“Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, Vol 1” – Light Novel Review

Review Summary

  “Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, Vol 1” is a meandering story about a man’s desire to live a relaxed and happy life.

  If the simple premise plainly explained in the title intrigues you, this book delivers on that, and even has potential to explore some thought provoking topics, such as the morality of leaving the fight against the demon lord for your own sake.
  However, it is held back by stunted pacing in its overall narrative, frequent flashbacks, and its explicit storytelling style that lacks subtlety.

A heroic and mighty adventurer dreams of…opening a pharmacy? Red was once a member of the Hero’s party, a powerful group destined to save the world from the evil forces of Taraxon, the Raging Demon Lord. That is, until one of his comrades kicked him out. Hoping to live the easy life on the frontier, Red’s new goal is to open an apothecary. However, keeping the secret of his former life may not be as simple as he thinks. Especially when the beautiful Rit, an adventurer from his past, shows up and asks to move in with him!

Summary from the store page on Bookwalker.

From a Stressful Life to a Relaxed One, but not really

  As explained in the lengthy title — which are typical of light novels that were adapted from web novels — the protagonist goes from fighting humanity’s greatest threats to living a comparatively slow life in the sticks.
  If you are hoping to read a slice-of-life tale about an ex-adventurer, Red, who finally gets to retire from a life-threatening job, this book definitely delivers. Using a wealth of knowledge accumulated from his tenure as the heroes’ guide, he opens an apothecary in a small frontier town and helps the residents with their various problems, big or small. He is eventually joined by an ex-comrade, Rit — shown off prominently on the book’s cover.
  The relaxed life they have together is somewhat pleasant to read.

  However, the book also spends much of its time retelling past events; a narrative running parallel to present events.

  To put it bluntly, the book is over reliant on flashbacks to establish its characters, creating a narrative that moves along haltingly; jarringly.
  Although flashbacks occur at opportune moments between story beats, the many switches between the perilous past and peaceful present often disrupts the mood of the story. Although it doesn’t outright kill the pacing, it undoubtedly impairs it.
  Both stories, past and present, are worse off as a consequence.

Stunted Overall Pacing

  On top of the pacing issues mentioned before, this light novel falls into a pitfall that some of its contemporaries face.
  It was adapted from the freer web novel form to the stricter light novel form — from an unrestrained page count to the minimum and maximum length expected from a commercial book. As such, the original order and duration of events may not coincide properly with the book’s end.
  The tensest events, which should be placed near the end of the book, occur a little too early before we reach the end. Instead of ending with a satisfying resolution, the excitement sort of peters out.

  Despite the author’s efforts to keep tensions rising throughout the book, the most exciting part of the book ended up being the second-last conflict. The final conflict was just a small-time villain who was uninteresting, unimpactful, and easily dealt with.

“Oh yeah, that reminds me, even when we first met, she had this strange habit of covering her mouth whenever she smiled.”

  Further detracting from my enjoyment of the book is the explicit storytelling style that spells out what the characters are thinking and feeling.
  There is little subtlety to engage the reader; before you can even begin to guess at Rit’s embarrassment from the way she hides her smile, the book dictates it to you outright in an abrupt expository sentence.
  This mind-numbing diction plagues most of the book, robbing you of the fun of piecing together the scene in your head.

  It’s an issue that directly cripples the romance between the two leads, Red and Rit.
  Red’s thoughts about Rit are listed out in no uncertain terms and so are Rit’s thoughts about Red; if she’s the current point-of-view character.
  Although wholesome, nearly every act of intimacy is robbed of its romantic subtext due to the author’s incessant need to hold the reader’s hand. This is in spite of the fact that both Red and Rit are honest with their feelings and read like an open book — time is still taken to explain the details.
  In other words, the romance in here is boring.

Glimmers of Potentially Heady Themes

  Despite stumbling in terms of storytelling, there are some intriguing themes that the story seems likely to touch on in future.

  Being the only one with the power to end a humanity-ending threat, are you obligated to use it?
  Though the moral conundrum is never brought up, the fact of the matter is that the Hero in the titular “Hero’s Party” is deeply unhappy with her lonely quest to defeat demonic threats without Red, the brother she loves. The Hero expresses a desire to resist this obligation and I expect that it will come up again in future volumes.

  If you are a vital member in the effort to fight the end of humanity, is it okay to leave for your own sake?
  In a similar vein to his sister, Red may eventually have to wrestle with the morality of abandoning a greater cause for his own happiness. Of course, his circumstances are different from the Hero’s since he was booted out, but it seems likely that the story will eventually lead in that direction.
  It will be quite interesting to see which side the protagonist chooses, in the end.

Conclusion

  However, I will not be reading any further to see these themes explored.

  “Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, Vol 1” delivers on the slice-of-life it promises, coupled with a parallel story of the protagonist’s storied past.
  Unfortunately, it is held back by a lack of subtlety in its prose and stunted pacing that makes reading a little bit difficult.

  I recommend this book if you just want some light and easy reading about a young man’s retirement from his risky job to live out his tranquil dream.
  Otherwise, you may wish to skip it.

“Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, Vol 1” is digitally available on Bookwalker and Amazon.