, however, was Krogh and the urvullak. These creatures are legit scary. The early scenes where Krogh is the only one, and she's stalking her victims through the quiet buildings of a small town at night were terrifying, and felt like something straight out of a horror movie. Every time we had the urvullak finding new victims and changing people into more of them it was chilling and tonally very, very dark. Even when there were hundreds or more of the creatures and they were engaging in open warfare with Doom and his people they still managed to be frightening as they were this horde or monsters that were hard to stop, that just kept coming for you, and would destroy who you are with just a single tough. In some ways they made me think of the xenomorph from the Alien series, one of them alone stalking you through dark hallways is just as terrifying as a swarm of them coming at you en mass. In either scenario your chances of survival are incredibly small, and that made them so frightening.

Reign of the Devourer is a fascinating exploration of Doom and his home country, of how he's very much a hero there who has earned the love and admiration of his people. The book shows that he's not just pretending, or making it seem like he's a benevolent leader to the rest of the world, but actually cares about doing the right thing for Latveria, even if that means putting himself between his people and an army of vampire-like monsters. It builds upon the characters and themes established in the first book in exciting ways, and takes an even harder turn into horror than the first book that really sets this apart from the other Marvel books being produced by Aconyte. An absolute must read for anyone who's a fan of Doctor Doom.

Review: Reign of the Devourer: A Marvel Untold Novel by David Annandale

As always thank you to Aconyte for making me one happy nerd, to Netgalley and to David Annandale for continuing to bring further depth and spotlight to Doctor Victor von Doom. The Harrowing of Doom was the third Aconyte title and the second Marvel one and I fell in love with it instantly. I have always liked villains (I think everyone does if they are honest) and in Marvel Doom is probably one of top five villains. The combination of science and supernatural/mystic arts that we get with Doom along with the folklore is something I have always loved. Add to this the Annandale made arguably one of top three marvel couples and the fact they are part of the LGBTQ+ community is just the icing and cherry on top. I am, of course, talking about Kariana and Elsa.

As always I won’t spoil too much of the plot because the book is yet to be released but needless to say it has everything you could hope for in a Victor von Doom focused novel and so much more besides.


While this novel continues on from The Harrowing of Doom you do not exactly need to have read it, I am not sure why you wouldn’t have though and I would highly recommend it. Doctor Victor von Doom saw his future for an instant, and now he cannot rest. His obsession with regaining those memories leads him into the arcane science of geomancy. As Doom delves into the ancient memories that lie beneath his land, he discovers a tremendous concentration of power. One that should never be explored – but why would that stop him. Doom’s excavations and necromancy fracture the prison of something awful: the Devourer of Souls. Now free to roam Latveria, the Devourer spreads a plague of soul-hungry vampires. Now Doom must make a choice – does his seize the power for himself or destroy it. A choice that must be made before his realm is no more.

As with the first novel Annandale is a master of his craft. The writing style is beautiful, macabre and vivid. It flows and is a perfect match for the genre and characters. All the characters shine brightly; their strengths and weaknesses. It was easy to relate and become invested in them, even someone like Doom (although I admit I am a bit of a fan already!). In fact, and I thought this for The Harrowing, Annandale is amazing at writing Doom. It is so easy to fall into the trope of Good Vs Evil. Bad is bad. Particularly within a comic book setting but Annandale makes Doom human, albeit not exactly “average" and while he is by no means the good guy his people do love him and more to the point we see his motivation isn’t always just plain power and control. In short we see the human and to me that is brilliant.


As I have said the writing and characters are first rate but the story itself is just amazing. The pacing is superb. The different characters and their parts all interlink so succinctly and form part of the greater whole. The combination of realism, fantasy and horror is beautiful. You cannot help but get swept up in the narrative and end up believing all this could be real. The only downside? When you finish the book. Honestly I adored it and really hope we get more Doom content and maybe other ‘villain’ untold stories like the Dark Avengers: The Patriot List by David Guymer.



Simply, it is a must read for fans of the more mystical and science side of marvel. Or any Doom fan (there must be more of us out there!?). Most definitely one of my most anticipated releases for 2022.
The e-book will be available from January 18th 2022 with Paperbacks following on the 18th January for the US and 3rd of March for the UK!

