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The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary Light Novel #3
The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary (Light Novel) Vol. 3
WHAT DARKNESS LURKS BENEATH
Loren knows better than to share Lapis’s excitement when she brings him a new quest. It sounds easy enough—proctoring students from an adventuring academy on their final exam—but he knows his partner. Lapis has an ulterior motive. Sure enough, she claims that one of her missing parts is hidden within the labyrinth the students are delving into. She’ll stop at nothing to reclaim it, even if it means endangering their charges. Worse, something’s gone wrong with the labyrinth, and Loren soon realizes that he’ll be lucky if his students get a passing grade—and he’ll be lucky to survive.
Loren knows better than to share Lapis’s excitement when she brings him a new quest. It sounds easy enough—proctoring students from an adventuring academy on their final exam—but he knows his partner. Lapis has an ulterior motive. Sure enough, she claims that one of her missing parts is hidden within the labyrinth the students are delving into. She’ll stop at nothing to reclaim it, even if it means endangering their charges. Worse, something’s gone wrong with the labyrinth, and Loren soon realizes that he’ll be lucky if his students get a passing grade—and he’ll be lucky to survive.
217 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 22, 2017
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42 people want to read
About the author
Mine
68 books28 followersMine is a Japanese light novel author best known for The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 25, 2023
9.25/10
Guess what? Big sword. Swing.
Guess what? Big sword. Swing.
February 26, 2022
A clever refocusing of the narrative precipitates a weak and unassuming payoff. A promising pretense leads to a lackluster climax. And character development is, well, nonexistent.
BROKE MERCENARY #3 lacks all of the more engaging facets of swords-and-sorcery adventuring lore the previous two volumes deployed (if at times deployed inefficiently). The novel series relies on its characters presuming the best of circumstances, only to adapt, without much choice, to the worst of circumstances. It's not a bad narrative arc, but it is predictable; it also requires, at a minimum, the author manifest a suitable reckoning in the closing chapters. Regrettably, the current volume fails to meet this most basic tenet.
Previous books introduced readers to innocent quests for coin and glory that soon spiraled beyond all suitable portent. As chaos mounted, series protagonists Loren (a skilled but impoverished swordsman) and Lapis (a sardonic demon on a mission of her own) fought for survival as a natural byproduct of figuring out how and why the bad scenarios in which they found themselves kept getting worse.
In this vein, BROKE MERCENARY #3 sees Loren and Lapis making their way to Monte Lugar, a trading city, on the pretense of serving as proctors for a local adventurer training academy. But no sooner do they arrive than do they discern the labyrinth beneath the city isn't acting the way labyrinths are supposed to.
The challenge with the current volume is singular but widespread: It's tedious. The book is a dungeon crawl in the most awkward and literal sense. Readers follow Loren and Lapis as they trail a handful of adventurers-in-training, frequently disagreeing on the young team's skills, tactics, and knowledge. Further, the labyrinth is acting strange: the enemies aren't populating where they should; the creatures are unnaturally weak; and the traps aren't going off the way they should. One would think a labyrinth on the fritz would spell an array of unique and dangerous challenges, but in this book, it's the opposite, and that's a big problem. The characters actually walk from floor to floor without lifting a blade, and the result is horrendously boring.
The labyrinth isn't dangerous; the characters merely waste dozens and dozens of pages talking about how dangerous it should be.
Loren and Lapis are aware of the odd lore behind the labyrinth's creation. Loren and Lapis have their misgivings about the miasma surrounding the labyrinth. And Loren and Lapis readily question the battle readiness of these young nobles-turned-adventurers. But none of these observations matter, unfortunately, because in this novel, nothing really happens. All told, the action is so minimal as to not exist (e.g., zero spellcasting; Loren lifts his blade only once). To say the book's conclusion is anticlimactic is downright offensive.
BROKE MERCENARY #3 has multiple opportunities to offer readers something new and intriguing, but for whatever reason, the author deferred. For example, the administrator of the training academy is a comically large man with strong mana, except, the guy appears in only one scene and is written off as genial without a second thought. Here, a powerful character enters the story (great), but has no apparent effect on the direction of said story (not so great).
Another example would be Lapis discovering that one of her appendages is housed in the labyrinth. The hunt for a demon lady's appendage inserts a clever bit of clandestine work (great), but such storytelling should render a great deal more drama than waltzing up to a shelf and perusing a litany of old and patina-encrusted wares (not so great).
This novel isn't really worth the energy, and largely faults toward the type of long-winded and unimaginative writing that plagued parts of the first two volumes in limited variations. The problem here is that this type of storytelling comprises the whole of BROKE MERCENARY #3. The author continues the trope of annoying enemies who get their comeuppances, and unlikely allies who help out in a pinch, but these facets of the narrative are entirely unfulfilling. The book's core potential is lost.
