What Other Light Novels Are You Reading?
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@harmlessdave I've read it, I found it very funny in a slapstick type of way without being overly hard on the cast or relying on excess stupidity. I love KonoSuba, but I find that this kind of humor lands better, as in I find more of the jokes funny. It has good comedic timing, and it also has interesting seeds for a larger clandestine plot. The main schtick, Seiya being ridiculously cautious, is interesting because it's easy to understand conceptually, but it's mined for humor in ways you may not expect, though are obvious in hindsight.
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The story is told from the perspective of the goddess and not the hero, which is ok but not my preference for this type of series.
I just finished Vol 1 and will dropping the series unless someone can convince me the Hero changes.
The 'overly cautious' part of his character is fine and can be rather entertaining at times and personally I like many OP MCs/Heroes stories. What I can't stand is how much of an asshole he is to 'allies' and non-enemy characters, and at the same time somehow the goddesses just seem to fall for him just because of his looks. Even the main goddess is treated like crap the entire volume, but if he does something like grab her wrist she thinks about kissing. When he says he doesn't really eat anyone's cooking except hers she thinks how shes the happiest wife even though they aren't married. Any other time she is just complaining about him to him or others, trying to cover for him and smooth things over while constantly accepting his verbal abuse.
He 'just knows' everything about himself. There is no character building, no trial and error, no explanations. He just does a little weight training in the hyperbolic time chamber. (This does change a bit when he actually trains with gods, but you are never given any insight to the training except for him going UFC on the sword god and that the goal with the war goddess is her ultimate move). He not only has random useful skills but the knowledge how to use them and how powerful they are. He can use a skill to hide all his stats, or spoof them. It all just feels like a giant crutch for the author, since you are never told his stats or skills in advance. Story is from goddess's perspective who he spoofs his stats from and attacks her verbally and physically for attempting to "peek" at his personal information without his permission, and yet he without her knowledge and therefore permission sneaks into her room while she sleeps and takes/plucks her hair for making weapons.
Some of his shitty character can be exused as part of his 'overly cautious' side and part of the "comedy". Like when using the holy water, but it feels to be less than more.
A few examples I found rather annoying and couldn't just accept it as "comedy" or part of his overly cautious nature. Going around burning innocent civilian bystanders, their shops and churches down just to be extra sure an enemy is done for and then just shrugs it off like it's not his problem or worth his time. Someone generously donating money to him for saving their life just to demand for more, to the extent of emptying their pockets. His excessively rude attitude and way of talking to not only to the gods/goddesses but just anyone in general. Ordering around the head goddess and treating his 'party' and the god training him like dirt.
I will usually finish a volume I've started even if I think I'll drop the series, but I was honestly close to just stop reading this one mid volume.
This ended up being a rather negative review, I know that there were parts I liked and enjoyed of the novel but they were just too few and far between and got outweighed.
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Thanks @myskaros and @khaos -- it sounds like it's not my cup of tea.
It's too bad only JNC has prepubs and catch up months, sometimes I need to read a full novel before deciding if I like it enough to support the author and keep reading it. I was on the fence from reading the short kindle sample and you've moved me to the not-buy side.
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So I recently finished The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life.
As a laid-back slice-of-life story, it's not bad. The emotional core of the story is definitely there, and I did overall like seeing how main girl Mariela finds her place in an unfamiliar place, as well as her growing relationship with others, especially her slave Sieg (more on that later).
However, man did this novel have a ton of info-dumping. Literally every detail about how alchemy works in the world, including all sorts of background info on each of the various plants and other ingredients, gets explained in way too much detail, and it really hampers the pacing. And it's not even like, say, the cooking stuff in cooking novels, which at least might be of some practical use at some point in real life. I feel like the author mainly wrote this book in order to indulge in their own world of alchemy rather than as a story in and of itself.
And yes, this is also one of those novels where the main character buys and owns a slave, albeit with the normal genders reversed. Still, a lot of the usual tropes, like the slave Sieg turning out to be rather handsome, and falling in love with Mariela because she treats him like a human, are the same. Their relationship is pretty sweet regardless, but if you're not a fan of slavery used in this way, this is another one to avoid. But hey, at least now the whole kind slave owner protagonist trope is equal opportunity for men and women, right?
