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Desuwa posted:I don't mind a mary sue power fantasy as long as it's fun to read. That's a very small set of works, though, but Zhan Long has been fun so far. Based on, say Coiling Dragon, it's fair to say the power rankings are the tip of the iceberg. For instance, who is to say that the protagonist won't eventually go to the celestial realms or whatever and kick rear end there? Because I bet that is totally going to happen at some point.
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Mar 14, 2015 05:01
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In Shield Hero is anyone else bothered by the fact that the female antagonist does horrible things for -no- reason constantly? Like the falsified rape charge was to steal a set of chainmail that she could -easily afford-. It feels like the author has an axe to grind. Then the girl's mother appears out of nowhere to magically fix all the problems by destroying her husband/daughter for "reasons". What?
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Mar 21, 2015 10:40
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The reason the Princess does terrible things is because the Shield Hero is traditionally the only hero that supports the slave races, aka the only hero that actually acts like a hero. As her kingdom relies on the slave races for it's power, she fakes a rape attempt to destroy his credibility and continues screwing with him to try and keep him down. They can't actually kill him before the threat is over, so she does everything up to that. I mean it doesn't make it a particularly good story, but I have to give the smallest amount of credit and admit she had a totally logical reason for being so cartoonishly evil.
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Mar 21, 2015 11:03
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Just finished Coiling Dragon, and I have to say it's a pretty good Hero Saga. Its only fault is the time and power level inflation. I give it 8 out of 10 for recommendation. Zhang Long gets 6/10 by comparison.
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Mar 21, 2015 14:44
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FriggenJ posted:In Shield Hero is anyone else bothered by the fact that the female antagonist does horrible things for -no- reason constantly? Like the falsified rape charge was to steal a set of chainmail that she could -easily afford-. It feels like the author has an axe to grind. shield hero is bad, this is the reason
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Mar 21, 2015 21:29
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I stopped reading shield hero once they got to the village arc and then never left it. It introduced far too many characters that I can't bring myself to care about (and they're all ~special snowflake~ characters who are just as good at fighting as the main cast because reasons) and went on for at least three or four times as long as it needed to. It was very plain that the author had no plan and was just filling time. Also serious ending spoilers for shield hero, which I had spoiled for me: they beat back the waves and then, when everyone is celebrating, a bigger more evil bad guy that no one knew about comes and kills everyone. Shield hero wakes up in the real world and decides it was all a dream. The end. The author said that it should be a tragedy because it started as a tragedy.
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Mar 21, 2015 22:35
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That doesn't sound right, especially considering the epilogue has already been translated and features exactly none of that.
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Mar 21, 2015 22:45
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Forgot to mention that Coiling Dragon has an alternate realm story by the same author. If you enjoyed Coiling Dragon and can read Chinese, you probably would enjoy it. Coiling Dragon's protagonist also makes an appearance due to cross-dimensional magic, according to the afterword. You can try searching for a translation, but I don't think anyone is working on it. The title is 星辰变 in Chinese, and Constellation Change when directly translated. Maybe Constellation Transformation or Metamorphosis would sound better?
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Mar 22, 2015 12:20
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jwang posted:Forgot to mention that Coiling Dragon has an alternate realm story by the same author. If you enjoyed Coiling Dragon and can read Chinese, you probably would enjoy it. Coiling Dragon's protagonist also makes an appearance due to cross-dimensional magic, according to the afterword. You can try searching for a translation, but I don't think anyone is working on it. The title is 星辰变 in Chinese, and Constellation Change when directly translated. Maybe Constellation Transformation or Metamorphosis would sound better? Stellar Transformation: http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthread.php/37833-Stellar-Transformations-NO-SPOILERS-ALLOWED This translator stopped after a while (10 or so books?) but a couple of others picked it up. Keep in mind though that Stellar Transformation is set in a much darker and stereotyped world than Coiling Dragon and uses a lot of different themes, all the while having a very similar plot ideas within.
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Mar 22, 2015 13:11
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What do people usually use to get original (i.e. untranslated) versions of LNs? Like, say I want to read Maoyuu, does getting it off of Amazon work just fine, or do I have to go through some sort of middleman? If it helps, I'm in the US.
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Mar 23, 2015 13:32
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You can definitely just order from Amazon.co.jp, but keep in mind their shipping charges can get really bad. There are other online bookstores in Japan that send overseas, but I can't remember names right now.
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Mar 23, 2015 14:12
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http://www.kinokuniya.com/us/ http://www.yesasia.com/global/en/japanese-books.html http://www.amazon.co.jp/ http://honto.jp/ I prefer Honto, because they seem to have the cheapest shipping alternative (SAL) to Europe, but it's a bit of a hassle to get an account set up, and everything is in Japanese.
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Mar 23, 2015 15:28
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Overlord Volume 3 Chapter 4: in which the Lich King of Nazarick recalls with great embarrassment his youthly fascination with Neo-Nazis.
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Mar 23, 2015 15:29
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Arkeus posted:Stellar Transformation: Some things just don't translate well. Best example from this story is probably the protagonist's first sword, which translates to Fish Guts Sword at best. Sometimes it's best just left to original phonetics.