Aconyte Books are the novel division of Asmodee Entertainment. Asmodee Entertainment is based in an amazing building in Nottingham, England. The Star Brewery opened in 1852, producing beer for Shipstones until 1991.

About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.
For more information visit marvel.com. © 2021/2022 MARVEL

I thought this book was a really good look into Dr doom and his country of latveria. Even though you’re rooting for him to overcome and conquer the power he released on his country, you still have that thought in the back of your mind “this is a villain.”

But I loved seeing that he cares about his people and makes sure they’re okay. He’s upset knowing lives are lost. Goes to show villains aren’t one dimensional.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Aconytne Books for an advanced copy of this Marvel universe novel.

Aconytne Books has a really good track record of novelizations based on popular games and its series of Marvel based adventures featuring popular and lesser known characters in adventures between or around the adventures as detailed in the comics. This is the second book to feature Doctor Doom, bane of the Fantastic Four, leader of the country of Latveria, and star of one of the best adventures I have read featuring him in quite a long time, David Annandale's Reign of the Devourer: A Marvel Untold Novel.

Mr. Annandale's portrayal of the supervillain, scientist, magician, political leader, megalomaniac is like I said one of the best uses of his character in years. This is Doom as a leader a man who asks much, but gives much, to his people, to his supposed allies, even his enemies, though his respect is usually a quick death. Doom plans for the worst, because he has seen the worst, and well he is Doom. That comes up a lot, not in a bragging sense, but more in a way that this is how Doom deals with problems or doubts, inner monologues on how he is Doom, and Doom is inevitable. A thousand Latverians dead, or turned to undead zombie like creatures, Doom has not time to worry or debate, act now and act again later if it goes wrong. Which it won't because, well he is Doom.

The supporting cast is far deeper and more interesting than a reader might expect, considering that Doom should be the character to get all the time. They are all well drawn and interesting, worthy of stories to be written about them if Doom has to fight Galactus or another Secret Wars, Latveria would be in good hands with these characters. A female surgeon, whose family in the past was involved with some dark medical experiments, and her wife who happens to be Doom's chief of security. An addition their is ex-priest who happens to be a geomancer, and a little bit the cause of this whole conflict, and a bad guy who makes Doctor Doom look reasonable, and more popular.

A very exciting story that really deserves a miniseries on Disney. It's very dark, full of magic and horror, and you find yourself rooting for the bad guys over the worse guys. A very fun exciting series that I can't wait to read more of. And more books by Mr. Annandale especially. A very good writer that I will have to look more for. I will end this with one of my favorite phrases from the book, as it really is a great line to read: Exceptional Posthumous Loyalty and Service. Why this is a medal in Latveria is worthy of a miniseries in itself.

Victor von Doom saw his future for an instant, and now he cannot rest. His obsession with regaining those memories leads him into the arcane science of geomancy. As he delves into the ancient memories that lie beneath his land, Doom discovers a tremendous concentration of power... one that should never be explored. Doom's excavations and necromancy fracture the prison of something awful: the Devourer of Souls. Now free to roam Latveria, the Devourer spreads a plague of soul-hungry vampires. Doom must choose between seizing this power for himself or destroying it, before his realm is no more.

Coming in January of 2022 is the latest in the series of Marvel Untold novels. I was given the opportunity to review an early galley for Reign of the Devourer, written by David Annandale.

This novel is a sequel to Annandale's The Harrowing of Doom which came out in early 2021. While the rest of the Marvel world views him as a villain, to the people of Latveria he is a "hero". And when his kingdom and subjects are treatened by a powerful, evil entity, he rises to the challenge as a protector. This is why Doom is one of my favorite Marvel villains - because he is so complex. Once again, the reader is treated to a wonderful portrayal of Doctor Doom; Annandale captures those multifacets perfectly. When Doom is advising those around him to push further, to challenge their own limits, he shows the redeemable qualities of his personality.

I would very much recommend this novel, especially if you enjoyed the first novel in this series.



About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.

For more information visit marvel.com. © 2020 MARVEL