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I'm the Heroic Knight of an Intergalactic Empire! (Light Novel) #1
I'm the Heroic Knight of an Intergalactic Empire! (Light Novel) Vol. 1
The Hero of JusticeEmma has just taken her first step as a knight. Emma's new job? Commander of a squad of useless layabouts. Just as her efforts start to change minds, a pirate base is discovered on Alias. What will happen when an elite force is sent in from the home planet to eliminate them?! An epic new tale of a failure's rise to glory in the Intergalactic Empire begins!
209 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 1, 2024
24 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 23, 2024
Emma Rodman, without a doubt, is a terrible soldier. Her live-fire skills are so-so. Her tactical aptitude is subpar. Her mobile-unit piloting abilities are meh. And all her other scores at the military academy are decidedly "mediocre." Still. She graduates and earns the rank of Knight. Barely.
I'M THE HEROIC KNIGHT OF AN INTERGALACTIC EMPIRE v1 is a fun and interesting side story that isn't as overwrought as one might have feared at the outset. Much of the story of a luckless pilot finally earning her due, out in the boonies, is rote and preordained. But much of the story dynamics are open to creative interpretation and delightful throwbacks to other, related stories.
One shouldn't enter into Sub-Lieutenant Rodman's little world expecting much of the same skill and fortune that graced others in this universe. Indeed, Rodman's experience is quite the opposite: she's hard working but sees little benefit; nobody pities her misfortunes; she's intuitively aspirational; and the Algrand Empire and it's upstart House Banfield probably wouldn't change much if she didn't exist.
Still, it's a fun story. Rodman graduates House Banfield's military academy and aims to contribute to the upstart lord's growing army. Since Banfield is recruiting, educating, and training his own military (rather than importing recruits from regional nobles), skills ranking and estimates are all the rage. Rodman? She's a notorious "D-ranker," and therefore shuttled off Hydra, the home planet, and forced to serve in a random border region.
HEROIC KNIGHT v1 spends much of its real estate prepping and assembling the character relationships that surround Rodman and her crew of fellow outcasts. Perhaps readers don't need extended, waffling discourse from Colonel Claudia Beltran (Tia's adjutant), and perhaps reader's don't need splinter plots involving the numerous pirates Rodman's team stumbles upon when canvassing a presumably remote planet. However, it's clear the author wants to give Rodman's little world a fully lived-in treatment. Contrary to the events of the "evil lord" at the head of the house, nothing happens to Rodman by happenstance.
The book's action is rather solid, but sits squarely in the Third Act. The novel excitedly pulls copious references from mecha manga and anime of generations past and wields a few (boorish) archetypes to fill out the broader narrative. The combination has a bit of a retro feel and requires a lot of patience on the part of the reader.
For example, Rodman is assigned to the Melea light carrier ship, and her platoon members include a slob (Tim Baker, colonel), a perpetual drunkard and defeatist (Doug Walsh, warrant officer), a lazy corpsman (Larray Cramer, warrant officer), and a brilliant mechanic and scavenger (Molly Burrell, Pvt. First Class), who clearly enjoys just doing whatever she wants. These misfits rebuke and mistreat Rodman to the point where one wouldn't be wrong to accuse them all of being degenerate assholes and nothing less. It takes a few, classic, "underdog character surpassing all expectations" moments to shift the narrative into a more palatable direction.
HEROIC KNIGHT v1 more successfully pings mecha storytelling's more salient and desirable protagonist-featured, character-building notes. The best example of which is Rodman's constant failure under the strenuous eye of her academic leaders and more experienced superior officers. Nobody can figure out why such a dedicated and practiced young woman continues to receive mediocre scores. What's the deal? The answer grows increasingly obvious (i.e., stop questioning the quality of student, and start questioning the quality of the exam). After all, who wouldn't want an ambitious young woman with insane reflexes piloting an experimental mobile knight?
In terms of what this novel does better than the original novel series, the author is granted the leeway to focus more on military strategy and the odd, confusing, and shifting battlefield circumstances that necessarily force operations to change on the fly. The amount of tactical banter and follow-up in HEROIC KNIGHT v1 is leagues beyond what occur in any Evil Lord novel. Readers enter the cockpit of Rodman's mobile knight, see what she sees and hear what she hears, and gain a respectable first-person perspective of the unit's capabilities and the consequences thereof. The fact that the young sub-lieutenant absolutely demolishes her own mobile knight while yet destroying all of her enemies is a comical, yet entirely realistic conclusion to draw, particularly when one views the lengths to which Rodman goes to secure victory for House Banfield.
