General Reading Recommendation Thread (Not Series License Requests)
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@Mimiga I literally didn't like light novels before Bookworm. Couldn't stand them. Still don't enjoy 98%. But I was converted readily, and Bookworm has cemented itself in my top ten favorite stories ever lol.
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@Mimiga Pretty please list those josei masterpieces for us? I need to have something on deck for when the eventual end of Bookworm leaves a hole in my heart.
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@Mimiga
You might enjoy Tearmoon on this site, which also has an unreliable narrator driven to improve her country, because she knows she will die if she doesn't. It doesn't have quite the depth that Bookworm does, but the heroine is spunky and good hearted. There's no harem, she's pretty devoted to her guy once she settles on him. She can still appreciate a handsome fella but she remains sincerely attached. There is a lot of friends and companions and some basic politics.For more English language novels I mostly know older stuff. The first five Amber books, Brust's Dragaera books, Andre Norton's Witchworld books, The Bridge of Birds, Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat, the Discworld books. Those are plenty to start.
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@Mimiga
I would also recommend the Liaden Universe books by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Andre Norton has classic style and her Witchworld books are well worth it. There are actually quite of few classic sci-fi authors. I will admit this is my first LN that I read and it remains my favorite. So many options for further spin-offs, and the characters that would each have their own series. I hope that this world continues, either past or future timelines would be fine by me. -
@LightningLeaf Thanks for the recommendations! I'll go take a look. I'm not actually really particular about genre, it's the writing that really, really gets to me and it just seems to me that josei are written with more care.
It's just that a lot of LNs here are written so pretentiously, as if they intentionally used the most pompous words they could find despite it not fitting the dialogue as if the author wanted to show off their vocabulary by channeling Shakespeare, random British terms are inserted when the story is mostly in American English as if they just chose a random synonym without thinking if it fit the speech, the random switching of narrative perspective back and forth as if the author didn't know the difference between first, second, and third-person perspectives, the lazy exposition when characters just tell you stuff via dialogue when it could've as easily been told in an immersive way through narrative, my pet peeve when characters just randomly break the fourth wall to talk to the reader directly for no reason, among other gripes. It just really seems to me that the vast majority of LN authors don't understand what immersion is or that it's the point of telling stories.
@DNADame said in Bookworm Part 5 Vol. 4 Discussion!:
@Mimiga
I would also recommend the Liaden Universe books by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Andre Norton has classic style and her Witchworld books are well worth it. There are actually quite of few classic sci-fi authors. I will admit this is my first LN that I read and it remains my favorite. So many options for further spin-offs, and the characters that would each have their own series. I hope that this world continues, either past or future timelines would be fine by me.Thanks for the recommendations, too, but I'm all good on English fiction recs. I haven't read Liaden as I just can't get into scifi but the fantasy elements do intrigue me so I do have that on my list to try. 😁
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@Mimiga
Of my recommendations, only Tearmoon is a LN, the others are fantasy. -
@Mimiga I can heartily recommend the Liaden novels. But, read them in the publishing order. ;)
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I second the recommendation of Tearmoon Empire, particularly if you are looking for a LN that is well written; it has the most creative use of language and the best turns of phrase I have ever seen in a LN and like Bookworm the world gets deeper as the story goes on.
It is my favorite series here and is a comedic delight
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Ah, that was great but more an intermission than anything else, and it has left me hungering for more.
Can anyone recommend similar series? I've tried going through J-Novel's catalog, but it's chock-full of crappy fan fiction that somehow got published. This and Bookworm are the only two I know that:
- don't take themselves too seriously;
- have the decency to at least try hiding the wish fulfillment behind fun characters and an engaging plot.
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@verified_tinker said in Min-Maxing My TRPG Build Vol. 7:
Ah, that was great but more an intermission than anything else, and it has left me hungering for more.
Can anyone recommend similar series? I've tried going through J-Novel's catalog, but it's chock-full of crappy fan fiction that somehow got published. This and Bookworm are the only two I know that:
- don't take themselves too seriously;
- have the decency to at least try hiding the wish fulfillment behind fun characters and an engaging plot.
I recommend: Tearmoon Empire, Sometimes Even Reality Is a Lie (manga, contemporary setting), Apothecary Diaries, Altina the Sword Princess, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! (A.K.A. Bakarina. Triggered an entire subgenre. In my opinion, went from brilliant to meh after the primary plot arc finished in vol 3.)
Dahlia in Bloom didn't quite hold my attention, but others like it, and it fits your criteria.
The Scholomance series is brilliant and has a light novel sort of flavour, but is English language original, and not on JNC.
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@Libri-Liberorum Thanks for the list! I did go through a few volumes of Apothecary Diaries and Dahlia in Bloom, but as you said, they were too plotless to hold my attention. Tearmoon Empire was fun, and so was Bakarina, but not quite what I'd been looking for. I recall taking a peek at the Deadly Education because I enjoyed another of Novik's books but didn't keep going. Will give it another try, though.
As for Sometimes Reality Is a Lie and Altina the Sword Princess, I've never heard of them. I'll give 'em a look.
Thanks again.
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Wondering if anyone has series recommendations for isekai'd or fantasy that MC deals with gods of their world, challenging them, becoming one etc.
Without specifically getting into titles that I've been reading that dabble in those themes due to spoilers, it's a theme that has given me more interest than others and curious what sort of stories might be on jnc or other places.
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@Asthma_Queen well the only thing that comes to mind right now is
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@Asthma_Queen Some titles that immediately come to mind:
- So I'm a Spider, So What?
- The Faraway Paladin
- Arifureta
- The Misfit of Demon King Academy
- Failure Frame
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@Asthma_Queen for the same reason it's hard for you to mention what you've already read, it's also hard to suggest them. I'll throw a few series that involve the MC interacting directly with gods that I've read under this spoiler. They each deal with it in different ways though
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@Lily-Garden thanks ya I didn't think about using a spoiler tag. I've read this one and enjoyed it alot
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@GeorgeMTO thanks for the suggestions! I didn't consider using a spoiler tag some of these are new titles too me so I will check them out for sure!
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@myskaros I will try checking some of the ones I've not read out!
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Anyone can recommend similar to The Conqueror from a Dying Kingdom? It started slow, but I love the way it treats its characters and plot. I'd love to read something like it--and like what it promises to slowly build towards--that has plenty of volumes out to catch up on.
To give an example of what I'm not looking for, pretty much The Mythical Hero's Otherworld Chronicles. It's not the chuuni elements that are the big problem, but the lack of... well, any grounded feeling . The Conqueror from a Dying Kingdom feels very grounded--the last arc was splendid and precisely what I'm looking for. The delivery on the action and especially the thriller and tense periods were fantastic.
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@Azarchius obvious answer, have you read Bookworm? That probably has the best deliberate world building and slow build up of any series on JNC
Other than that, maybe The Troubles of Miss Nicola the Exorcist as that feels like a grounded story to me
You could try Faraway Paladin, I think it falls within your parameters...
Let me know if you check them out and if they were they kind of story you were looking for
