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I just get held up by the prose every time. For example the first line of Rokka no Yuusha vol 2 is "Adlet had been running across the dry, craggy earth with rocks spread over it." Craggy already tells us what we need to know about the landscape. "Rocks spread over it" doesn't add anything. Maybe in Japanese it helps the flow of the sentence? Maybe they don't like being concise over there, or this was a compromise between words that couldn't be fully translated? I dunno, but it reads badly in English.
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Dec 23, 2017 06:07
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Prose issues come out easily in WNs and LNs. Partially because they’re amateurly written by people who don’t always plan things out ahead of time, partially because a lot of translators just run it through a lovely machine translator and clean it up a tiny amount, and partially because of some literary quirks that are overlooked or not such a big deal in Japanese but sound weird when brought over to English. If prose issues bother you so much it’d be best to look at translators more than authors. A decent translation can even clean up the authors bad prose. Try looking for LNs and stuff that have official translations. If money is involved, they’ll often put more focus into editing.
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Dec 23, 2017 06:28
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In this train of discussion, the translation comparison posted a few pages back was interesting to see
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Dec 23, 2017 07:26
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Anyone have any hot new pickups? I tried Overgeared recently, being highly ranked on novel updates, but it’s worse than bland.
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Dec 23, 2017 23:23
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jon joe posted:Anyone have any hot new pickups? I tried Overgeared recently, being highly ranked on novel updates, but it’s worse than bland. Two with relatively unique premises I read and enjoyed in Japanese recently, but whose translations still have a way to go: She Was Both Called God, as Well as Satan - Focuses on the last survivor of humanity in the far future when they possess virtually omnipotent superscience. She uses nanomachines to observe the outside world which turns into generic fantasyland. It's unique because it kind of looks at it as a history, focusing in on important characters and trends without getting too attached to any one character. IIRC the translation isn't very far, though. Unparalleled Path ~ Reincarnated as the AI for a Space Battleship ~ has the plot description in the title. Actually had some decent SF in one of these novels for once. I don't think the translation is up there yet, but there's a nice twist or two later on.
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Dec 23, 2017 23:47
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jon joe posted:Anyone have any hot new pickups? I tried Overgeared recently, being highly ranked on novel updates, but it’s worse than bland. Supposedly Overgeared doesn't pick up until around chapter 90 according to folks who read it in its native language. That's when he really starts having his own ambitions other than make money to pay off his debt.
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Dec 24, 2017 05:17
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don't believe that claim. chapter 90 or so is when the mc goes from an unlucky creep to a fabulously wealthy powergamer that all women desperately lust after because of his amazing game skills despite him not actually having any particular talent. he still uses his stupidly unbalanced class as a crutch 100% of the time.
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Dec 24, 2017 05:30
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jon joe posted:Anyone have any hot new pickups? I tried Overgeared recently, being highly ranked on novel updates, but it’s worse than bland. Bakanogami posted:Unparalleled Path ~ Reincarnated as the AI for a Space Battleship ~ has the plot description in the title. Actually had some decent SF in one of these novels for once. I don't think the translation is up there yet, but there's a nice twist or two later on. On the subject of space botes as characters... I read The Last Angel recently and was mildly impressed by its quiet insistence on being about people and feelings instead of degenerating into gun porn. I rate it pretty good, actually. Not a hot new pickup, exactly, but being old and complete is probably a point in its favour.
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Dec 24, 2017 16:16
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:don't believe that claim. chapter 90 or so is when the mc goes from an unlucky creep to a fabulously wealthy powergamer that all women desperately lust after because of his amazing game skills despite him not actually having any particular talent. he still uses his stupidly unbalanced class as a crutch 100% of the time. I actually read well past 90 and this 100% true
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Dec 25, 2017 00:46
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How is Realist Hero? The first translated volume is available legally so I will buy it if it's good but I read the opening sections they had and it only seemed okay. I was looking for something not super serious and possibly trashy to read and that seemed like a reasonable option.
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Jan 4, 2018 18:28
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I kept with Overgeared and I agree with most people's assessment but the most recent chapters were pretty funny. A bunch of guilds team up to attack the main character's city while they think it's defenseless but there are four extremely strong characters currently working as farmers that the guilds did not know about.
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Jan 7, 2018 15:04
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I am enjoying Release That Witch. It is a Chinese web novel, but the protagonist is not a sociopath and the plot doesn't revolve around a series of face contests. It is easy to forget it is a Chinese web novel, until the latest chapter (646), the hot pot chapter.