I'M THE HEROIC KNIGHT OF AN INTERGALACTIC EMPIRE v1 is a fun and interesting side story that isn't as overwrought as one might have feared at the outset. Much of the story of a luckless pilot finally earning her due, out in the boonies, is rote and preordained. But much of the story dynamics are open to creative interpretation and delightful throwbacks to other, related stories.
One shouldn't enter into Sub-Lieutenant Rodman's little world expecting much of the same skill and fortune that graced others in this universe. Indeed, Rodman's experience is quite the opposite: she's hard working but sees little benefit; nobody pities her misfortunes; she's intuitively aspirational; and the Algrand Empire and it's upstart House Banfield probably wouldn't change much if she didn't exist.
Still, it's a fun story. Rodman graduates House Banfield's military academy and aims to contribute to the upstart lord's growing army. Since Banfield is recruiting, educating, and training his own military (rather than importing recruits from regional nobles), skills ranking and estimates are all the rage. Rodman? She's a notorious "D-ranker," and therefore shuttled off Hydra, the home planet, and forced to serve in a random border region.
HEROIC KNIGHT v1 spends much of its real estate prepping and assembling the character relationships that surround Rodman and her crew of fellow outcasts. Perhaps readers don't need extended, waffling discourse from Colonel Claudia Beltran (Tia's adjutant), and perhaps reader's don't need splinter plots involving the numerous pirates Rodman's team stumbles upon when canvassing a presumably remote planet. However, it's clear the author wants to give Rodman's little world a fully lived-in treatment. Contrary to the events of the "evil lord" at the head of the house, nothing happens to Rodman by happenstance.
The book's action is rather solid, but sits squarely in the Third Act. The novel excitedly pulls copious references from mecha manga and anime of generations past and wields a few (boorish) archetypes to fill out the broader narrative. The combination has a bit of a retro feel and requires a lot of patience on the part of the reader.
For example, Rodman is assigned to the Melea light carrier ship, and her platoon members include a slob (Tim Baker, colonel), a perpetual drunkard and defeatist (Doug Walsh, warrant officer), a lazy corpsman (Larray Cramer, warrant officer), and a brilliant mechanic and scavenger (Molly Burrell, Pvt. First Class), who clearly enjoys just doing whatever she wants. These misfits rebuke and mistreat Rodman to the point where one wouldn't be wrong to accuse them all of being degenerate assholes and nothing less. It takes a few, classic, "underdog character surpassing all expectations" moments to shift the narrative into a more palatable direction.
HEROIC KNIGHT v1 more successfully pings mecha storytelling's more salient and desirable protagonist-featured, character-building notes. The best example of which is Rodman's constant failure under the strenuous eye of her academic leaders and more experienced superior officers. Nobody can figure out why such a dedicated and practiced young woman continues to receive mediocre scores. What's the deal? The answer grows increasingly obvious (i.e., stop questioning the quality of student, and start questioning the quality of the exam). After all, who wouldn't want an ambitious young woman with insane reflexes piloting an experimental mobile knight?
In terms of what this novel does better than the original novel series, the author is granted the leeway to focus more on military strategy and the odd, confusing, and shifting battlefield circumstances that necessarily force operations to change on the fly. The amount of tactical banter and follow-up in HEROIC KNIGHT v1 is leagues beyond what occur in any Evil Lord novel. Readers enter the cockpit of Rodman's mobile knight, see what she sees and hear what she hears, and gain a respectable first-person perspective of the unit's capabilities and the consequences thereof. The fact that the young sub-lieutenant absolutely demolishes her own mobile knight while yet destroying all of her enemies is a comical, yet entirely realistic conclusion to draw, particularly when one views the lengths to which Rodman goes to secure victory for House Banfield.
October 5, 2025
So this one happened because I read the book it branched out off. Its a good story and fun to read.
Emma is a Knight just graduated from House Banfield military academy. On her first battle Emma did not do well, actually she was so bad that she got downgraded and deemed a failure under pressure. She got moved to a low position even though she is a Knight. Here she finds herself in the company of the old warriors of the Banfield Army.
Can she make it back? Well she is about to get her opportunity...
Emma is a Knight just graduated from House Banfield military academy. On her first battle Emma did not do well, actually she was so bad that she got downgraded and deemed a failure under pressure. She got moved to a low position even though she is a Knight. Here she finds herself in the company of the old warriors of the Banfield Army.
Can she make it back? Well she is about to get her opportunity...
July 13, 2025
An enjoyable extension of the series I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire!, Volume 1.
June 11, 2025
I'm the Mediocre Spinoff Of A Far More Entertaining Light Novel Series!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews