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darkgray posted:Plotwise it might come a step under Re:Zero, but then it doesn't get dragged out to all hell as much, plus Re:Zero suffers from a weak 5th arc (which I'm guessing you've yet to read) and extremely poorly written battle sequences that are just painful to read. I agree about Re:Zero dragging things out a bit too much. While it's still enjoyable to read, I feel like there's a bunch of stuff that could have been either cut out or situations where the events from two loops could have been condensed into one. As a side comment, I feel like, as soon as he confirmed that he can die an endless amount of times (since before that he was very averse to dying since he didn't know if there was a limit to the number of times) he should have invested in some quick and painless way to die, like carrying around an explosive or something. There are a bunch of times that he really would have benefited from having the option to go "pffft gently caress this I'm out". One thing I think it's good that they accurately captured is the fact that repeatedly going through terrible experiences actually makes it more difficult, not less. Contrary to a lot of fiction, going through terrible things a bunch does not cause you to develop a "resistance" to those experiences; it just makes you remember them even more vividly and become more afraid of encountering them again in the future. As for speculation, one possibility I have in mind is that there might be some sort of attempt to recreate conditions similar to those of the original Satella/Witch of Envy so that she can maybe possess Emilia or something. I'm wondering if maybe the person who shares Puck's body and was loved by Satella was some guy (maybe Flugel?) who was very similar to Subaru, and Subaru was summoned to their world because he's the person in all worlds who most closely resembled that person (and could thus recreate the conditions of the past by accompanying Emilia, who closely resembles Satella). The other more obvious but potentially cliche possibility is some sort of weird time shenanigans where the events of the series end up causing Emilia to become the Witch of Envy, but I get the impression that Emilia isn't literally Satella, since Subaru has now seen Satella's face and, even if he shares Emilia's general characteristics, he didn't comment on her looking identical. At the very least, I'm curious enough about what's actually going on that it serves as a significant motivation to keep reading.
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May 5, 2017 03:39
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darkgray posted:It goes both ways, though. People here tend to praise Honzuki as good, but blastron is making significant changes when he's translating. The writing of the original, as prose goes, is pretty second rate for Narou. I wouldn't really call Honzuki's prose second-rate in web novel terms. It's not exceptionally pretty and sometimes weirdly structured, but it doesn't over-rely on onomatopoeia, uses synonyms, and has reasonable sentence structure. The author uses paragraphs instead of spewing single sentences at us, even! I'm genuinely curious, what do you think reads better? I won't deny that I'm having to massage the text to make it read like a native English novel, though. I don't think I'm an exceptionally good writer, but I'm pretty sure the main reason people think the writing is good is because they're used to most other translations reading like a Japanese text translated into English, with all of the structural and grammatical quirks thereof, and not an English text. (I really hope I'm not going too far, though...) I actually legit wonder how differently A Will Eternal or ISSTH reads in the original language. The translations read really well in English, but I don't know enough about how Chinese novels are structured to be able to tell if they need any significant work to make them read well in English.
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May 5, 2017 05:08
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I guess it depends on how many rates you divide it into. I've read stuff I'd class as fourth rate.  http://ncode.syosetu.com/n5115cq/ and http://ncode.syosetu.com/n4006r/ both read significantly better in my opinion. Much closer to what I expect from a regularly published novel. The first one is being translated by j-novel club while the second seems to be going unnoticed still.
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May 5, 2017 05:56
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Honestly the thing that separates great novels from bad novels for me is whether or not the characters can actually be identified with as actual characters, with at least a modicum of complexity or personality to them, and not just generic anime harem cliches or  disconnected MCs talking endlessly about their stats or whatever without having a strong motivation, worries, weaknesses, dreams for the future, etc.Stuff like Honzuki, Re:Zero, or Konosuba have great characters, Kumoko carries her series by herself. Even series like Mushoku Tensei that are kind of skeevy at times can make themselves memorable by making an effort to give their characters more depth than the average isekai story. blastron posted:I wouldn't really call Honzuki's prose second-rate in web novel terms. It's not exceptionally pretty and sometimes weirdly structured, but it doesn't over-rely on onomatopoeia, uses synonyms, and has reasonable sentence structure. The author uses paragraphs instead of spewing single sentences at us, even! I'm genuinely curious, what do you think reads better? I dunno if I'd call Honzuki's Japanese prose bad, but the author does definitely rely on certain phrases and expressions to the point that it becomes noticeable. It's still very readable compared to some WNs, and it's made up for by excellent worldbuilding and occasionally doing a good job introducing subtext that the MC doesn't pick up on that's left to the reader.
