@Rahul-Balaggan thanks, the download is indeed working for me now.

The sixth volume of this is out soon and I'm reading the author's new novel, Lady Estelle's Esteem...she's the real deal and I'm convinced she can make anything work.

A few corrections: There's a lot of misinformation about LN target demos. This is published by the same label as Dahlia...and Mushoku Tensei. They clearly publish for both male and female audiences on the grounds that books are for everybody.

I'd argue the wizard's name should be Felix. The title...really only fits the first book, so we might want to tinker with it a bit. Is a Long Term Arrangement Possible? might work better for a series where she's only a housekeeper in one volume.

It's also just not a tearjerker, that is the most out -there characterization I've ever read. They do certainly discuss the difference in lifespans but the tone is anything but a weeper. It's all about slowly getting to know each other and finding new things to admire. And that one time she got turned into a cat.

Can't recommend it enough. As someone who never reads romance novels, I only grabbed these because Miya (Bookworm) Kazuki said I should, and they just immediately won me over, and honestly have only gotten better as the series goes on.

@doceirias said in Gosick:

Red Girls is split over two editions but has ~9000 and A Small Charred Face at around ~4000 (both still far higher than the average light novel.)

It sounds like J-Novel Club is missing out on tens of thousands of potential sales.

@sorvani Honestly I think it really comes down to too many things they want to get done, not enough devs to do it.

Yes please license and translate this thank you! Love this series!

@leej nothing I've heard. V10 came out of nowhere when we weren't expecting it.

@Blank46 CAT tools are frequently used in games translation to keep terminology straight, especially when the scope of the project requires multiple translators.

For a solo translation job, a basic excel term sheet does the same thing.

Machine and AI Translation might be helpful in an office environment if you just need a quick peek ahead at what this email says before the proper translations come around, but are actively damaging to fictional translation.

There is no grunt work; every line of a novel is someone else's creation and you are being entrusted with the responsibility of rendering that into the best English you can. Working from canned or rough translations makes it far too easy to settle for something that's good enough when a far better translation is out there and could have been found if you'd been working normally.

Literally every professional translator agrees that editing AI/MTL translations is far more time consuming than just doing it themselves; it's just an excuse for moron executives to pay less money, and the only way to make it worth the lower rate is to phone it in. No one who cares about the final output or has any real understanding off the process would even suggest that they count as 'tools.' They're useless garbage peddled by conmen and propagated by greedy asshats who don't care about art.

@Serah said in What are your favourite Top 5 (2025):

Since I know the other titles already you have mentioned in your top 5 and honourable mentions - how about the rising stars of yours? Or maybe you have another tip like Zilbagias for me.

Err, what about the Rising Stars? Or are you just asking if I have any others? Because that list hasn't changed. Though, I did read all seven volumes of Dungeon Crawler Carl recently. Not a light novel, but now it's one of my favorite series of all time.

Anyway, a few that didn't make it into my top five but have been there before or are well regarded:

Conqueror from a Dying Kingdom (currently stalled at v7) A Pale Moon Reverie (complete at v3) Fiance No More (complete at v3) Dahlia in Bloom (ongoing) Ideal Sponger Life (ongoing?)

Adding to what GeorgeMTO said, the series is published by Shufunotomosha under their Hero Bunko label. Below are four licensed series from the same publisher.

The Apothecary Diaries
Shufunotomosha released Volume 16 on 2025-05-30. That will be 161 days this Friday.

I Could Never Be a Succubus!
J-Novel Club finished Volume 6 pre-pub wise on 2025-02-08. Japan had released Volume 7 on 2024-07-31 and J-Novel Club didn't start Volume 7 pre-pubs until 2025-04-05. That is a 248 day gap, however it is possible that the delay between J-Novel Club finishing Volume 6 pre-pubs and starting Volume 7 pre-pubs had nothing to do with licensing.

The Ideal Sponger Life
J-Novel Club caught up to Japan with Volume 14 pre-pub wise on 2023-10-24. Japan then released Volume 15 on 2023-12-28 and J-Novel Club didn't start Volume 15 pre-pubs until 2025-01-28. That is a 397 day gap.

Restaurant to Another World
Seven Seas caught up to Japan with Volume 5 on 2020-10-22. Japan then released Volume 6 on 2021-10-29 and Seven Seas won't be releasing Volume 6 until 2025-11-13. That is a 1,476 day gap.

The remaining three licensed series from Shufunotomosha are Dimension Wave (last Japanese release was Volume 7 on 2024-09-30), Knight's & Magic (last Japanese release was Volume 11 on 2021-11-29), and Seventh (last Japanese release was Volume 10 on 2020-10-30).

@Kurzaa
I did the same but I get a big blue j
The app is good when it works.

@Geezer-Weasalopes Thanks for checking. Sounds like Kobo and Google Play are the same as Amazon. I agree that Peace Books' apparent strategy of not selling available products to willing customers is baffling. Charitably, maybe this one just got lost in some shuffling around they did.

Finally a new chapter... this time it felt like forever

And it is by far not so interesting as to know if Cain made it with his exams and got accused of cheating like happened with Allen.

sitting cat gif