BROKE MERCENARY #3 lacks all of the more engaging facets of swords-and-sorcery adventuring lore the previous two volumes deployed (if at times deployed inefficiently). The novel series relies on its characters presuming the best of circumstances, only to adapt, without much choice, to the worst of circumstances. It's not a bad narrative arc, but it is predictable; it also requires, at a minimum, the author manifest a suitable reckoning in the closing chapters. Regrettably, the current volume fails to meet this most basic tenet.
Previous books introduced readers to innocent quests for coin and glory that soon spiraled beyond all suitable portent. As chaos mounted, series protagonists Loren (a skilled but impoverished swordsman) and Lapis (a sardonic demon on a mission of her own) fought for survival as a natural byproduct of figuring out how and why the bad scenarios in which they found themselves kept getting worse.
In this vein, BROKE MERCENARY #3 sees Loren and Lapis making their way to Monte Lugar, a trading city, on the pretense of serving as proctors for a local adventurer training academy. But no sooner do they arrive than do they discern the labyrinth beneath the city isn't acting the way labyrinths are supposed to.
The challenge with the current volume is singular but widespread: It's tedious. The book is a dungeon crawl in the most awkward and literal sense. Readers follow Loren and Lapis as they trail a handful of adventurers-in-training, frequently disagreeing on the young team's skills, tactics, and knowledge. Further, the labyrinth is acting strange: the enemies aren't populating where they should; the creatures are unnaturally weak; and the traps aren't going off the way they should. One would think a labyrinth on the fritz would spell an array of unique and dangerous challenges, but in this book, it's the opposite, and that's a big problem. The characters actually walk from floor to floor without lifting a blade, and the result is horrendously boring.
The labyrinth isn't dangerous; the characters merely waste dozens and dozens of pages talking about how dangerous it should be.
Loren and Lapis are aware of the odd lore behind the labyrinth's creation. Loren and Lapis have their misgivings about the miasma surrounding the labyrinth. And Loren and Lapis readily question the battle readiness of these young nobles-turned-adventurers. But none of these observations matter, unfortunately, because in this novel, nothing really happens. All told, the action is so minimal as to not exist (e.g., zero spellcasting; Loren lifts his blade only once). To say the book's conclusion is anticlimactic is downright offensive.
BROKE MERCENARY #3 has multiple opportunities to offer readers something new and intriguing, but for whatever reason, the author deferred. For example, the administrator of the training academy is a comically large man with strong mana, except, the guy appears in only one scene and is written off as genial without a second thought. Here, a powerful character enters the story (great), but has no apparent effect on the direction of said story (not so great).
Another example would be Lapis discovering that one of her appendages is housed in the labyrinth. The hunt for a demon lady's appendage inserts a clever bit of clandestine work (great), but such storytelling should render a great deal more drama than waltzing up to a shelf and perusing a litany of old and patina-encrusted wares (not so great).
This novel isn't really worth the energy, and largely faults toward the type of long-winded and unimaginative writing that plagued parts of the first two volumes in limited variations. The problem here is that this type of storytelling comprises the whole of BROKE MERCENARY #3. The author continues the trope of annoying enemies who get their comeuppances, and unlikely allies who help out in a pinch, but these facets of the narrative are entirely unfulfilling. The book's core potential is lost.
December 11, 2021
Lapis finally decides to look for one of her missing limbs. Since it is in a labyrinth right under an adventurers' academy, Loren and Lapis join the school as examiners/protector, to their irritation together with their old friend Claes. Obviously things do not go exactly as planned.
Once again a volume with one single story, entertaining characters (who do show some growth) and an intriguing plot. I like the first person point of view, the same as the previous 2 volumes. The worldbuilding remains the same, and I do wonder when we going to end a volume on a different note than the previous two. A bit of a quick read, but that is not unexpected.
So, an entertaining read, not ground breaking, although non-opponent side characters do die left and right which is not too common. A good addition to the series and some progress to Lapis' story.
Once again a volume with one single story, entertaining characters (who do show some growth) and an intriguing plot. I like the first person point of view, the same as the previous 2 volumes. The worldbuilding remains the same, and I do wonder when we going to end a volume on a different note than the previous two. A bit of a quick read, but that is not unexpected.
So, an entertaining read, not ground breaking, although non-opponent side characters do die left and right which is not too common. A good addition to the series and some progress to Lapis' story.
January 31, 2022
Best adventurers.
Miss Lapis and Mr Loren come back for another “uneventful” and “easy’ quest that turns out in another great adventure. Once again the author delivers a solid story, great characters and fun moments throughout this book.
Miss Lapis and Mr Loren come back for another “uneventful” and “easy’ quest that turns out in another great adventure. Once again the author delivers a solid story, great characters and fun moments throughout this book.
May 2, 2023
It seems that we get to end the volumes with Loren in a medical facility.
January 30, 2024
Very enjoyable just like the books preceding it
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews