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I think my description doesn't do it justice. My excuse is that I am severely jet lagged. Story description by the author: ruffwriter posted:A modern man finds himself reincarnated in the body of a young slave with no skills and quickly fading memories. Follow his journey to find normalcy while living in a savage world, filled with myth and legends, monsters and Demons. In a land where the strong rule, the weak serve, and bloodshed is a way of life, peace is a luxury few can afford.
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Apr 30, 2016 23:02
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I find it difficult to believe that any original works from that dumpster fire of a website could be any good, but I'll give it a shot.
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May 1, 2016 09:35
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Serious Frolicking posted:I find it difficult to believe that any original works from that dumpster fire of a website could be any good, but I'll give it a shot. Dumpster fire is an accurate description. This was the only decent story I found after combing through dozens (hundreds?) of the highest rated stories. Most of those stories were flaming garbage. I can't imagine how bad the low rated stories are. Maybe flaming poo poo?
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May 2, 2016 01:13
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I liked Savage Divinity but I'm kinda unsure if I should try a Xianxia story (I don't actually know what this means). It did pique my curiosity but this thread has done an amazing job of making me not want to read any xianxia, and to be honest the things Savage Divinity supposedly shares with it weren't exactly my favourite things about it. e: I probably wouldn't even have tried Savage Divinity if it hadn't been recommended specifically by SerSpook and DHS in combination with the term muscle wizard so yeah Absum fucked around with this message at 19:36 on May 2, 2016 |
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May 2, 2016 19:33
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Xian (仙) means immortal, divine. Xia (侠) means hero. Xianxia together would mean immortal/divine hero, and as a genre would probably translate best as immortal hero tale or something like that. Chinese translations into English is really wonky in places. People who read Xianxia would probably enjoy reading Twilight if they were of the opposite gender, unless the Xianxia story is specifically aimed towards the female population. Those that are tend to be higher in quality, and might even become TV serials in China. For example, Hua Qian Gu (花千骨, or literally the bones of thousand flora) was originally a web serial that became a really popular TV series that was also streamed online and got an app game at the same time recently (like in the last 2 years). In the TV series, there is a lot less wanking over how powerful the protagonist is, and is rather a star-crossed lovers story. In short, Xianxia is like bodice-ripper stories for Chinese guys, only instead of being incredibly hot you have penis size analogies in relation to your power level. When you find someone with a bigger penis, you train your penis to be bigger than theirs so all the ladies can swoon onto yours rather than theirs. Sometimes you have to pop pills, and sometimes you need to use a pump or a secret exercise regime, but the end result is that your phallus analog ends up being bigger than your opponents. In contrast, Wuxia (武侠) is best translated as martial arts hero, and instead of being about power levels (though cultivation still kind of plays a role but not as much) it's about your super secret martial arts technique that sucks out/freeze/etc. the souls/chi/whatever of your opponents. Maybe there will be someone who can counter you, but you usually avoid conflicts with that guy anyways. In short, in anime terms Xianxia = Dragonball Z and Wuxia = Fist of the North Star/Jojo's Bizarre Adventures. Wuxia that gets seriously into cultivation shenanigans are no longer Wuxia but Xianxia. Prime example of this would be My Beautiful CEO Wife, which starts out as Wuxia style story-telling, but quickly turns into Xianxia bullshit magic immortality bullshit.
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May 3, 2016 03:28
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quote:“Umu.”( うむ) (It means yes for those that don´t know) Thanks, translator.
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May 3, 2016 09:08
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But if he actually translated those words, you wouldn't be able to get the deep difference in nuance between that and はい. The English language just isn't rich enough to express those differences.
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May 3, 2016 10:00
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Absum posted:I liked Savage Divinity but I'm kinda unsure if I should try a Xianxia story (I don't actually know what this means). If you're looking to get into Xianxia thread(and life) favorite I Shall Seal the Heavens is a great place to start.
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May 3, 2016 10:17
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Whatever you do don't go to novelupdates and look at the most popular novels after enjoying one of them and looking for more. The vast majority of them are a lucky rear end in a top hat sociopath MC killing unlucky rear end in a top hat sociopaths for 2000 chapters, except the ones he (always a he) is killing are rapists so they're worse and everything he does even torture is always justified. Except for the mixed signals because later them MC also rapes someone but it's okay because he needed to rape her to save her life or something. I dropped two different novels when they got to that exact plot point. I have bad taste but not nearly that bad.  Seriously most of them are worse than the web novels by authors with slavery fetishes. I could tolerate Shield Hero until it got obscenely boring (I'd not have had patience for it now but I was innocent and naive) but this stuff is well beyond me.
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May 3, 2016 10:37
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My Discipline has Died Yet Again is great because it pokes fun at this stuff. It's overall decently funny. And its protagonist is a woman.
