As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!
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As we welcome either spring or autumn in September, it's also time for new favorites to enter the stage!
When the fairy doctor Lydia agrees to help the would-be earl Edgar prove his title status, little does she know that this will lead to a complex relationship full of mystery, intrigue, and even romance. Read about how the pair navigate these churny waters in Earl and Fairy!
Lud was a war hero, a mech pilot who dreamed of a quiet, simple life. His dream came true, and he now runs his own bakery. But who's this girl who signed up to be a waitress, and why is she so familiar? Find out in The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress!
Prince Callus is terminally ill, and promised an ending full of pain and suffering. Then he learns that there's a sliver of hope... if he can learn to wield the arcane powers of legend. That's when he declares "I Only Have Six Months to Live, So I’m Gonna Break the Curse with Light Magic or Die Trying!"
Ein can see the writing on the wall. Even though he's the older prince, his Magic Stone Gourmet ability feels dull compared to his younger brother's Holy Knight. But after he loses his position as crown prince, his life, and his knowledge of his skill, starts changing in unbelievable ways!
In A Cave King’s Road to Paradise, Prince Heale was born with a useless crest and exiled to a deserted island. However, his ability displays its true value as soon as he wields... a mining pick? It's time for the Cave King to rise to power!
Enjoying the I Parry Everything anime? Check out the manga adaptation and witness the clueless Noor parry a cow all over again!
JNC members can read these 30 volumes for all of September, starting now!
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Pinned by
myskaros
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I Only Have Six Months to Live was fun, but sadly incomplete. It's the rare cursed child story where his family actually cares about him instead of throwing him away and forcing him to become overpowered protagonist on his own.
Cave King was harmless fun slice of life. Worth reading when you want some lighter fare.
I drifted away from Magic Stone Gourmet after a few volumes when it started to feel more generic to me, but it's worth trying.
I read and liked the first two volumes of Combat Baker, but I forget why I never finished the series. I should try volume 3 on catch up.
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Combat Baker is one of my favorite completed series on JNC; good character writing, interesting world building and a good deal of heart.
More people should check it out, especially those feeling the end of Bookworm in their life and are looking for a high quality light novel with fantasy elements
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Side note: does anyone else see the puppets in Team America World Police when they look at the Earl and Fairy cover art? Maybe it's me, but the character designs look...off.
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@HarmlessDave said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
I Only Have Six Months to Live was fun, but sadly incomplete. It's the rare cursed child story where his family actually cares about him instead of throwing him away and forcing him to become overpowered protagonist on his own.
Cave King was harmless fun slice of life. Worth reading when you want some lighter fare.
I drifted away from Magic Stone Gourmet after a few volumes when it started to feel more generic to me, but it's worth trying.
I read and liked the first two volumes of Combat Baker, but I forget why I never finished the series. I should try volume 3 on catch up.
Did Six Months to Live get officially cancelled in Japan? We got a new volume within the last year, and I didn't think it had been long enough to assume that it was the last one.
I have the first volume of Magic Stone Gourmet but fell behind with the streaming around volume 4 or 5 and welcome the chance to catch up.
Now Cave King is the one that feels incomplete to me. Like Reincarnated as an Apple and Reincarnated as My Gag Character it got cancelled right as it was taking off. One of these days I should take some of the characters, file the serial numbers off and write something awesome for them.
I know that Earl and Fairy is supposed to be awesome, but I wasn't able to get into it when it first started to stream. Time to give it a second chance.
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@PuckGoodfellow00-0 said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
Did Six Months to Live get officially cancelled in Japan? We got a new volume within the last year, and I didn't think it had been long enough to assume that it was the last one.
You're correct, 9 months is a danger sign but I haven't seen anything to say whether it's writer's block or the deadly "on hiatus".
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@HarmlessDave worth noting that the Japanese publisher is still new, so is likely balancing the workflows of more volumes for ongoing series and starting new series with their internal staff. Only one of their series has published a v4 so far.
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@HarmlessDave said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
@PuckGoodfellow00-0 said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
Did Six Months to Live get officially cancelled in Japan? We got a new volume within the last year, and I didn't think it had been long enough to assume that it was the last one.
You're correct, 9 months is a danger sign but I haven't seen anything to say whether it's writer's block or the deadly "on hiatus".
With American publishing I wouldn't even expect anything for another year or two there. 😅 It's way too soon for me to panic yet. I realize that light novels are short and published quickly, but even there, sometimes you write yourself into a corner and it takes a bit to get out.
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I should reread Six months to live so I can stop mixing it with I surrendered my sword and The greatest magician's ultimate quest, but I don't know if I'll have enough time.
Magic Stone Gourmet is a series I'm liking a lot and I would recommend, but one particular heroine might be off putting to some. I suggest reading the first volume and if you don't feel anything weird, keep going.
I don't remember why I never read combat baker despite the description mentioning mechas. I suppose I was worried the actual story was only focused on, well, baking without action scenes. This might be the time to give it a chance. -
@PuckGoodfellow00-0 said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
@HarmlessDave said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
I know that Earl and Fairy is supposed to be awesome, but I wasn't able to get into it when it first started to stream. Time to give it a second chance.Earl and Fairy is really good, it only takes a while to get immersed into the story. It‘s a historical fantasy romance novel, so you can‘t expect for adventurous isekai elements to appear. Think of it more like a mix of The Tales of Marielle Clarac and The Apothecary Diaries. But unlike these two novels where the story takes place in fantasy countries with imaginary rules, which can be changed how the author deems is good, in Earl and Fairy the story takes place in Great Britain of the 19th century, with all it’s (strict) social rules and convictions. A “real, existing country“ with a long line of history.