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Mar 23, 2015 15:39
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Pollyanna posted:What do people usually use to get original (i.e. untranslated) versions of LNs? Like, say I want to read Maoyuu, does getting it off of Amazon work just fine, or do I have to go through some sort of middleman? If it helps, I'm in the US. If you know you want a whole series, amazon often has a set (sometimes only with used books). Since the shipping fee is 1000yen per shipment + 400yen per item, and a set only counts as one items , there's a point where ordering from amazon is actually cheaper than other services which charge by weight. Amazon is also really fast.
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Mar 23, 2015 19:20
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So how good is A Certain Magical Index? I watched both seasons of the anime as well as A Certain Scientific Railgun and was wondering if the light novel series would be a fun read.
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Mar 24, 2015 08:04
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Hunt11 posted:So how good is A Certain Magical Index? I watched both seasons of the anime as well as A Certain Scientific Railgun and was wondering if the light novel series would be a fun read. Oh boy. Well, the speeches seem to be a lot more frequent, and Index is even more insufferable. People seem to be highly pressurized containers of approximately 800 gallons of blood, but since blood is mostly decorative almost nothing is lethal. Otherwise, aside from railgun filler it is more of the same as the anime.
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Mar 24, 2015 09:57
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Oh god, I'm dying. I'm dying here. "Crimson Shadow Ghost", I can't take it. http://japtem.com/projects/shadow-rogue-toc/
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Mar 26, 2015 20:43
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Serious Frolicking posted:Oh god, I'm dying. I'm dying here. "Crimson Shadow Ghost", I can't take it. http://japtem.com/projects/shadow-rogue-toc/ This owns lmao edit: sweet jesus there are 1300 chapters in the first volume of this alone Syenite fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Mar 27, 2015 |
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Mar 26, 2015 23:54
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Coiling Dragon chat Can the Radiant Church get possibly any more hosed right now? Honest question.
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Mar 27, 2015 08:06
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Stellar Transformation trip report: less Deus ex Machina rear end-pulls than Coiling Dragon, it gets an 8/10 for recommendations. And if you think the antagonists in Coiling Dragon got hosed bad, the ones in Stellar Transformation gets an even harsher comeuppance. Seriously, slavery/indentured servitude/reincarnation as a lower lifeform just for loving with the wrong guy?
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Mar 29, 2015 07:13
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Everyone in ST is an rear end in a top hat to some degree. I'm on the underwater arc now, and it is rather amusing how the author has no particular interest in writing about underwater combat in an arc largely dedicated to that idea. It is just the same old zwee fighting with barely a mention of the aquatic stuff. How does an underwater backflip even work?
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Mar 29, 2015 07:45
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Thank you whoever mentioned Knights and Magic in some other thread.  Too bad about the lack of raws...
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Mar 31, 2015 15:54
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Knights and Magic is great, and more people should read it. Hopefully the Chinese translations for vol3 aren't too far away.
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Mar 31, 2015 16:00
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Knights and Magic is great, but this sentence ending shows up just a tad too often.quote:because of his incredible processing ability and a background in software engineering
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Apr 1, 2015 00:25
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jwang posted:Stellar Transformation trip report: less Deus ex Machina rear end-pulls than Coiling Dragon, it gets an 8/10 for recommendations. I...what? Stellar Transformation has every asspulls CD does, but x100000000. It's like, seriously insane rear end-pull wise. What's really, really interesting though is how the author pretty much Made the universe Linley created such a horrible, horrible one. Like, seriously compare any situations between ST and CD, and the former has 100x more assholes and hypocrisy. Goddamit Linley.
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Apr 1, 2015 13:44
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In ST, most immortals seem to be psychotic. Only the failures who couldn't cut it out in murderous island country ever concern themselves with anything other than their own power. That isn't really their fault, though. Having more and better stuff makes them more likely to survive when the universe periodically tries to murder them. Once they get started on the path to true immortality they can't ever stop. And why would they, even? Not even mortals willingly accept mortality. Thus, they betray, murder and steal in order to seize any advantage. In other words, the very nature of their universe encourages people to be assholes. So yeah, goddamn it, Linley.
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Apr 1, 2015 14:05
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Serious Frolicking posted:In ST, most immortals seem to be psychotic. Only the failures who couldn't cut it out in murderous island country ever concern themselves with anything other than their own power. That isn't really their fault, though. Having more and better stuff makes them more likely to survive when the universe periodically tries to murder them. Once they get started on the path to true immortality they can't ever stop. And why would they, even? Not even mortals willingly accept mortality. Thus, they betray, murder and steal in order to seize any advantage. In other words, the very nature of their universe encourages people to be assholes. So yeah, goddamn it, Linley. If it was only that they wouldn't be such assholes. The issue is that the best way to get power is to eat other people. You can literally be given insight and special techniques don't matter compared to just the power you get from eating others. And insight you steal, too.. CD has a lot of what you said above... Except, well, they actually need each others in order to get stronger. So when two saints meet others? It's "yay, let's spar and hopefully we'll learn stuff".
