General Reading Recommendation Thread (Not Series License Requests)
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Hello,
Just to check, this is a topic to ask for any receive recommendations to what to read, and although there is nothing wrong with recommending titles for all to read, I just want to clarify that this is not a place to post license requests for J-Novel Club.
I only bring this up because you only recommended titles that are not currently licensed.
For more information please see the opening post.
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@Rahul-Balaggan Even so, would you still try too consider it?
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Sorry, unfortunately J-Novel Club does not comment publicly on any potential license acquisitions.
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@Rahul-Balaggan When it comes to copyright enforcement for licensed series that have been fan translated, does it fall on J-Novel Club to challenge it as the official English licensor or the original publisher in Japan?
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@mbuono
Sorry, that is not something I am personally knowledgeable about (as I am just a moderator), however it has been publicly stated that J-Novel Club had gone after illegal fan translations and direct rips in the past.
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@Rahul-Balaggan Well thank you for the response.
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@Rahul-Balaggan So, you won't consider it?
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To clarify a bit, I am just the moderator of these forums, I have no say in any license Acquisitions at all.
Sorry.
The people working at J-Novel Club have expressed in interest acquiring a broad range of Light Novels to add to their ever expanding catalogue, however they do not comment publicly on any license acquisitions.
If you have any questions, feel free to send me a direct message.
Thank you.
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@Rahul-Balaggan Then what about Sexile that is now in Indigo Books Stores with J Novel Club written on as the publisher?
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As we are drifting a bit off topic I will send you a direct message to continue this conversation.
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As an Ascendence of a Bookworm fan for close to a year now.
I recently broke my addiction to it and now suggest people read Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation.
What got me started was watching the first 2 episodes of the anime.
Here's a trailer on this series on what to expect from this series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ1I7o_t4pc -
I second your endorsement- however readers should be aware, one of the features I love about Bookworm is the unusual 'tone' that I perceive. Often wholesome, atypical for LNs there's neither a focus on romance/harem building nor on violence/fighting/sports...there are elements of both present but that isn't the focus...Jobless Reincarnation does share the deep worldbuilding with Bookworm, but isn't 'wholesome'. The MC is a delightful little pervert in early volumes and
it is a good read, and I recommend it, but I'm hesitant to say if you liked Bookworm you'll like Mushoku Tensei -
Quick question, have any of you read any of the books on Novel Horizons?(https://www.novelhorizons.com/)
If you have, what's your opinion, are they worth it? They're OEL light novels, so can't exactly say my expectations are anywhere high, but I don't mind being proven wrong...Just asking as while checking on the latest Kodomo no Jikan kickstarter update I run across a campaign for one of their books(decided to pledge for it out of curiosity, and afterwards decided to check out their site);
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/novelhorizons/shadow-of-a-god-volume-1/ -
I have a question about "How not to summon a demon lord" LN. I watched the 1 season of the anime and today i saw the 2nd season. I was wondering how accurate LN and anime? I like to read Lazy Dungeon Master but i wouldnt watch it's anime. As a LN LDM and How Not to is similar? Should you reccomend to someone who like LDM?
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@crowdcontrol i think its too late now anyway. Its really hard to reccomend to someone who likes bookworm. Bookworm's story is rare to find. There is no action like classic LN action or the world is in danger or summoned hero has to be a hero and do heroic stuff etc etc.
What did you like about bookworm? The writing or general about the world?
If writing i would reccomend mushoku. Mushoku's world building, writing, character development are really good. But its ecchi, there is action all over the place, inventing stuff are not detailed like in bookworm. So its depends. If you give couple more examples what do you like, i(we) could give better advise.
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@korppi I clicked the link to Novel Horizons and noticed they didn’t bother to capitalize the word English at the top of the page. That does not bode well for their content...
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Before I begin, let me acknowledge that I'm too lazy to read through the whole thread, so I apologize if this has already been addressed.
Request
Please recommend series that are well-written. I'm not looking for a particular genre or style. My focus here is on works that are competently constructed.Background
I recently had the experience of trying out several new series (new to me, not necessarily newly published) only to be stymied by how poorly written they were. It was bad enough that it broke my willful suspension of disbelief. These series suffered from obvious flaws such as: bad sentence or paragraph structure, bizarre word choice, unnecessary exposition, telling rather than showing, arbitrary and even nonsensical plot points, characters that behave and react unlike any actual human being would behave or react, dialog unlike any that actual human-beings would engage in, etc.I understand that there is wide variation in LN quality. And I'm happy to acknowledge the subjectivity in such judgments. It certainly may be the case that other people take no similar issues with a series that bothers me. For this reason, I will refrain from trashing any series by name.
I'm not a literary critic. On the scale of artistic taste, I'm somewhere around "philistine". I'm cognizant that LNs are not meant to replace Shakespeare - students will not be reading them 100 years from now in a "Great Literature of the 21st century" class. I'm fine with that. All I'm looking for is an easy couple hours of escapism that doesn't feel like it was written by someone who has only ever observed other human beings from the top of a mountain through a telescope.
Positive Examples
- Ascendance Of A Bookworm - One of the best-written LN series that I've read. Those who recognize my username will most likely know me from the AoaB forums.
- Good I have such high praise for this series that it is difficult for me to analyze it objectively. Nearly everything about this series feels - to me - deliberate, planned, competently executed, and well-edited. The people feel human. The culture feels believably alien.
- Bad A bad series will come-off as a sequence of events seemingly chosen by random dice roll. Characters will be flat and robotic. Dialog will seem scripted.
- Overlord - Intentional manipulation and subversion of isekai tropes.
- Good Overlord does a few things very well, and is a surprisingly deeper story than you might at first expect. One thing that stands out to me is the deft way that the author, through careful story structure, tricks you into rooting for the bad guys. By the time you realize just how evil the denizens of Nazarick really are, it's already too late. That's a really hard trick to pull off and is a testament to the careful writing in the series.
- Bad A bad series will be one that doesn't challenge the reader in any way. The morality in all cases will easily correspond with modern western values, the good guy will be obviously good with only superficial flaws, and the bad guys will be obviously bad. No attempt will be made to analyze or deconstruct such judgments.
- Arifureta - It's OK to embrace the tropes.
- Good Perhaps a weird choice to include on this list. I include it to show that I'm fine with the zanier and less serious. What I like most about Arifureta is that even its tropiest most cliche scenes are always done with a nod and a wink. The author is in complete control of the narrative and has just made the eyes-wide-open decision to do the most cliche thing imaginable (usually with tons of style).
- Bad A poorly written series will fall back on tired tropes completely seriously and unironically. They will all be played straight with no meta commentary or self-awareness whatsoever.
- Ascendance Of A Bookworm - One of the best-written LN series that I've read. Those who recognize my username will most likely know me from the AoaB forums.
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@unknownmat since you haven't mentioned which series you've read, I'll just mention a few from JNC:
- The Faraway Paladin - one of the best written (and best translated) LNs, and a great starting point if you haven't read it yet. It has a very good introspective character development.
- Altina the Sword Princess - a more conventional fantasy military story. The author knows where he's going, and is able to use use comedy and clichés when it's appropriate. It's quite fun to read.
- Invaders of the Rokujouma!? - if you want something more lighthearted, it has 38 volumes and counting that was planned from the beginning. It takes a few volumes before the proper story starts, but after that I always want to know what happens next.
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@unknownmat said in General Recommendation Thread (Not Series License Requests):
Please recommend series that are well-written.
If well-written and competently constructed is what you're looking for, I can't not recommend Tearmoon Empire. It's just... mwah, chef's kiss.