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May 3, 2016 14:30
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Maybe I'm just picky, but I don't like the translation for My Disciple Died Yet Again much. It's stilted and awkward.
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May 3, 2016 15:03
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How so? It isn't that bad as far as Chinese to English translations go. My Father-in-law is Lu Bu is by far worse, and a majority of Xianxia translations are unreadable if you knew the original dialogue. Chinese will always be awkward and stilted when translated to English, simply because it's really hard to figure out the proper idiom analogues between the two languages.
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May 3, 2016 15:32
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jwang posted:How so? It isn't that bad as far as Chinese to English translations go. My Father-in-law is Lu Bu is by far worse, and a majority of Xianxia translations are unreadable if you knew the original dialogue. Chinese will always be awkward and stilted when translated to English, simply because it's really hard to figure out the proper idiom analogues between the two languages. Yeah. The combination of idioms and the way authors combine words to represent entirely new concepts only tangentially related to their original meaning makes translating Xianxia a pretty surreal trip sometimes. Check out RWXs translation rants on Wuxiaworld for examples of some of the weirdness he runs into while translating.
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May 3, 2016 20:11
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It's definitely not unreadably bad, but it's not up to the standard of ISSTH or blastron's Kumoko translations. Note that I don't know Chinese and I'm just guessing at the meanings here.paragraph from the first chapter posted:Zhu Yao then raised her head and looked at the person beside her. She was a very skinny woman, the creases on her forehead was deep, and the deep-colored clothes she wore was greyed out, as though the color faded after being washed many times. Her entire body was emitting out a ‘I’m a peasant woman’ atmosphere. The main factor was the ancient-styled clothes she was wearing. "the creases on her forehead was deep" - simple noun/verb agreement error. "the deep-colored clothes she wore was greyed out..." - better as "her richly dyed clothing was obviously faded, as though washed many times." Same noun/verb disagreement. Her entire body was emitting out a ‘I’m a peasant woman’ atmosphere... - Better phrased as "Her countenance and mannerisms gave an air of a peasant woman, and her ancient style of clothing made it undeniable." It's just too literal and has some grammatical errors. It is tiring to read because I still have to intuit the actual meaning after reading the sentences. With a native English-speaking editor it could be vastly better. The only Xianxia I've read to compare it to is ISSTH.
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May 3, 2016 23:18
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brainwrinkle posted:It's definitely not unreadably bad, but it's not up to the standard of ISSTH or blastron's Kumoko translations. Note that I don't know Chinese and I'm just guessing at the meanings here. Honestly, I can tolerate translations that are too literal, but it's the blatant grammatical errors (or stuff that is just clearly not something a competent native speaker would ever say/write) that really bothers me. Like, with that "Her entire body was emitting out a ‘I’m a peasant woman’ atmosphere." sentence, I could tolerate it if not for the "emitting out a" instead of just "emitting an". It's still an awkward, poorly written sentence, but at least I would have been able to read it without my "mental voice" having a really thick Chinese accent. The noun-verb agreement stuff in particular is really bad about loving up the "voice" of the writing. I don't usually blame the translators, since in most cases English probably isn't their first language. But it's still unfortunate and is a huge barrier to me being able to enjoy a lot of these stories. As for LNs/web novels with good translations, as mentioned blastron's translations of both Kumoko and Ascension of a Bookworm (particularly the latter) are really great. The translation for Rokka is also very competent, though I think it also benefits from the source writing being above the level of a mediocre fan-fiction.
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May 3, 2016 23:39
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The big problem for all these wn's is that usually either the original is garbage, the translation is garbage, or both.
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May 3, 2016 23:39
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I am very excited for Meng Hao's ocean adventures!  He's been forced into a tough situation again. It will be interesting to see how he escapes.
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May 4, 2016 13:23
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brainwrinkle posted:I am very excited for Meng Hao's ocean adventures! I saw a spoiler for what happens months ago and I've been waiting for it ever since
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May 4, 2016 16:22
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Thanks for holding my translations in such high regard! I'm glad that my extensive background of "kinda knows Japanese and also took a couple of creative writing courses" is enough to meet everyone's expectations.
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May 4, 2016 17:10
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blastron posted:Thanks for holding my translations in such high regard! I'm glad that my extensive background of "kinda knows Japanese and also took a couple of creative writing courses" is enough to meet everyone's expectations. That background is twice as extensive as most people doing translations!
