Combat Baker is an absurd series, in all the right ways. Lud has perpetual Mean Face going, so he endlessly scares all the small children he wants nothing more than to bake treats for, and at every twist and turn folks keep dragging him into their fights when he's really just trying to get the perfect rise on his souffle!

The setting is interesting as well... think slightly steampunk Victorian aged Europe, except this version is what has arisen after civilization rose up to our level, and then collapsed into the dark ages, taking all that knowledge and history with it.

It's been ages now, but I remember really liking it... I might have to find time for a re-read

@myskaros Oh, I should've been born an American then. So I would have a day off on my birthday instead of having to go back to work. 😜

Ah, I looked it up. It's not a fixed date so it would only be a holiday when it's the first Monday in September.

@jpwong thanks a lot!
@Rahul-Balaggan thanks a lot! Wish you and your team a safe journey back home!

Nice to have Dahlia on catchup during the same month the anime is coming out. Quite an enjoyable series (with a misleading title) about a magic tool maker coming into her own. The romance is definitely sloooowww burn though. Nothing else quite to my tastes this month, but I do quite enjoy Dahlia.

'catchup' tag needed.

Oh wow. I guess I really have been too busy with work the past few of weeks. Never saw this news until today.

Excited that Hero & the Sage is licensed! I enjoyed the (fan-translated) manga and was looking forward that somebody would license the LN. I'll check that out soon.

Since June 1 falls on a weekend, catchups will be switching on Monday instead! Finish up your May catchup reading before then!

@saidahgilbert - it was a big shift from a mix of adventure and family time to 100% family time, and I agree the author didn't pull it off. I don't regret reading volumes 3-4 but I understand skipping them for being too much sugar without any spice.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but the April catchup switch will be slightly delayed. We hope to have it changed before end of US business, but it should definitely happen by tomorrow at the latest. Thank you for your patience!

@HarmlessDave said in Love Is in the Air for February's Catchups!:

The bad: Rentt loves to ramble in his conversations and especially his inner monologue. I've compared him to Mojo Jojo on more than one occasion. He will begin to ramble about one thing, then take off on a tangent and ramble about that. Unless you enjoy ramble-ception you'll need to learn to skim past pointless paragraphs now and then.

This to me is a highly attractive, unique quality. The way Rentt's thoughts flow, branch off, circle around, simmer and inform his attitude and actions is the closest reflection in literature I can recall (and I've been an avid reader for 5 decades) to what happens in my own head. Even if personality wise there are few parallels, to me it is most delightful to look from the side at someone looking from the side at themselves how they look from the side at what they're thinking.

I have not missed a word from that novel! (Except for the few longish fights, that has never been attractive to me and I skim/skip over any fight sequence longer than 1-2 paragraphs in anything I read - including those in works I love)

Slayers: Volume 1 by Hajime Kanzaka is now available as a DRM-free mp3 audiobook on Downpour.com
https://www.downpour.com/slayers-volume-1?sp=794225

The publisher is listed as "Findaway World". I did some searches for that publisher and "light novel" and "Young Adult Fiction" and found some more audiobook light novels by J-Novel Club and Seven Seas. Findaway publishes other audiobooks too.

The searches:
https://www.downpour.com/catalogsearch/result/?q="findaway world"#q=light novel&idx=live_downpour_en_en_products&p=0&dFR[imprint][0]=Findaway World%2C LLC&is_v=1

https://www.downpour.com/catalogsearch/result/?q="findaway world"#q=&idx=live_downpour_en_en_products&p=0&dFR[imprint][0]=Findaway World%2C LLC&fR[categories_without_path][0]=Young Adult Fiction&is_v=1

Some of the lightnovels.

Reborn to Master the Blade: From Hero-King to Extraordinary Squire: Volume 1 by Hayaken
https://www.downpour.com/catalog/product/view/id/832611/s/reborn-to-master-the-blade/?sp=832612

The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent (Light Novel) Vol. 1 by Yuka Tachibana
https://www.downpour.com/the-saint-s-magic-power-is-omnipotent-light-novel-vol-1?sp=796306

Yen Audio titles are also available on Downpour.com
https://www.downpour.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=yen audio#q=yen audio&idx=live_downpour_en_en_products&p=0&dFR[imprint][0]=Yen Audio&is_v=1

Including:
The Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Keigo Higashino
https://www.downpour.com/the-miracles-of-the-namiya-general-store?sp=730497
Not a light novel, but a time-travel letter-writing mystery.

I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, Vol. 1 by Kisetsu Morita,
release scheduled for February
https://www.downpour.com/catalog/product/view/id/873529/s/i-ve-been-killing-slimes-for-300-years-and-maxed-out-my-level-vol-1/?sp=873530

@kuali said in Happy 2024! New Catchups for Members!:

Death's Daughter and the Ebony Blade: I'm a big fan of this one. You can never have too many cake-powered killing machines on your reading list.
That said, I will suggest that anyone reading this on catchup stop at the end of Volume 6. Volume 7 is more or less a prelude to the series' climax, and makes for an unsatisfying experience if read by itself - since it is basically all setup for a volume or volumes that aren't even in pre-pub yet. Better to save that one for when the series is finished.

Or at least until volume 7b comes out. Note that the latest to pre-pub was only the first half of volume 7. Volume 7 spans 2 books. (That's why the "Exordium" suffix on it, that's basically a really fancy way to say "part 1" without using the word "part" since JNC uses "part" for something else)

@Travis-Butler said in Wrapping Up the Year with December Catchups:

Or to put it another way, saying it’s a prologue is no excuse. An author has to catch and hold the readers’ interest from the start; expecting them to go through three slow books just to get to the real conflict in book four doesn’t work.

Like the people who say Final Fantasy < N > gets good after the first 30 hours of tedium, or TV show X gets good after season 1, which you can't skip if you want to understand season 2-on.

Not all of us have that much patience :)

@GeorgeMTO Thank. I probably buy it, look interesting to me.

so what's echo about? the synopsis doesn't actually say anything about it.
Or is it the kind of story where saying anything at all about it will spoil it?

@rkkn said in Get in the Spirit with Halloween Catchups!:

I don't want to watch it myself, so... what's it like? How does it fail?

I was frustrated because the first two episodes had appeared to be (remember - at that point I hadn't read any of the LN) no more than a slapstick comedy where a spoiled girl wanted to do on vacation but evil employers and the world at large were conspiring against her. The third episode then was even worse.

The commenters on Disqus forums were all over the place - a more or less representative selection: "Never heard of this, but ep1 showed me a whole bunch of nothing.", "It's watchable, can recommend", "Started not so good, got better by Ep.04 so I'll keep watching it (at least for now)", "I liked it very much so far.", "Things were looking grim in terms of my continuing, but this episode [episode 4] was a real cracker! Definitely seeing it through now", "Just barely passing for me.", "Almost lost me", "According to some anime news sites, S1 should cover Vol 1, maybe parts/all of Vol 2; the minor LN details are left out to keep the storyline going.", "This is really well done, that bagpipe OP is neat and the ED is comfy.", "The animation is literally what you have to expect these days mid as hell. What I have a problem with is that this seems to be another world in which everyone is an incompetent piece of trash.", "Despite the use of 3d on some scenes, the quality of animation and the story's pacing is well balanced. Really liking this so far, faithful to the manga I've read."

You can see how comments are really all over the place - so watch a bit (maybe sample episode 4?) and decide

speaking of manga issues, I sometimes encounter a different issue (an old issue) where when viewing a chapter for the first time it will open somewhere in the middle instead of the beginning.

@abcdave In any case, check the updates here. The home page has been updated late on occasion

How long and detailed should the synopsis be?

Is the purpose of it to give a summary of the major events that occur in the story, including the ending—so the judges don't have to read the whole thing?
—or is the synopsis more of a blurb that only gives a general idea of what the story is about—to get someone interested in the story? (sort of like the short intros that J-novel does for its stories)?

Edit: I found this general suggestion online--
https://www.annemini.com/category/how-to/how-to-write-a-synopsis-for-a-contest/