As such the main character Lydia acts like it’s expected from her, a well-bred young lady from the (upper) middle class, though she is quite the oddball and has her quirks. If it were otherwise, the story would lose much of its credibility and drift more and more towards pure fantasy fiction. Fairy Doctors were a real profession until the late 19th century, though no longer practiced as strongly as in the Middle Ages. And believe it or not, many innocent people brutally lost their lifes when so-called fairy doctors claimed them to be changelings for suddenly change their behavior and whatnot.Somehow I have strayed now from the actual topic. Anyway, for me Earl and Fairy is some kind of Sherlock Holmes with a female protagonist and slight fantasy elements. And this makes the novels so enticing for me.
💖Always be yourself, unless you can be a unicorn - then be a unicorn!💖
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@Silver-Sugar-Duchess said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
@PuckGoodfellow00-0 said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
@HarmlessDave said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
I know that Earl and Fairy is supposed to be awesome, but I wasn't able to get into it when it first started to stream. Time to give it a second chance.Earl and Fairy is really good, it only takes a while to get immersed into the story. It‘s a historical fantasy romance novel, so you can‘t expect for adventurous isekai elements to appear. Think of it more like a mix of The Tales of Marielle Clarac and The Apothecary Diaries. But unlike these two novels where the story takes place in fantasy countries with imaginary rules, which can be changed how the author deems is good, in Earl and Fairy the story takes place in Great Britain of the 19th century, with all it’s (strict) social rules and convictions. A “real, existing country“ with a long line of history.
I really wished I could have liked it. I love Marielle Clarac, I love British Regency with a twist of magic (have you read Pat Wrede’s Sorcery and Cecelia or Mairelon the Magician?), and I loved the female lead.
Sadly, I couldn’t deal with the male lead. Manipulative, arrogant, borderline abusive Mysterious Gentlemen are a hard no for me; I never managed to finish the first book because I wanted to see him carried off to the infernal region.
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@Travis-Butler said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
@Silver-Sugar-Duchess said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
@PuckGoodfellow00-0 said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
I know that Earl and Fairy is supposed to be awesome, but I wasn't able to get into it when it first started to stream. Time to give it a second chance.
Earl and Fairy is really good, it only takes a while to get immersed into the story. It‘s a historical fantasy romance novel, so you can‘t expect for adventurous isekai elements to appear. Think of it more like a mix of The Tales of Marielle Clarac and The Apothecary Diaries. But unlike these two novels where the story takes place in fantasy countries with imaginary rules, which can be changed how the author deems is good, in Earl and Fairy the story takes place in Great Britain of the 19th century, with all it’s (strict) social rules and convictions. A “real, existing country“ with a long line of history.
I really wished I could have liked it. I love Marielle Clarac, I love British Regency with a twist of magic (have you read Pat Wrede’s Sorcery and Cecelia or Mairelon the Magician?), and I loved the female lead.
Sadly, I couldn’t deal with the male lead. Manipulative, arrogant, borderline abusive Mysterious Gentlemen are a hard no for me; I never managed to finish the first book because I wanted to see him carried off to the infernal region.
I love Patricia Wrede's writing. Her last four novels were amazing, the Frontier Magic series and The Dark Lord's Daughter. Frontier Magic is set in America in about the same timeframe as Regency or Victorian novels. The Dark Lord's Daughter definitely owes something to the Isekai boom right now.
The Mairelon Duology and the Cecilia and Kate novels are both available in omnibus editions. The title for the Mairelon Omnibus is A Matter of Magic but the other omnibus is just under the series name (that I already mentioned). They're full price right now, but if you subscribe to the Portalist mailing list, you can see when they're on sale. They regularly go on sale, along with her Enchanted Forest Chronicles Omnibus and Lyra Omnibus.
I think the Male Lead in Earl and Fairy was the issue for me as well.
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@PuckGoodfellow00-0 said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
@Travis-Butler said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
@Silver-Sugar-Duchess said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
@PuckGoodfellow00-0 said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
I know that Earl and Fairy is supposed to be awesome, but I wasn't able to get into it when it first started to stream. Time to give it a second chance.
Earl and Fairy is really good, it only takes a while to get immersed into the story. It‘s a historical fantasy romance novel, so you can‘t expect for adventurous isekai elements to appear. Think of it more like a mix of The Tales of Marielle Clarac and The Apothecary Diaries. But unlike these two novels where the story takes place in fantasy countries with imaginary rules, which can be changed how the author deems is good, in Earl and Fairy the story takes place in Great Britain of the 19th century, with all it’s (strict) social rules and convictions. A “real, existing country“ with a long line of history.
I really wished I could have liked it. I love Marielle Clarac, I love British Regency with a twist of magic (have you read Pat Wrede’s Sorcery and Cecelia or Mairelon the Magician?), and I loved the female lead.
The Mairelon Duology and the Cecilia and Kate novels are both available in omnibus editions. The title for the Mairelon Omnibus is A Matter of Magic but the other omnibus is just under the series name (that I already mentioned). They're full price right now, but if you subscribe to the Portalist mailing list, you can see when they're on sale. They regularly go on sale, along with her Enchanted Forest Chronicles Omnibus and Lyra Omnibus.
Oh, yeah. I've got the SFBC Mairelon omnibus for convenience's sake, still have the original Ace edition of S&C with the garish cover, and the original edition of Seven Towers. ^^;; Why can't more authors get inspired by Amberglas?
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@PuckGoodfellow00-0 said in As Seasons Change, So Do Catchups!:
Enchanted Forest Chronicles
"Dragon King is a non-gendered job" was a wondrous concept, and one reason I've never had a qualm about female Demon Lords.
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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
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Unpinned by myskaros