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May 4, 2016 17:21
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UberJew posted:That background is twice as extensive as most people doing translations! Yeah, I think merely "being an educated person who can write without actively loving up" automatically puts someone above the vast majority of fan translators. edit: One thing social media has revealed to me is that the vast majority of people, including native English speakers, are extremely bad writers and seem to write entirely based off of the way they talk. Some examples are stuff like "should of," "rediculous," "embecile," etc. I imagine this is because they have done barely any reading or writing since graduating high school, which for many of these people is literal decades of not writing or seeing other peoples' writing. As a result you end up with people basically writing in the same way you'd expect some random almost-illiterate person who only happens to know the alphabet to write. In the past these people would have gone their entire lives without ever writing, but social media has introduced a compelling platform where they are required to write. It is actually somewhat fascinating. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 19:36 on May 4, 2016 |
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May 4, 2016 19:28
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My experience with Xianxia so far: ISSTH: very good Desolate Era:ok Stellar Transformations: garbage Against the Gods, Douluo Dalou: creepy garbage Heavenly Jewel Change: mc rapes a girl few chapters in What should I try next?
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May 4, 2016 20:03
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Anything by i eat tomatoes is at least okay. He has his own problems, but at least his protagonists aren't psychotic rapists. Desolate Era and Stellar Transformations are just two of his many works. Why did you find douluo dalu creepy, though? gimme the GOD DAMN candy fucked around with this message at 20:19 on May 4, 2016 |
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May 4, 2016 20:16
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Neurophage posted:My experience with Xianxia so far: My Disciple Died Yet Again. You'll appreciate it all the more after having read all that stuff. World of Cultivation is decent too if you can get past the unnecessarily untranslated words.
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May 4, 2016 20:19
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Skyfire Avenue? I've always liked it, the universe it's in sort of owns bones. There's a grand total of one rape.
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May 4, 2016 20:20
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Homeless Friend posted:Skyfire Avenue? I've always liked it, the universe it's in sort of owns bones. There's a grand total of one rape. One rape is one too many for me.
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May 4, 2016 20:22
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Serious Frolicking posted:Why did you find douluo dalu creepy, though? All the lengthy descriptions of Xiao Wu's sexiness every other chapter, despite her being prepubescent. What about Ze Tian Ji and Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality?
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May 4, 2016 20:36
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Neurophage posted:All the lengthy descriptions of Xiao Wu's sexiness every other chapter, despite her being prepubescent. ZTJ is great and not at all creepy. Kid from the sticks comes to the big city and gets mixed up in court politics.
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May 4, 2016 20:46
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ze tian ji has some really nice prose honestly, and it's about the only one of these i actually read the fight descriptions without skimming
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May 4, 2016 21:27
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Coiling Dragon is good, until it isn't. The first half is better than the second half, which is in general better than the last book or 2. It has the added benefit of being fully translated which is nice.
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May 4, 2016 22:31
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I like sovereign of three realms
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May 4, 2016 22:31
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I liked Ze Tian Ji, but I haven't really read it in a while because I kinda just got bored with it.
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May 4, 2016 22:53
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I'll read Ze Tian Ji, thanks guys.
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May 4, 2016 23:02
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ZTJ is pretty great, but it's also really slow. Skyfire Avenue is really great as well, aside from the one thing at the beginning.
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May 5, 2016 00:28
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Neurophage posted:My experience with Xianxia so far: Things people haven't mentioned (that have decent translators): Lord Xue Ying (Snow Eagle Lord) Current webnovel from IET (author of Desolate Era, Coiling Dragon, Stellar Transformations). Slow translation (~1 release/week) but IET's prose has definitely improved over time (as you may have noticed from Stellar Transformations -> Desolate Era). Transcending the Nine Heavens Wasn't expecting much out of yet-another-reincarnation plot, but I'm mildly optimistic since it transitioned from Rambo (ch1) to court politics (~ch80).
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May 5, 2016 00:28
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I think half the problem with translations is that a majority is simply machine translations with a thin paint of grammar spread on. That being said, My Disciple Died Yet Again is definitely one I would recommend for reading, even with the 3/4-assed translation.
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May 5, 2016 01:20
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I hope nothing terrible happens to Meng Hao's new friends.
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May 5, 2016 02:37
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BlitzBlast posted:I would put them as pretty solid as far as translator groups go. It's far from perfection (the usual refusal to use contractions, a strange obsession with directly translating ねぇ as "Neh", and slightly stilted wordchoice every now and then), but still a cut above the usual fare. If you're reading Only Sense Online, it's above that. I don't know if it was legit or not, but Skythewoods posted on a 4chan thread saying the mediocre translation was due to the editors not really caring that much. He added that there wasn't exactly a bunch of applications either, so I went and applied.  If I get the position I may very well sit down and rewrite the entirety of the translations for volumes 1-7. What has getting into LNs done to me. 
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May 5, 2016 02:40
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So, the Footloose Sect patriarch is Patriarch Reliance, right? I'm so hype.
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May 5, 2016 03:47
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Silynt posted:So, the Footloose Sect patriarch is Patriarch Reliance, right? I'm so hype. Yea I think so too, and Rainy is the giyuding rain
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May 5, 2016 04:15
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