MAL
Beneath the Tangles (the blog I write for) -
I'm reading a novel right now that is basically all info dump (Root Double).
It can get kind of exhausting, especially if the application of that info dump isn't executed immediately (the knowledge just sits there, and you gotta remember it for later when the items / abilities become useful).
Seeing the slave thing on the other foot isn't unheard of, but certainly rarer, and maybe a first in the LN space in localization? (there's a fun manga called "Sorry For My Familiar" where a little demon girl summons a hulking human).
If my libraries get that Alchemist one, I might give it a go. Otherwise... The backlog. T_T
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Lets see... as I'm putting together this list, I got lost. In a few cases, I couldn't remember if I was reading the manga or the LN (only in a few cases (do I read both).
Arifurieta,
Death March,
Dan Machi
Amagi Brilliant Park
OverlordThis is my list before finding JNC. I'm still going through JNC stuff to decide what's my taste.
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I got a good seven I like post later
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@stardf29 Is the world building good?
Beause if it is, personally I really don't mind some info dump, quite the opposite in fact.Do you like death, war and misery ?
Do you like badass op loli who let nobody got in their way ?
Do you like vengeance story?
If so then then vote for The girl who ate a death god -
@raitoiro I mean, the novel felt like it was 75% worldbuilding. If you're into worldbuilding then yeah, it's good, though I personally wish it was better integrated into the story itself rather than just dumped on us. But if you're fine with that sort of infodump, you'll probably like this novel.
MAL
Beneath the Tangles (the blog I write for) -
@stardf29 sounds good, I will get it out after finishing Altina prepub. As a note probably I will end skimming through the plants descriptions just as I do with food descriptions in Cooking with wild life.
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@stardf29 Thank, I will probably give it a try then.
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TBH, staying current seems to be an ongoing struggle for me. I don't think I've been done reading all of the prepubs in over a month.
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@paul-nebeling said in What Other Light Novels Are You Reading?:
TBH, staying current seems to be an ongoing struggle for me. I don't think I've been done reading all of the prepubs in over a month.
Yeah.
T_TI just finished Root Double, so I think I'll give "Ascendance of a Bookworm" a try.
Then next month, I gotta read all those volume 1s before the 15th.
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Currently ploughing through the Sword Art Online franchise and took a small break from the main series to read the Progressive volumes released thus far.
It is quite interesting to read in detail the progression through, because, you have to admit, the Aincrad Arc in the main was a bit on the concise side. But, I've also slowly come to the inevitable realization that, he's never gonna finish this, is he? (currently reading the 6th volume featuring the 6th floor...)
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I took a break from the main series at vol. 15, the beginning of that volume was a bit... exhausting?...
I think, for me, coming from vol 14. to go to the setting of the 'real world' and into new character introduction (obviously an antagonist) and their background story I don't care about at all(at least at this time) was the last thing I wanted.
I have also been reading Progressive and really like it, more than the main.
Even though the story doesn't 100% follow along with the past of the main story and as much as it doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon.....I believe I read somewhere that
So I anticipate floor progression, to an extent, will then increase.
But either way it's going to be a while.
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The only non-J-Novel Club light novels I am reading right now are Rise of the Shield Hero and RE:Zero. I would like to try Konosuba as well but it is hard to justify with those being $2 more expensive than premium J-Novel Club titles, which I can try-before-you-buy via pre-pub releases.
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Woof Woof Story volume 3 just came out, and it's more light and (ahem) fluffy reading.
It's kind of the (not really a) dog version of FUNA's Abilities Average mixed with Killing Slimes for 300 Years. Wholesome fun.
"I'm just an ordinary, average dog! Arf!"
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Well looks like Yen Press is finally splitting up physical and digital, since Re:Zero 11 ebook came out a couple days ago, but paperback is next month.
Glad their printing problems they've been having finally isn't affecting the ebook release as much. -
Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, Vol. 1 -- 3 out of 5 stars for me, being generous.
It's a farce like Demon Lord Retry. The writing is shallow and the world-building is almost nonexistent. I finished it, but might not read any more of the series.
