What are some good English language web novels you've enjoyed and would recommend?
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The thread title says it all. I'm looking for some solid web novel recommendations for titles that are originally written in English.
I suppose I should get the ball rolling some recommendations of my own. These titles each have something that sets them apart as being special in some way.
A Journey of Black and Red
Epilogue
There is no Epic Loot here, Only Puns.
The Wandering Inn
Misadventures of a Rampaging Demon
The Stars Have Eyes -
The Simulacrum. If you like LN this is a must read. A western take on Light novel's tropes that knows when to draw the line on the horrible cliches and subvert them while keeping to good ones. MC is also a bloody madlad he's anything but a self insert. Idle chats, banters and jokes are actually hilarious.
Necrotourists comedy with pretty fun magic system.
The Death God's Daily Troubles pretty alright for a harem.
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I am really enjoying MERTICORE
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@Melting-Sky - I am new to all of this, so please excuse me asking a simple question. If a fanfiction that is published on the web is novel length, is it a 'Web Novel', or is the Web Novel category restricted only to original works? If the former is the case, you might enjoy these:
The Kotomi Continuum (Trilogy based on Clannad)
Walk The Same Path (Toradora, sequel is currently in production)
To Tell You In A Dream (Golden Time)
A Breather For Tio (Arifureta)Ciao and good health,
Mark Logue -
@Mark-Logue said in What are some good English language web novels you've enjoyed and would recommend?:
@Melting-Sky - I am new to all of this, so please excuse me asking a simple question. If a fanfiction that is published on the web is novel length, is it a 'Web Novel', or is the Web Novel category restricted only to original works? If the former is the case, you might enjoy these:
The Kotomi Continuum (Trilogy based on Clannad)
Walk The Same Path (Toradora, sequel is currently in production)
To Tell You In A Dream (Golden Time)
A Breather For Tio (Arifureta)Honestly, I'm not sure. I personally would consider web novels to be the wider parent category and serialized fan fiction fits under the banner as a subcategory of web novels. Having said that, there are probably plenty of people out there who would fight to me to the death for my assertion so it probably comes down to subjective opinion in the end.
Personally, I tend to be interested in original works but I have actually read a couple of fan fictions and even liked one of them enough to finish it despite being hundreds of pages long, so it's not like I'm opposed to them or anything. Thanks for the suggestions.
In response to Santi, I'm reading The Simulacrum at the moment. Ty for the recommendation.
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I hope this isn't a Necro but I recently finished Worm and if you are a fan of superhero stories it is a good one.
However do not expect a happy story, it starts with the MC being bullied and goes down from there. I think it shows a realistic look at what our world would be like with Capes. -
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i'd recommend The Godkings Legacy by Virlyce
You can either buy the completed Volumes on Amazon or read on their website
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@ephidiel said in What are some good English language web novels you've enjoyed and would recommend?:
i'd recommend The Godkings Legacy by Virlyce
You can either buy the completed Volumes on Amazon or read on their website
I've been reading this on and off for several months now. It's really really good, but holy cow are some parts of it hard to read (for the cringe factor). And by cringe I don't mean doing cringey stuff, I mean "How the hell can someone actually be that stupid? That makes me cringe. Wait, what the hell, that actually worked? Of course it did, she's a squirrel." This entire novel series is so utterly over the top... of course, that's what makes it fun. :-)
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@pcj said in What are some good English language web novels you've enjoyed and would recommend?:
@ephidiel said in What are some good English language web novels you've enjoyed and would recommend?:
i'd recommend The Godkings Legacy by Virlyce
You can either buy the completed Volumes on Amazon or read on their website
I've been reading this on and off for several months now. It's really really good, but holy cow are some parts of it hard to read (for the cringe factor). And by cringe I don't mean doing cringey stuff, I mean "How the hell can someone actually be that stupid? That makes me cringe. Wait, what the hell, that actually worked? Of course it did, she's a squirrel." This entire novel series is so utterly over the top... of course, that's what makes it fun. :-)
i actually bought the first three volumes in print because its dumb fun and i like to support writers like Virlyce
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There are actually quite a few good English web novels out there but not all of them are very "anime" in their sensibilities, nor do they conform to the simplified writing standards typical to most light novels. If you're ok with that I have a number of suggestions.
Mother of Learning is fairly similar to the kind of stuff you might find on this site but written by an eastern European author. A moody but talented magic student finds himself accidentally dragged into a month long time-loop that clearly wasn't created for him. Finding himself essentially a side character in his own story, does he have what is takes to become the protagonist? Complete.
Worth the Candle A teenager struggling after the death of his best friend finds himself in a fantasy world - one which seems to be an amalgamation of every Dungeons and Dragons campaign they ever played together. Now he's stuck trying to find the answers to why he's there and what this world is trying to say. The most terrifying answer might be that this world is an expression of the person he was back on Earth. A LitRPG with some very creative world building. Complete (I think? Haven't finished it.).
