General Reading Recommendation Thread (Not Series License Requests)

Silver Sugar Duchess

@hopebestman I‘ve already tried Can Someone Please Explain What‘s Going On?, but I couldn't really bond with the story, so I quickly lost interest in it.

La mergouille

hello, I have just finished reading all the volumes of cooking with wild game and Ascendance of a Bookworm. suddenly I started outbreack company but, I hang less. Would you have titles of the same quality as the first two to offer me. thank you in advance

HarmlessDave

@La-mergouille - are you looking for books about food, or about people who love books? What do you like about those two series, and what are some other light novels that you like?

The JNC cooking series Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill is less serious than Cooking with Wild Game, it is more fun and silly.

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody also turns into a cooking series (in part), because the main character is on vacation in his new world and enjoys seeing new things, learning new crafts, and eating delicious food. Cooking his own food is a much bigger part in volume 3 and later.

piisfun

@HarmlessDave said in General Recommendation Thread:

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

spoiler

La mergouille

@HarmlessDave

hello and thank you for your response. I will try to answer your questions. Light novels don't necessarily need to talk about books and / or food. What I liked about bookworm and cooking was the quality of the writing and the story. if not in the other works that I liked there is Another, Berserk, Dan Machi, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, me when I reincarnate in slime, goblin slayer, the rising of the shield hero are the series that quickly come to mind.

myskaros

@La-mergouille I would suggest Der Werwolf.

HarmlessDave

@piisfun -
I was laughing hard at the scene a few books back (v 6 I think)

spoiler

piisfun

@HarmlessDave We better stop discussing this here.

taz2

Looking for any isekai where the person/people is summon from another country besides Japan.

myskaros

@taz2 The Devil is a Part-Timer?

There's an unlicensed series I can think of that's from one fantasy world to another, this one: https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/2035/lv2-kara-cheat-datta-moto-yuusha-kouho-no-mattari-isekai-life-the-laid-back-life-in-another-world-of-the-ex-hero-candidate

HarmlessDave

@taz2 said in General Recommendation Thread:

Looking for any isekai where the person/people is summon from another country besides Japan.

It's been done in Western fiction since at least John Carter of Mars. Have you read much non-LN SF & fantasy?

b.scot.morgan

@taz2 said in General Recommendation Thread:

Looking for any isekai where the person/people is summon from another country besides Japan.

@HarmlessDave is right, there are a ton of "Western isekai" stories, at least as far back as Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

I think Three Hearts and Three Lions, by Poul Anderson might be of interest to you.

Edit: Also, The Mathematics of Magic, by L. Sprague Dr Camp & Fletcher Pratt. It collects all of the "Incompleat Enchanter" novellas, along with an amusing and helpful (?) essay on how to equip yourself if you anticipate being isekai-ed into a world where guns won't work.

Roy Nukia

The entire Chronicles of Narnia.

db0ssman

I'm finishing up the If Its for my daughter... series pretty soon and am looking for my next series to start. Ideally, it would be something like Rising of the Shield Hero, but more like the earlier part of the series (before it became a shameless harem isekai). I'm thinking of starting Lazy Dungeonmaster, but it looks pretty heavy on the fan service, so I'm not that sure. I don't mind fan service if it is done well, but once it becomes constant in the writing/derails the pace of the book I usually don't like it.

Quick overview of my tastes based on what I've read already:

Rising of the Shield Hero - Mostly loved the series, but didn't like the harem/fan service aspects near the end

Ascendance of a Bookworm - Love the series, probably don't want to read something quite that slow this time (since I'm still reading the simulpubs)

Goblin Slayer - Absolute trash. Not only is the writing itself terrible, it didn't even make 3 books before it became nothing but fan-service and side-stories (stopped after book 4)

If it's for my daughter... - I like it as long as I can keep my mind from thinking about the creepier aspects.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Rahul Balaggan

@db0ssman

Lazy Dungeon Master can be very heavy on the fan service at times, but it has never really slowed the story down or held it back in my opinion.

Every volume has a bit of fan service, and that bit can reach extreme levels, but it usually quickly dissipates.

Overall it is a funny story, and the characters that get introduced do not fade, everyone gets some decent character development, plenty of world building & even now 10+ volumes later it doesn't seem to be an aimless story.

Other then that I always recommend Cooking With Wild Game, which is still on catch up for a few more days, I have talked about this series and what it means to me:

Here & Here

db0ssman

@Rahul-Balaggan

I'm putting this in a spoiler in case you haven't read Rising of the Shield Hero/Goblin Slayer, and don't want to know what happens.

spoiler

Rahul Balaggan

@db0ssman

Okay in that case here is a very very mild spoiler for lazy dungeon master:

spoiler

db0ssman

@Rahul-Balaggan I'll probably give it a shot, then because it sounds like it side-steps most of the fan service I really can't stand.

Rahul Balaggan

@db0ssman

Although it does side step that type of fan service, when the story does fan service it is usually a 10/10 level of fan service.

db0ssman

@Rahul-Balaggan I'm not sure if you are trying to say graphic sex scenes by '10/10 level of fan service' or just like the MC has a bad tendency to walk in on people in the bath, but if it is not that fequent and too cheesy, I'd probably just skim over it.