Underland 2

A Dark Fantasy

De: Maxime J. Durand, Void Herald

Narrado por: Tim Campbell

In the brutal, mystical realm of Underland, the secrets of the past may hold the key to saving all existence—or finally condemning it to eternal darkness.

Now under the tutelage of a pair of dark lords, Valdemar Verney and his partner and bodyguard, Lady Reynard, have grown greatly in skill and power—he in sorcery and summoning, and she in blood and bone swordsmanship. Having faced the knowledge of his dark legacy, Valdemar is still struggling to find his way as well as solve the pan-dimensional mystery that seems to be guiding his destiny.

When the Dark Lord Och decides to make a punitive strike against the demented, gore-drenched Derros, both Valdemar and Reynard are put to the test in mind, body, and soul against an enemy far more depraved than any they have faced before: Otto Blutgang, the Derros King, capturer of minds.

But even Blutgang has his uses for the summoner. He commands Valdemar to aid him in his ultimate play for power: opening portals from Underland to countless realities where he can rule above any gods. And if Valdemar refuses, Reynard will be the one to pay the price, forever and beyond . . .

The second volume of the hit dark-fantasy series—with more than 900,000 views on Royal Road—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

©2022 Maxime J. Durand and Void Herald (P)2022 Podium Audio

it was good

I really like the series overall, but the second book is a little rushed and too short. Don't get me wrong, it works, had a conclusion, but many of the characters that the first book established are just gone. The lack of many of the established characters is very noticeable.

A fantastic story with Lovecraftian inspiration.

I usually do not leave reviews, but I loved this story enough to do it. While I’ve not read anything else from the author, Underland and now Underland 2 alone are enough to make them one of my top 10 authors. The characters are amazing, the story is amazing, and the narrator brings it all to life in an amazing way.
I have read stories about knights, wizards, and monsters, but nothing that blends the elements of heroes, magic, monsters, and existential-defying cosmic horror like this. This story is a fantastic follow-up to the first book, and I hope for many more books to come.

Clenched the ending 🫢

Great book, really glad Void Harold's not a sadist and gave us an actual enjoyable ending or there'd be alot less stars up there but i was happy with the way this book turned out. Hope theres guna be another🫣

Another great one

My only complaint is that I wish it was longer. To be honest some of the depictions in this story remind me of when I ate some fungus that made me see the sand I was walking on as a wall of bodies/zombies lifting me up among other visions. Wonderfully done.

Great Story

I loved every second of this amazing story and I can't wait until book three is available. Everything I have read from this author has been gold.

underland is a fantastic world

this world is fantastic. The mix of fantasy and cosmic lovecraftian horror continues to be a pleasure to listen to.
well I don't share are main characters desire to go to earth, I do enjoy seeing his journey a d choices.
I also love getting to learn more and more about this world, universe and its mysties!

Absolutely Amazing

I love Durand's other books, but these are his best works to date. I hope he comes back to the series one day, I want more.

great!

if you liked the first book you will most likely like this one too. I wish there was one more =)

this is like a anime starwars

every one who worked on this should feel proud of themselves. I hope everyone gives this a chance.

Leans away from the author's strengths.

Durand is very clever and very funny, Endless Run proves that, and his other books are at their best when they lean into that irreverent humor. But what he doesn't have is an interesting (or seemingly even at-all developed) world view, or especially complex characters. All his characters are either himself in different situations, or they're irredeemably evil. None of the ones in the former category ever says anything that contradicts any other character's view of the world. This gets especially farcical at the climax of this book, where two characters have an "argument", if you can even call it that, over how to behave, where both of them are literally just making this one argument: "I like [these] things, so you should as well" (actually, I think even that summary may be giving them too much credit). Neither of them say anything about why their position is correct, or why they feel what they feel, they both just repeat *that* they feel their certain way, so the other person should too, making nothing but personal appeals to each other. Then the narrator shamelessly summarizes their conflict as having been a philosophical one. It's absolutely surreal. *One Punch Man* explores deeper philosophical territory than this book; does it more seriously too.

With that absurdity being the core conflict of the story, you need some really likable characters to carry it. But none of them are. The dark lords are superficially interesting, but have nothing going beneath the surface (like most of Durand's characters) and are really minor characters anyway. The lich has all the depth and complexity described above. The main character is exactly the same. Reynard is so unlikable that I think Durand deliberately did a small retcon to her backstory from the last book to make her less so (doesn't help that other characters keep glazing her for no reason), and all the casual conversations between her and Valdemar are so banal and predictable that it's a groanworthy chore to get through most of them. Having characters whose values can all be summarized as "I just feel this way" discussing their feelings with each other could not possibly be more boring. It's unironically more interesting to listen to toddlers argue with each other in a kindergarden, I'm pretty sure they make more justified arguments for their positions as well (at least they recognize that they have to justify them, unlike seemingly any of the characters in Durand's books). Heck, the craziest most drunk chicks you've ever met at a party probably have more solid arguments with each other than the ones between the characters in this book. I'm not trying to be funny. I find it weird that Durand can write such complex plots while all his characters are so shallow and superficial.

Like in the first book, nearly all of Durand's regular wit and humor is gone, presumably because it's inappropriate for this more darker setting. Only really the stupid cthulu-baby represents it, and that's more of just a pop culture reference than anything else.

The only thing it has going for it is how creepy many aspects of the world is, but the first book did that a lot better. Actually, the first book did everything a lot better, including *not* including a stupid cthulu-baby. The world is really creepy, and stuff like the whole experience Reynard has early in this book when she starts to truly see it are genuinely a great concepts. But Durand doesn't really do anything with it, except to use it as a way of explaining the magic system and why Valdemar is so OP.

Overall, the book was so boring I literally fell asleep listening to it multiple times. Listening to it while asleep did give me some really wicked dreams, though, so it gets a bonus star for that.