Tea Princess Chronicles is one that I want to recommend, but it looks like all but the first 4 chapters have been taken down in preparation for publication. First book of 3 is slated for august sometime so keep an eye out for that if the preview chapters interest you. A fairly cozy tale about a runaway princess who finds work at a struggling tea shop that sits on the edge of a magical disaster. Complete.
A Practical Guide to Evil Is one I always see recommended but admittedly haven't read myself. Something about a world where story tropes are well known and can be weaponized. Ongoing.
Katalepsis is another that I've heard great things about and have been meaning to read. The first chapter kind of reminded me of Mieruko-chan but more Lovecraftian. Ongoing.
Dungeon Keeper Ami Is a fanfic that I frequently forget is fanfiction (and a crossover fanfic at that), but have enjoyed quite a bit despite only being passingly familiar with it's source material. Ami Mizuno falls though a crack in spacetime and finds herself in a universe quite unlike her own. All she wants is to return home, but this simple goal is complicated by the realization that she accidentally sold her soul to powerful magical artifact in a moment of self-preservation. A powerful magical evil artifact at that. There has never been a good Dungeon Keeper in the history of this world, but there is a first time for everything, and Ami is very determined... Ongoing.
Last but not least is basically anything written by my favorite Canadian pig Wildbow, who is both a highly prolific and highly polished web-serialist. Arguably the best in the business if you ask me. If I had to pick two authors to compare him two I'd say his writing style is sort of an cross between Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, Stormlight Archives, Warbreaker) and Gen Urobuchi (Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero, Saya no Uta). Currently he has 5 major works:
Worm Is his first and most popular story. Dark urban fantasy of the superhero persuasion, It's about a bullied teenage girl with the power to control insects who strives to become a hero but is mistaken for a villain on her first night out. Nuanced characterization and world building, paired with some extremely clever power usage that would put Marval and DC both to shame, make this one very popular. So popular in fact that a lot of Worm fans can't be bothered to read anything else that he's written (not even the sequel), as they would rather just reread worm over and over again, and bury themselves in bad fanfiction. Complete.
Pact is his second story. Blake Thorburn was driven away from home and family by a vicious fight over inheritance, returning only for a deathbed visit with the grandmother who set it in motion. Blake soon finds himself next in line to inherit the property, a trove of dark supernatural knowledge, and the many enemies his grandmother left behind her in the small town of Jacob’s Bell.
An urban fantasy of a more traditional bent and features one of the best soft magic systems I have ever seen. However, like the protagonist, the reader is largely thrown into the deep end and expected to figure it out as they go along so it takes till about halfway through to really click, furthermore the pacing is so relentless it approaches exhausting at times. In retrospect brilliant in how captures the experiences of it's central protagonist on a narrative level, but easily his roughest story as an author. Complete.Twig Is his third story. A coming of age story set in an alternate 1920's where Frankenstein would be categorized as "non-fiction". A ragtag group of child experiments must look after one another while acting as secret police for the Academy that created them as it seeks to maintain a stranglehold on learning and scientific advancement in a world rapidly growing out of control. Told from the perspective of a manipulative genius who's constantly playing mind games with everyone around him and enacting schemes, but frequently winds up playing himself. Complete.
Ward His fourth story. A direct sequel to Worm but a very different kind of story in terms of themes and pacing. Left a lot of Worm fans disappointed for not being Worm 2: Electric Boogaloo, but taken on it''s own merits it has some of his best character writing and when the action hits, it hits hard. Best read after a break rather than jumping strait in after Worm. Complete.
Pale is his Fifth and current story. Set in the same setting as Pact, it is less of a sequel than it is an alternate entry point for the universe they're both set in. Where Pact dumps you in the deep end, Pale wades in from the shallows. As no prior experience is expected, these two stories can be read in either order or even simultaneously if you want to get a little crazy about it. Follows a trio of newly minted
magical girlswitches as the try to solve a supernatural murder mystery where none of the suspects can lie yet everyone seems to have something to hide. Ongoing. -
If by 'web novel' one means books published for free on the web in installments, ala Narou, but not necessarily falling within any specific genre...
For English original web fiction I'd recommend various of Fel's works (search for 'Sennadar forums' to find his site) for stuff that falls more toward what shows up at Narou and such. The forums there also have a topic with the title something like 'links to good reading' which has some surprisingly good suggestions.
Wes Boyd (not the 'Move on' guy) wrote a series of interconnected novels set in a slightly fictionalized late 20th century Michigan, with forays elsewhere in the US. (Search for 'Spearfish Lake Tales'.)
He died several years back, but his family has cooperated with his fans to keep his site active, and to finish posting those works he had far enough along that he had them listed as 'OK to have his editors finish them up in the case of his death'.