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May 5, 2017 06:27
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I for one am now an expert on the phrase 溜息を吐く and many variations thereof. Also you could write a bot that detects when Maine is telling Benno something and automatically translates the next sentence as "Benno glared at me."
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May 5, 2017 06:41
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Ragging on something for being dragged out in the same sentence as you praise MT is all sorts of weird. It took an entire god drat arc for the retarded "Oh, how strange. I'm attracted to a boy. Who looks like I girl I know. By the by, green loving hair that my childhood friend got ragged on constantly for" plotline to die a horrible death.
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May 5, 2017 13:32
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Erectile dysfunction. Gripping stuff.
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May 5, 2017 13:50
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I guess there had to be a reason for his attraction to a boy. No homo, after all. Which I hate. More stories should have guys just hooking up without such pretenses. Girls hooking up, too. But Japan is mostly a pretty old fashioned, heteronormative country, so... But again, I've not read MT past the first chapter or two, which were too creepy and skeevy for me.
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May 5, 2017 13:54
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The MT ED arc is ~500 pages, and R:Z's 4th arc is 3500 pages, so...
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May 5, 2017 15:14
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darkgray posted:The MT ED arc is ~500 pages, and R:Z's 4th arc is 3500 pages, so...
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May 5, 2017 16:01
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So, out of curiosity, any opinions on English-language stuff? As in, originally written in English? There have to be a fair number of them out there. And yes, I've read Worm and am currently reading the Practical Guide to Evil, in case either of those comes up.
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May 5, 2017 17:14
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We have a thread in TBB for English serial fiction but I really like The Gods Are Bastards. It's a fun take on what starts as a pretty generic fantasy setting, with good character building and interaction.
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May 5, 2017 17:26
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I believe it's been mentioned here before, but I've been enjoying Mother of Learning, which is an English web story about a unlikely protagonist in a fictional magical world. - Groundhogs Day antics as our hero, Zorian, repeats the same month, over and over again, gradually taking advantage of this to become really, really skilled at magic. - Characters that actually get decently fleshed out. Zorian starts out as a complete rear end and gradually becomes pretty likable over time. The author is also pretty good as having Zorian be wrong about things, in a fun way. - A race of magical psychic spiders that features heavily in the ongoing plot. - A preplanned story that will have a set beginning/middle/end (we're like just starting the "end" third of the story, I think.) Bobulus fucked around with this message at 18:42 on May 5, 2017 |
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May 5, 2017 18:38
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Unrelated to the current topic of English original stories, I just recently read all there is to date of Trafford's Trading Club. It's not half bad. Basically, this guy ends up owning a creepy store where you can get anything you want for a price, and that price isn't money.
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May 5, 2017 19:50
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I've finished the third Cradle book, Blackflame, which has recently come out. It's pretty good. Lindon doesn't kill someone three levels above him at the end of the book this time, although he does destroy the hand of someone two levels above him. Eithan seems to be on the overpowered side, but he does have a weakness (physical attacks). Yerin ruining cool technique names was amusing, and the way she and Lindon beat the Trials was clever while remaining in keeping with her  way of doing things.My biggest complaint was that Jai Long letting Yerin power up seemed out of character; he's always been pragmatic, and his magical oath to Jai Daishou should make him more so. I guess he wanted to gain experience fighting someone who wasn't a Stellar Spear user for once, but that seems like a weak reason. Silver2195 fucked around with this message at 01:40 on May 6, 2017 |
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May 6, 2017 01:36
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Kaja Rainbow posted:Unrelated to the current topic of English original stories, I just recently read all there is to date of Trafford's Trading Club. It's not half bad. Basically, this guy ends up owning a creepy store where you can get anything you want for a price, and that price isn't money.
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May 6, 2017 02:21
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Rangpur posted:So, Needful Things. or xxxholic 
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May 6, 2017 02:23
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Well, yeah, it isn't a super original premise. Kinda a fun read, though, and a welcome change from the usual WN themes.
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May 6, 2017 02:43
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Everybody loves large chests is my current dirty pleasure. The prologue is great.
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May 6, 2017 10:10
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So what, is it a comedy?
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May 6, 2017 10:12
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A few chapters in and there's a necromancer that's into bestiality fiddling with herself. 
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May 6, 2017 10:20
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noooooope
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May 6, 2017 10:24
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Oh looks like she's permanently out of the picture.
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May 6, 2017 10:24
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It's pretty much I'm a spider so what except with occasional edgy bits like swearing, masturbation and genital destruction. Okay wait there are the guro and mind break tags. gently caress this poo poo. Synthbuttrange fucked around with this message at 11:19 on May 6, 2017 |
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May 6, 2017 11:03
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I did like the prologue! And from the sound of it, I think I'm going to stop reading there and pretend it was a clever bit of micro-fiction skewering the genre. Why yes, as a matter of fact I do think Usagi Drop is a heartwarming single dad story, why do you ask?
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May 6, 2017 11:50
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Silver2195 posted:I've finished the third Cradle book, Blackflame, which has recently come out. It's pretty good. Lindon doesn't kill someone three levels above him at the end of the book this time, although he does destroy the hand of someone two levels above him. Eithan seems to be on the overpowered side, but he does have a weakness (physical attacks). Yerin ruining cool technique names was amusing, and the way she and Lindon beat the Trials was clever while remaining in keeping with her I think he felt insulted that he had issues last time with her, so it was a pride thing: he had gone up a level since then, so he let her get a level to show he had improved more. Also the guy was never really pragmatic beforehand? He had pride in spare. And, yeah, the reveal of Eithan's path seemed amusing, and I am wondering if it is Makiel or Ozriel that contacted him
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May 6, 2017 13:37
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Synthbuttrange posted:It's pretty much I'm a spider so what except with occasional edgy bits like swearing, masturbation and genital destruction. This is my regular reminder that people itt don't actually have to read every light novel ever
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May 7, 2017 00:01
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I'm personally impressed that you got through "genital destruction" just fine and then got to "guro and mind break" and decided that, no, THAT sir is just too much.
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May 7, 2017 00:15
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blastron posted:I'm personally impressed that you got through "genital destruction" just fine and then got to "guro and mind break" and decided that, no, THAT sir is just too much. Stabbing people in the balls is comedy. It's mistagged. Since I read lovely things for fun, I dived right in. It's not as bad as I'd like, but the sexy times are positively cringe inducing, and the mindbreak tag is not wrong, with a straight dumb as poo poo "eat a succubus repeatedly until she breaks and becomes a masochist" thing. And I do mean eat, as in "chew on her until dead, savoring the flavor." NinjaDebugger fucked around with this message at 00:42 on May 7, 2017 |
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May 7, 2017 00:40
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I've read lovely things for fun and the amusement of the internet before, but even then I do quality control.
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May 7, 2017 00:49
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mods please rename thread to "Web Novel megathread: Since I read lovely things for fun,"
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May 7, 2017 01:44
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Namtab posted:I've read lovely things for fun and the amusement of the internet before, but even then I do quality control. Like I said, it's not bad enough to be entertainingly bad, let alone so bad it's good. It's a really boring mediocre bad.
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May 7, 2017 01:48
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Hah you're only at the stage where it's mediocre boring bad.  Save yourself. It's too late for meeeeee
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May 7, 2017 03:14
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I hate my life
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May 7, 2017 03:57
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Synthbuttrange posted:I hate my life
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May 7, 2017 09:52
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blastron posted:mods please rename thread to "Web Novel megathread: Since I
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May 7, 2017 10:07
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Oh hey thread been a while Kumoko picked up again or someth-Synthbuttrange posted:A few chapters in and there's a necromancer that's into bestiality fiddling with herself. Synthbuttrange posted:It's pretty much I'm a spider so what except with occasional edgy bits like swearing, masturbation and genital destruction. NinjaDebugger posted:Stabbing people in the balls is comedy. It's mistagged. 
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May 7, 2017 10:32
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Otto in Re:Zero is a cool dude.
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May 7, 2017 10:41
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Ytlaya posted:Otto in Re:Zero is a cool dude. Subaru: "Why did you help me!?" Otto: "Because I am your friend!" Subaru: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TiMpbC09aY
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May 7, 2017 17:13
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I hope Otto gets his own girl at some point from Subaru's harem/possible harem.
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May 7, 2017 21:24
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