Tags: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy, Romance, Slice of Life

(This review will contain spoilers for the fifth volume)

Red’s Journey for the Perfect Ring

After the action-packed events of the previous volume, the fifth volume in the Banished from the Hero’s Party series is a much more scaled back affair. Calm has once again descended upon Red, Rit and the rest of Zoltan as the winter season continues. Tisse has decided to pursue new passions intent on finding some of the best hot springs the region has to offer. Ruti, now no longer under the influence of the hero’s blessing can finally enjoy a childhood she’d never thought she’d have, playing games with the local children and in general having fun. Meanwhile, Red and Rit can finally enjoy their newly engaged lives in total bliss, without having to worry about Ares and demons their flirting routine has certainly skyrocketed! The start of this volume really does well in contrasting the feel between present and past events with an entire chapter focusing on comfy scenes and moments that are sweeter than sugar that would make any loner protagonist from a romcom shout for the characters to go ‘explode!’

Now that Red has gotten engaged to Rit he has promised to get her the perfect ring, however, with Zoltan not being known for carrying the necessary items, he decides to go on a journey to the Wall at the End of the World to barter with Gem Giants. Whilst he originally envisioned journeying alone, his plans go awry in the best way possible as Rit, Ruti and friend Mogrim (a dwarf) decide to join him. Along the way, they stop off at a Zoog village, Zoogs are an intelligent monster species with their own type of civilisation built around their intrinsic closeness to Hyphae and fungal species. Finally, for the first time since volume 3 we get some great world building on the areas surrounding Zoltan. The civilisation of the Zoogs is given a good deal of development throughout the novel as we learn about their cultures of trust amongst friends, their parliament style of government and plenty of dialogue showcasing their unique style of speech – due to the tentacles on their mouths, they struggle with the letter ‘S’ pronouncing it ‘SH’ instead. Through the encounter with the Zoogs, we’re given the ultimate mystery of the volume, the problems that are occurring within the forest, from weakening trees, creatures resorting to lead and a general weakening of the ground soil.

Yarandrala’s Journey for Lost Friends

Red and his party aren’t the only ones going on a journey, Yarandrala, a high elf and former member of the Hero’s party has finally arrived in Zoltan alongside Godwin in search of her lost comrades Red and Rit. Other than Ruti, Yarandrala was the character who took Red’s being forced out of the party the hardest. Irate at the fact that no one had offered to go search for him, she ultimately left to find him on her own.

High elves within this world are extremely emotional beings and take things that happen to their friends as if it happened to themselves.

High elves did not get angry without reason, but their fury was like a raging fire when they were provoked. They valued trust above all else.

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It is no wonder then that this volume features several occasions where she fly’s off the handle for her friends. The first incident occurs due to Godwin betraying her trust, lying about knowing Red and Rit’s location as well as his relationship towards them. This results in Yaradrala’s powers going out of control destroying parts of Zoltan and attempting to injury or kill Godwin. Tisse and Mr.Crawly Wawly save the day with the lovable spider companion really showing off his skills saving Godwin in a truly action movie-like way. After bringing her back to normal, they all decide to journey together to find them, this also includes Mistorm (former mayor and adventurer), who has been tasked with helping Mogrim.

Yarandrala’s emotional side flairs up again after the reunion with Red and Rit. After hearing everything that happened to them, she’s incredibly angry on their behalf and worried about them getting hurt again, even suggesting they move to the society of elves in Kiramin. Elves build up strong bonds of trust given their more physical nature so its only natural Yarandrala would want them to move to a society where they would be treated with respect and unlikely to get hurt. However, for Red, Rit and Ruti, this certainly isn’t the right move for them, they’ve built a home in Zoltan and have family and friends there that they care about ultimately leading Yarandrala to stay in the area for a while longer.

I should probably mention here, a rather sizeable problem that I have with this volume. For the past three volumes in a row, the author has used the same method of story telling in order to get characters from point A to point B where the main characters chase after one another. We’ve already had plot points where characters are chasing after each other, from Ruti and Tisse catching up to her brother, Ares chasing after Ruti and Red in the ancient elf ruins and now Yarandrala catching up with Red and Rit. Hopefully, this pattern stops with this volume as this type of repetitive action really can bring down the enjoyment of the novel.

A Jewel Beast and Festival Spirit

Arriving in the Gem Giant village, Red and the gang come face to face with the creature that has been causing havoc for the forests’ biodiversity, a turtle jewel beast. Other than the previous volume’s fight against Ares, this fight is probably one of the best in the series. The jewel beast is likely the strongest enemy they’ve faced in the series so far, it, just like Ruti seemingly has multiple blessings. It takes everything that they have to just barely defeat a creature that’s able to absorb other’s magical power from the jewels it discharges from its body. Unfortunately, due to the jewel beast incident, Red is unable to get a ring for Rit, not that she seems to mind given that her love for him is exceedingly strong.

Concluding the volume, we are treated to another slice of life chapter as everyone walks around Zoltan’s annual Solstice Festival. There’s merriment all round with drinks, food and good times to be had. For Mistorm however, things aren’t looking so bright. As the festival comes to a close, she ends up being targeted by a group of assassins and it seems that there is definitely more than meets the eye when it comes to her character especially when Yarandrala almost reveals her to be related to the demon world as a cliffhanger.

Overall, I’d say that this volume, whilst good, doesn’t quite reach the heights of the previous two volumes. While I love the slice of life moments, there is very little in the way of actual progression with the plot and I feel like there needs to be more of a balance between these slice of life and more action/adventure heavy moments. This volume certainly feels more like a transitionary volume between arcs. Hopefully with Mistorm’s story teased, more of Yarandrala and a deeper focus on Tisse, the next volume will really pick up the main story again.