Book Review: "Love, Politics and other acts of war" by M. H. Foster

"Love, Politics and other acts of war" by M.H. Foster is the second volume in the "A Gentle Apocalpyse" series.

It follows on from "The Demon overlord's retirement plan" in which, bored with evil after  444 lifetimes of grinding the faces of the poor, despoiling civilisation, fighting and killing heroes, the Demon Overlord of the world of Alteria decided to take the path of Cincinnatus, retire to a farm in a back-country village, and grow turnips.





















After 444 lifetimes of evil, being reincarnated at the end of each, Galornus Prime the Demon Overlord has faked his 444th death and settled down as a farmer in the village of Lower Middleton, which is basically a magical fantasy world's version of a cross between St Mary Mead from Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple" stories, Ambridge from "The Archers," or Walton's Mountain. 

He has managed, not without some challenges, to become accepted by his neighbours, none of who suspect that he is actually the former Demon Overlord whose name mothers use to frighten naughty children. 

But if he is done with war and politics, they are not done with him. His first problem starts when one of his most powerful lieutenants, Ranjani, Queen of the succubi, finds him and moves into his cottage,  posing as his cousin.

His second problem begins when two neighbouring baronies seem determined to go to war, and the queen's representative asks him to help her stop them.

For Galornus Prime, flattening both baronies instantly if either dared to cross him would have been easy. For Mr Willem Porter, turnip farmer, persuading them to make peace without anyone realising who he really is might be rather more difficult ...


The books so far published in the "A Gentle Apocalypse" series are:

1) "The Demon Overlord's retirement plan"  (October 2025, available from Amazon at

Demon Overlord's Retirement Plan (A Gentle Apocalypse) : Foster, M. H.: Amazon.co.uk: Books)

The book was reviewed on this site at 

Book Review: "The Demon Overlord's retirement plan" by M. H. Foster


2) "Love, Politics, and Other Acts of War"  (January 2026, available at

 Love, Politics, and Other Acts of War (A Gentle Apocalypse) : Foster, M. H.: Amazon.co.uk: Books)

3) "Band of others"  (Published 14th April 2026, available at:

Band of Others (A Gentle Apocalypse Book 3) eBook : Foster, M. H.: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store)

On the last page of book three we learn that the author is planning a fourth book in the series, but we don't have a name or a publication date yet.



The writing continues to be very amusing, both in the quality of the prose and the way that first Galornus, and then Ranjani, start be be redeemed without either of them realising it.

Like the first book the the series, this is a joy from start to finish, and I recommend it.


 Mitth'raw'nuruodo


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Series overview: David Weber's "Honor Harrington" universe book reviews.

This page is an index page and overview for all the books of the "Honor Harrington" science fiction universe, or the "Honorverse." It will be updated as new Honorverse books are published and the plan is to put up reviews for all 40+ books in the series, which will be linked to here. This is a set of military and espionage science fiction, currently as of December 2025 containing more than forty books, set in a future universe in which mankind began to dispersed over much of the galaxy, starting in 2103 AD. The main stories are set about two thousand years in the future, with two prequel series set about 400 years before, in what by our calendar will be the thirty-seventh century (the earliest book in the first Prequel series, " A beautiful Friendship, " is set 1518 years after the diaspora, or in 3621 AD/CE.) The series has sometimes been described as "Ms Hornblower in space" because they contain some very strong and obviously intentional simila...
Read more

Book review - "Powerless" by Harry Turtledove

"Powerless" by Harry Turtledove is an alternative history novel set in a world dominated by the Soviet Union. The first two chapters of this full-length novel originally appeared in slightly different form in the September/October 2018 issue of " The magazine of Fantasy and Science Fictio n."  Greg Benford suggested to Harry Turtledove that he extended it into a novel and this is the result. Like the majority of Turtledove's alternative history novels, the story in this book operates on two levels. On the surface level, it is a work of fiction set on an alternative version of Earth. On a deeper level, it is an account of a real-world series of historical events told from an alternative perspective. The world of "Powerless" begins to diverge from our own with the Confederate States of America successfully winning independence in the 1860's. By the time in which the novel is set, many years later - and we are never told exactly how much later - the a...
Read more