Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship!, Volume 8

Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship! Light Novel #8

by Ryuto, Tetsuhiro Nabeshima (illustrator)

KNIGHT IN SHINING POWER ARMOR

Hiro and crew take a request to guard colonists transporting valuable terraforming materials to a brand-new system under the oversight of Chris herself. And with their new military battle bots aboard, the gang's ready for anything--or so they think. Meanwhile, Hiro's Gold Star has made him a target of the galactic paparazzi. Under the eye of the camera, Hiro and the girls undertake their most dangerous mission yet: defense of an entire planet!

Genres: Light Novel, Science Fiction, Harem, Audiobook, Fiction

257 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 10, 2022

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adventuring through a delightful side story in worldbuilding, the current volume gives readers an idea of how terraforming might function on a pan-galactic scale: clearing out pirates, taming local wildlife, negotiating resource allocation, ferreting out corrupt officials. The usual.

REBORN AS A SPACE MERC v8 doesn't do anything particularly new, but it successfully yields to consistency and depth, which is just as good. For example, Captain Hiro and the crew of the Krishna and Black Lotus suit up to help Count Dalenwald and Lieutenant Colonel Holz's guardianship and security of terraforming activities in the farthest reaches of the empire. What begins as a standard escort mission to observe a few dropships do their thing and to chase off a handful of small pirate vessels later escalates into an on-the-ground effort to out-muscle a rival force with some serious beef with Count Dalenwald.

This novel series' current narrative pattern is such that a good chunk of each novel is dedicated to slice-of-life fluff, which soon gives way to more serious or urgent problems. The fluff? The crew goes shopping. Captain Hiro entreats Chris to conversation away from the prying eyes of the nobility. And the Black Lotus hosts a few documentary news crews, to fulfill its agreement with Space Dwergr. The serious stuff? More armed suppression support for terraforming operations on Kormat III are warranted than expected, while on the dust planet, Kormat IV, strange alien life appears to have taken root where none should exist.

Serena Holz's Imperial Fleet wields heavy equipment to take care of the baddies on the ground, but since the woman's got Captain Hiro hanging around, she's going to use him as much as she can. And funnily enough, REBORN AS A SPACE MERC v8 does well by Serena and Hiro's fractious relationship. The balance is almost perfect. Whether this dynamic is expressed in something as mundane as a conversation on hiding away tasty military rations, or noted in their occasional bickering over field tactics, readers gain a firmer and more adult understanding of how these two function.

On the larger scale, the two warriors partner to form the vanguard of ground troops on Kormat IV and so make for a truly destructive duo (Serena wielding a great sword; Hiro with two swords and a blaster). The fighting is complicated and brief, but different and exciting enough that readers will enjoy the wildness of fighting mutants off-world.

REBORN AS A SPACE MERC v8 goes into great detail to explore the technology, resources, and personnel involved in coordinating and transitioning a random planet into something habitable. On this, the novel's conclusion is a bit anticlimactic, but that may be the author's way of hinting that all these messed-up politics over terraforming outlying planets is as of yet incomplete. Readers would be well-served from fewer nameless, episodic villains, and better served with stronger, more tactical, intelligent enemies keen on the long game.

[Daniel St. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed how this volume raised the stakes, moving beyond simple ship-to-ship fights into full planetary defense with both large-scale invasions and smaller challenges like harsh terrain and strange native life. The introduction of battle bots added a refreshing tactical twist, giving the combat more variety and strategy. I also liked the subplot around Hiro’s growing fame, with paparazzi and “Gold Star” status adding complications beyond the battlefield. Some of the buildup felt overly cautious, with teases of betrayal or danger that did not always deliver. Still, the expanded worldbuilding and bigger scale made this a strong and exciting continuation, solidly worth 4 stars.

[slugbiscuit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume 8 deals with Hiro and crew being hired to safeguard some colony-building efforts in a recently terraformed system. It was all pretty straightforward and didn't really advance any deeper plots (not that there are any). I like this series, so it was fine.

[Pieter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun continuation of the story, light-hearted, action in space, slice-of-life of Hiro the space merc and his crew. There is not much of a real plot going on in this volume, just some pirate and alien fighting. Still, if you like the previous volumes, you will find this one entertaining enough.

[Zack Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic!

Fantastic book! I loved this book! Such amazing character development. I simply can not wait for the next book to come out!

[Tj · Rating 5 out of 5]

TOO SHORT AGAIN!

This is criminal how short these books are! I want another 150 pages MINIMUM. especially for 8$ a book! Otherwise this series is fantastic.

[Yudi Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still really good

[Love · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 1 year old didn’t feel like sleeping so I stayed up all night with him listening to this book. All these books are super relaxing sci-fi stories.