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Sentenced to Be a Hero (Light Novel) #2
Sentenced to Be a Hero (Light Novel), Vol. 2: The Prison Records of Penal Hero Unit 9004
NO REST FOR THE WICKED!
Xylo and his unit of penal heroes may have defeated the immortal demon lord Iblis and saved Mureed Fortress, but their punishment goes on. New enemies emerge—a demon lord with the ability to don a human disguise and a band of assassins bent on killing Teoritta—plunging the city of Ioff into chaos and destruction. With the addition of a dragon knight who couldn’t care less about human life and a mysterious artilleryman, Penal Hero Unit 9004 finds itself sinking ever deeper into a vortex of combat and conspiracy!
Xylo and his unit of penal heroes may have defeated the immortal demon lord Iblis and saved Mureed Fortress, but their punishment goes on. New enemies emerge—a demon lord with the ability to don a human disguise and a band of assassins bent on killing Teoritta—plunging the city of Ioff into chaos and destruction. With the addition of a dragon knight who couldn’t care less about human life and a mysterious artilleryman, Penal Hero Unit 9004 finds itself sinking ever deeper into a vortex of combat and conspiracy!
253 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 23, 2024
12 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 28, 2024
A great second entry in the series.
I really enjoyed the new characters (that are just as unique as the ones introduced in the 1st volume), the additional worldbuilding, and the deepening conspiracy. And all the twists!!
Minor gripes would be that (1) this volume is like 70% battles which get a bit stale from Xylo's POV since he just has his few moves, though the new chars add some freshness; and (2) there's some trope-y but also very weak multiple love interests situation going on that is not really good nor needed IMO.
I really enjoyed the new characters (that are just as unique as the ones introduced in the 1st volume), the additional worldbuilding, and the deepening conspiracy. And all the twists!!
Minor gripes would be that (1) this volume is like 70% battles which get a bit stale from Xylo's POV since he just has his few moves, though the new chars add some freshness; and (2) there's some trope-y but also very weak multiple love interests situation going on that is not really good nor needed IMO.
October 22, 2025
For most adventurers, trouble follows them wherever they tread. For the rambunctious fighters of Penal Hero Unit 9004, it's the reverse: wherever there is trouble to be had, the fighters are sure to be sent there before long. SENTENCED TO BE A HERO v2 corners its characters in a port city of some renown and unleashes an array of dark fiends and darker schemes.
Forbartz and his buddies know the drill. Crush some villains. Save the townspeople. Bicker with the local authorities. Negotiate with the royal military. Kill a demon lord. Escape with most of one's mortal parts intact.
Except, the port city of Ioff Cheg's fairy population appears concentrated, maybe even controlled. Except, the number of assassins in league with demons has grown exponentially since the penal unit's last scrap. Except, Forbartz can't shake the feeling that his crew is in deep crap, and all without ever being told what the stakes are (Forbartz: "There was someone in the shadows pulling the strings and saddling us with impossible tasks," page 174).
SENTENCED TO BE A HERO v2 again excels at story structure. Few light novels can boast a body of examples for which studied readers can tell the author cares about how the story is told, rather than singularly investing in the crass rudiments of what is being told.
In SENTENCED TO BE A HERO v2, the story's conflict shifts and evolves. Challenges highlighted in the novel's first half, then deemed critical, all morph and change into something different, and something more dangerous, by the novel's second half. For example, locating and fighting a new demon lord is one thing, but what about multiple demon lords? What about veteran killers who are aligned to those demon lords? What about a whole clan of rogue assassins? Readers aren't left twiddling their thumbs for 250 pages, watching and waiting for the final boss to show up and die. Instead, once Forbartz and his team make marginal progress, the bad guys change their plan; which, in turn, forces Forbartz and the penal hero unit to change their plans. It's a clever, purposeful, neve-rending dance.
Is the demon lord Spriggan, a purported shapeshifter, really as powerful as they say he is? Nobody can confirm whether they've seen him or not, so nobody really knows. Is the threat of the Coexisers, the faction of humans who ally with the demons, really as entrenched as one fears? As these characters and others grow more knowledgeable of the dangers of Ioff Cheg, the more each party's aims and goals shift to compensate for the chaos yet to come.
The novel also boasts a healthy and diverse variety of character conflict. Captain Kivia is at odds with her uncle, highly placed among the temple elite. The hero unit's cavalryman/dragon-rider, Jayce, is petulant yet reliable. The unit's artilleryman, Rhyno, is inscrutably affable yet carries a dark aura that even frightens Goddess Teoritta. Are these heroes more trouble than they're worth? The answer should be easy and obvious, but SENTENCED TO BE A HERO v2 takes its time offering readers its reasons and logic, and the end result is quite a surprise.
The book is enjoyable, but it isn't perfect. The expanding cast means characters are often written out of chapters or thoroughly dispersed among a vague and unreadable geographic expanse for reasons unknown. For example, the book's continuity isn't particularly kind to Frenci Mastibolt, a leading member of a reclusive warrior clan and the former fiancée to one Forbartz. Frenci is a delightful character, but suffers from being too good and too entertaining to be used with any measure of success; the author uses her to clean up scenes when it's too logically incoherent for the protagonists to be in too many places at once.
Also, background research is lacking. The only, and therefore most frustrating example, rests in the orientation of the City of Ioff Cheg. Closer to the water, a district includes an area called Tui Jia, which is alternately described (or translated) as: a tower with a man-made island, as "the tower," as a structure with a "front gate," as a structure with "petal-like fortress walls" (page 212), and when the heroes attack, Forbartz declares "my destination was the fortress itself" (page 220).
In the aggregate, very little of these descriptions make sense in the broader continuity because almost none of these terms are reasonably exchangeable in the linguistics of feudal-period fortification. Is Tui Jia a tower or is it a fortress? How large is it/are they? Are there any open spaces or surfaces? Without a map and without good descriptive language, readers are forced to ignore the improbable acrobatics required (of Forbartz) to leap, from one point to another, as he fights demons and dodges artillery fire. And what the heck do "petal-like fortress walls" look like? Those definitely don't exist. At least, not in any world with good novel writing.
SENTENCED TO BE A HERO v2 is a great follow-up to a curious and well-structured introductory volume. As with before, the novel series' strengths rest in narrative structure and the trajectory of numerous character arcs. Many of the story's secondary characters exhibit fulfilling and demanding lives that ache for exploration. This novel also, however, exhibits a few notable weaknesses. Hopefully, as this story of doomed heroes, reluctant saviors, shy goddesses, and charismatic demon lords continues, the wrinkles will iron themselves out.
Forbartz and his buddies know the drill. Crush some villains. Save the townspeople. Bicker with the local authorities. Negotiate with the royal military. Kill a demon lord. Escape with most of one's mortal parts intact.
Except, the port city of Ioff Cheg's fairy population appears concentrated, maybe even controlled. Except, the number of assassins in league with demons has grown exponentially since the penal unit's last scrap. Except, Forbartz can't shake the feeling that his crew is in deep crap, and all without ever being told what the stakes are (Forbartz: "There was someone in the shadows pulling the strings and saddling us with impossible tasks," page 174).
SENTENCED TO BE A HERO v2 again excels at story structure. Few light novels can boast a body of examples for which studied readers can tell the author cares about how the story is told, rather than singularly investing in the crass rudiments of what is being told.
In SENTENCED TO BE A HERO v2, the story's conflict shifts and evolves. Challenges highlighted in the novel's first half, then deemed critical, all morph and change into something different, and something more dangerous, by the novel's second half. For example, locating and fighting a new demon lord is one thing, but what about multiple demon lords? What about veteran killers who are aligned to those demon lords? What about a whole clan of rogue assassins? Readers aren't left twiddling their thumbs for 250 pages, watching and waiting for the final boss to show up and die. Instead, once Forbartz and his team make marginal progress, the bad guys change their plan; which, in turn, forces Forbartz and the penal hero unit to change their plans. It's a clever, purposeful, neve-rending dance.
Is the demon lord Spriggan, a purported shapeshifter, really as powerful as they say he is? Nobody can confirm whether they've seen him or not, so nobody really knows. Is the threat of the Coexisers, the faction of humans who ally with the demons, really as entrenched as one fears? As these characters and others grow more knowledgeable of the dangers of Ioff Cheg, the more each party's aims and goals shift to compensate for the chaos yet to come.
The novel also boasts a healthy and diverse variety of character conflict. Captain Kivia is at odds with her uncle, highly placed among the temple elite. The hero unit's cavalryman/dragon-rider, Jayce, is petulant yet reliable. The unit's artilleryman, Rhyno, is inscrutably affable yet carries a dark aura that even frightens Goddess Teoritta. Are these heroes more trouble than they're worth? The answer should be easy and obvious, but SENTENCED TO BE A HERO v2 takes its time offering readers its reasons and logic, and the end result is quite a surprise.
The book is enjoyable, but it isn't perfect. The expanding cast means characters are often written out of chapters or thoroughly dispersed among a vague and unreadable geographic expanse for reasons unknown. For example, the book's continuity isn't particularly kind to Frenci Mastibolt, a leading member of a reclusive warrior clan and the former fiancée to one Forbartz. Frenci is a delightful character, but suffers from being too good and too entertaining to be used with any measure of success; the author uses her to clean up scenes when it's too logically incoherent for the protagonists to be in too many places at once.
Also, background research is lacking. The only, and therefore most frustrating example, rests in the orientation of the City of Ioff Cheg. Closer to the water, a district includes an area called Tui Jia, which is alternately described (or translated) as: a tower with a man-made island, as "the tower," as a structure with a "front gate," as a structure with "petal-like fortress walls" (page 212), and when the heroes attack, Forbartz declares "my destination was the fortress itself" (page 220).
In the aggregate, very little of these descriptions make sense in the broader continuity because almost none of these terms are reasonably exchangeable in the linguistics of feudal-period fortification. Is Tui Jia a tower or is it a fortress? How large is it/are they? Are there any open spaces or surfaces? Without a map and without good descriptive language, readers are forced to ignore the improbable acrobatics required (of Forbartz) to leap, from one point to another, as he fights demons and dodges artillery fire. And what the heck do "petal-like fortress walls" look like? Those definitely don't exist. At least, not in any world with good novel writing.
SENTENCED TO BE A HERO v2 is a great follow-up to a curious and well-structured introductory volume. As with before, the novel series' strengths rest in narrative structure and the trajectory of numerous character arcs. Many of the story's secondary characters exhibit fulfilling and demanding lives that ache for exploration. This novel also, however, exhibits a few notable weaknesses. Hopefully, as this story of doomed heroes, reluctant saviors, shy goddesses, and charismatic demon lords continues, the wrinkles will iron themselves out.
January 25, 2024
Halfway into the second volume and it is already better than the first volume. The character development of characters is great, Patausche's in particular. I love where this story is going and I can't stop reading this. I love the main character, Xylo a lot. He is pretty refreshing as a main character, I can't help but feel frustrated for his situation he's in. I will continue reading and I hope we get a release date for volume 3 soon because it was hard waiting since August for this volume.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews