Ok then, I just don't want to be the one to piss on people's fun.

My issues with this one are I thought the writing itself was mediocre. The descriptions light, the characters thinly drawn out, the plot and plot structure are derivative of far better books. Furthermore, the basic selling point doesn't really work as

Also the fan service is just super juvenile, super grade school level descriptions of boobies and bubble butts. Embarrassingly so. I'm not against fan service (I recently just finished and enjoyed Busy Wizard), but fuck this fan service was just the dumbest I've read since Battle Divas. In fact this and Divas are probably my least favorite light novels I've read (and I've read several hundred).

However as mentioned I did like the at quite a bit and short chapters made it far easier and faster to finish than Divas. So there are a few pluses.

It's done that way because there have been issues behind the scenes that have delayed a new volume and it's easier to just wait then have mad fans cause delays.
I know that issues Sam has mentioned have included a delay on the cover art due to an artist being sick, Golden week holidays in Japan putting a pause on the contract itself and more than once personal issues for JNC staffers.
So your normal everyday reasons for stuff to delay.

Also if physical books are what you're after, mandarake is cheap and I haven't had any problems with them. They also have a Japanese or English toggle for their website and their customer support is hella awesome. Shipping can be... pricey if you buy just one or two things, but I've found if I spend $20 on books (which can be anywhere from 5 to 12 books depending on sales) the $15 shipping isn't so bad. Aside from really older books, the condition listed on the site is always spot on too (they don't always mention the yellowing of pages or creases in the dustcover).

Members right now can only read volume 5 (part 2 v2) as it is still being translated. Volume 4 (part 2 v1) expired on December 15 according to the expiration thread: https://forums.j-novel.club/post/6325 (you probably aren't able to open it though, since it's members only). The first three volumes expired several months ago.

Sure, I replied to this a month ago when we didn't know how the book was going to go lol

@paul-nebeling I’m more surprised about Smartphone being so low. It’s in the top 3 bestselling series for JNC, so I would think it would at least make the top 10. Maybe a majority of Smartphone sales come from Amazon Kindle, or perhaps the JNC premium, since we have bonus stories.

In one previous thread there were at least 3 Japanese publishers who would not consider licensing if print wasn't an option. One of them was supposed to be a hard no without simultaneous print and digital on day one while the other 2 wanted either print options available or wouldn't contract without Sam also getting the print rights.

This was before the announcement that JNC was starting to do some series in print so the 2 maybe's may have already changed their minds since then.

Having never read light novels in the original Japanese I can only speculate. I expect that generally speaking light novels are not designed to require deep textual analysis of the text to appreciate so only a minimal amount is lost in terms of change of how things are precisely worded.

However, novels that make a lot of cultural or pop culture references will have something lost in translation and we might not always appreciate the wordplay in character and book names.

I also expect that there will be information lost in terms of how characters refer to one another (first name? san? sama?) and their manner of speech (keigo?).

Some series recently ended/caught up so I've got a bit more spare time to read new parts but, yeah, I wasn't expecting all these new titles. And I'm actually interested in almost all the new licenses (except 3-4).

Though, at least half of the new licenses are only 2-3 volumes long so we'll catch up to JP rather quickly, which means the TLs will be free to work on even more series.

Anyway not complaining that we have more things to read, more like I'm complaining I won't have enough time to read all weekly parts if they keep adding new licenses so fast... lol

I want to see Nihonkoku Shoukan.

Whole of Japan gets isekai-ed.

Huge Monogatari ebook/audiobook sale going on right now on Humble Bundle. Get everything that's been released so far DRM free for $20. https://www.humblebundle.com/books/monogatari-kodansha-books

@gary-l-thompson The manga is not handled by J-Novel Club, that was licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment, so there should be no connection with any back end stuff.

@nosgoroth another thing of note for IOS, if you use TTS in the kindle app and close the iPhone/iPad the TTS stops at the end of the page and will not turn, the device must remain on.

However if you use the TTS from the iBooks app, the TTS will continue reading and turning pages even if the device is off, another point for premium editions that you can import into any reading app on any device.

@gprovida said in Genjitsushugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki vol 11??:

However, cover art suggests a modern story versus “another world.”

No, it suggests we'll get to see a school setting, whether Ginger's or the royal academy or some other educational institution Souma's opened up, with the kids playing a bigger role this time around (I'm guessing from the images on Bookwalker). The cover art features Ichiha and a new girl (Lucy Evans). I say new cause I don't remember her appearing in previous volumes.

Yeah, I have to agree that the current site doesn't consider SEO at all. Every page contains a single wrapper that loads every other content on it with ajax. I sure hope the new site that's being worked on(?) is way better.

This kind of site might have been fine when they were just starting out, but now the UI is a nightmare the more content gets added.

@timmaaah

Wow... I’ve got a hearty load too but I don’t think I’ve got that many... I’ve got current reads, then short and long lists of stuff I want to get through. Most of it stuff that I’ve read the manga, watched an anime, or it sounds like something I’d like but know it’ll start to damn slow...