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Apr 1, 2015 16:17
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Arkeus posted:If it was only that they wouldn't be such assholes. The issue is that the best way to get power is to eat other people. You can literally be given insight and special techniques don't matter compared to just the power you get from eating others. And insight you steal, too.. Saints like having treasures and they are useful when they fight each other or go dungeon diving, but they don't absolutely need them. Saints already live indefinitely unless killed, and the majority seemed to spend their time quite peacefully. There is no inherent reason for saints to fight (to the death, at least), so they generally don't bother. They don't bother with a lot of things, really, and that aloofness is what generally keeps them from being assholes like ST immortals.
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Apr 1, 2015 20:00
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Serious Frolicking posted:Saints like having treasures and they are useful when they fight each other or go dungeon diving, but they don't absolutely need them. Saints already live indefinitely unless killed, and the majority seemed to spend their time quite peacefully. There is no inherent reason for saints to fight (to the death, at least), so they generally don't bother. They don't bother with a lot of things, really, and that aloofness is what generally keeps them from being assholes like ST immortals. My point was that Linley's universe is designed in such a way that the Saint equivalent can get to God by eating each others and that has...consequences.
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Apr 2, 2015 00:45
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I Eat Tomatoes tends to over inflate everything. After reading his fourth work, I figured there wouldn't be much deviations in the remaining stories. I say read Stellar Transformation and Coiling Dragon and you've pretty much read all his good stuff.
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Apr 4, 2015 06:38
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jwang posted:I Eat Tomatoes tends to over inflate everything. After reading his fourth work, I figured there wouldn't be much deviations in the remaining stories. I say read Stellar Transformation and Coiling Dragon and you've pretty much read all his good stuff. I'm actually pretty drat impressed in how he manages to take the same basic plot elements and make a completely different narrative structure as well as atmosphere. A lot of the enjoyment I derive from his work comes from the worldbuilding (Chinese-style diplomacy in ST, Western-style world in CD, a lot of tribal stuff in Desolate Era, more Sci-fi in Swallowed Stars), and you can see constant improvements in the way he actually handles his characters and plots.
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Apr 4, 2015 17:12
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Awright, time for another absurdly funny chapter of Shadow Rogue. http://japtem.com/sr-volume-1-chapter-7/ This time, we learn that having gear in a mmo makes you more attractive to women.
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Apr 7, 2015 18:40
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Hunt11 posted:So how good is A Certain Magical Index? I watched both seasons of the anime as well as A Certain Scientific Railgun and was wondering if the light novel series would be a fun read. Things get really dumb and then quite boring for a while as about 50 groups from ~the darkness of academy city~ roll up. I really don't care for the boring third protagonist and the immortal meltdowner
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Apr 8, 2015 00:00
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Arkeus posted:I'm actually pretty drat impressed in how he manages to take the same basic plot elements and make a completely different narrative structure as well as atmosphere. A lot of the enjoyment I derive from his work comes from the worldbuilding (Chinese-style diplomacy in ST, Western-style world in CD, a lot of tribal stuff in Desolate Era, more Sci-fi in Swallowed Stars), and you can see constant improvements in the way he actually handles his characters and plots. The main issue I have with I Eat Tomatoes is his works are basically DBZ with extended lifespans instead of hyperbolic time chamber (with the exception of ST, which has both). In fact, I would actually rate Zhang Long to have better growth rate in comparison. Reading about a guy meditating on the ways to break the cosmos via Fist spell is interesting the first few times, but it quickly loses its novelty.
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Apr 8, 2015 07:12
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jwang posted:The main issue I have with I Eat Tomatoes is his works are basically DBZ with extended lifespans instead of hyperbolic time chamber (with the exception of ST, which has both). In fact, I would actually rate Zhang Long to have better growth rate in comparison. Reading about a guy meditating on the ways to break the cosmos via Fist spell is interesting the first few times, but it quickly loses its novelty. I Eat Tomatoes has a stupid love for big numbers and big scale. The guy really can't into thinking what the numbers he is saying actually mean. I...don't think the 'break the Cosmos via Fist spells' is a bad thing as much as 'that's more or less the genre'. At least it actually does it by meditating. Zhan Long... Well, Zhan Long is just bad. It has a horrible protagonist that makes no sense in a world that's tailored to cater to make him badass, and the 'growth' there is, IMHO, even more ridiculous than in IEatTomatoes. Sure, it doesn't (or maybe it does) end up with him being the OverGod, but while the scale is lower all the rest is more exxagerated. I much prefer the story of a big fish in a big pond than the story of the only shark in a red fish pond.
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Apr 8, 2015 13:27
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The way you're talking about world-breaking fist spells, it's like you've never played D&D 3/3.5
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Apr 8, 2015 14:32
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Isn't like one of the "Things" with D&D Is some so and so casting his fist as a magic spell or somethng to that effect?
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Apr 12, 2015 20:26
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D&D 3/3.5 had issues in which characters could exceed the speed of light with shockingly minimal set up time.
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Apr 12, 2015 23:00
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ConanThe3rd posted:Isn't like one of the "Things" with D&D Is some so and so casting his fist as a magic spell or somethng to that effect?
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Apr 13, 2015 02:37
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