The Mercenary of Urga is a historical novel written by Jonathan Harries as the fifth installment of his series Tales From Sica. I haven't read any of the previous books yet and have received this one from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. I faced no trouble in reading this one as a standalone book. There are many references thrown around in it about the occurrences in the books before it. But these have only very minimal impact on the plot. I found the novel to be a peculiar case because it refuses to conform to a particular mould.

The book is basically a historical novel. Almost all the characters except the protagonist and a few others are actual persons and many events depicted in the plot are actual ones. Author has used a humorous approach for narrating the story. The tone is varying- you find lot of sarcastic talk, satire, use of irony, some slapstick and some situational humor, all thrown in. But the wit in narration never dilute the thrill or suspense of the plot. The author retains the gravity of the situation wherever required and it never becomes a parody of the spy genre.