Deadly Ham Sandwich fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Jan 8, 2018 |
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Jan 8, 2018 18:09
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Yeah RTW keeps pleasantly surprising me. Although it was obvious ever since her power was revealed Roland was eventually going to chump Zero the results were way more interesting than I thought they would be.
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Jan 8, 2018 19:10
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it's very dry and slow-paced, but there's no objectionable content.
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Jan 8, 2018 19:15
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last time on invincible: our... hero? wait, that can't be right... briefly visited a town which was pretty much called Big Important City, where he found out that a local herb shop was dishonest! so naturally, he started waving around the most expensive poo poo he had while pretending to be weak and ignorant, so that when they finally tried to non-violently cheat him he had an excuse for murdering everyone in the building. then he did the same thing to a nearby appraiser which was a business associate of the herb shop. then he left the city, after killing about 100 complete strangers on a whim. he doesn't even need money, since he kills so many people and pilfers their mangled bodies.
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Jan 9, 2018 00:01
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Deadly Ham Sandwich posted:I am enjoying Release That Witch. It is a Chinese web novel, but the protagonist is not a sociopath and the plot doesn't revolve around a series of face contests. Yeah. The main reasons I enjoy about is that it's very feel good, psychologically comfortable read. On a tension scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being a hardcore thriller, this is like a 1.2. You might have noticed that the author deliberately minimizes any stress the reader might feel from any threats to the characters. Every time the author shows an active threat coming at them, the chapter is the villain going HAR HAR WE WILL STOMP THIS TWAT HOW TOUGH CAN HE BE, with the focus being on what an idiot the villain is, and then immediately getting effortlessly stomped in the next chapters, providing a lot of schadenfreude to the reader. It's good for my anxiety. quote:It is easy to forget it is a Chinese web novel, until the latest chapter (646), the hot pot chapter. I also enjoyed the chapter about chopsticks being the obviously superior eating utensil.
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Jan 9, 2018 01:01
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oh, and the invincible arc where the mc tried to seize territory for no reason by permanently magically enslaving everyone he met ended when he got bored and went home. he took over a single city and it will remain enslaved until the day he dies.
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Jan 9, 2018 01:47
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Why do you people keep reading these books?
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Jan 9, 2018 02:23
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Namtab posted:Why do you people keep reading these books? Self-loathing?
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Jan 9, 2018 02:35
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even the worst psychotic power fantasy is still better than master of the stars, which is incoherent drivel written stream of consciousness style by a drug addict. i read that too.
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Jan 9, 2018 04:35
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It's good sometimes.
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Jan 9, 2018 07:53
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Where are people reading Release That Witch? I dropped it a while back when there was translater drama. Volare only has chapters up to 325ish. Edit: never mind. I found the Qidian site. Kyoujin fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Jan 12, 2018 |
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Jan 12, 2018 02:05
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Autonomous Monster posted:On the subject of space botes as characters... I read The Last Angel recently and was mildly impressed by its quiet insistence on being about people and feelings instead of degenerating into gun porn. I rate it pretty good, actually. Seconded. Also, it has a sequel that drops new chapters on a similar release schedule.
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Jan 13, 2018 07:47
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Kyoujin posted:Where are people reading Release That Witch? I dropped it a while back when there was translater drama. Volare only has chapters up to 325ish. Qidian site is fine with an add blocker that stops the stupid gating of new releases by watching a video. They are still an awful company but what ever.
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Jan 13, 2018 20:11
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Fallorn posted:Qidian site is fine with an add blocker that stops the stupid gating of new releases by watching a video. They are still an awful company but what ever. I only read one novel there and I get more ~spirit stones~ there than I can spend on turning off the ads every day; I'm sitting on 315 of them as of right now. I haven't felt the need to do anything about the ads yet.
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Jan 13, 2018 20:18
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I have never created an account or logged in.
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Jan 13, 2018 21:09
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Or do that. I created an account because it, like, shows all the books you're reading on the main page and whether they've updated or not.
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Jan 13, 2018 22:12
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Yeah, main benefit of registering isn't ad free reading, but you can store all books you are reading into your "library" for quick access, it'll notify you when new chapters are out, and most importantly it'll remember which chapter you left off. They have the best designed website for reading. Too bad that the company is poo poo.
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Jan 13, 2018 22:31
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I want to read a VR or reincarnation story where the MC picks a big monstrous race like ogre or giant or whatever not for rapist fun times but because physics is a stone cold bitch and the mass and momentum of an appropriately sized weapon for one of them would be absurd. Also because the idea of a regular sized person blocking a gigantic anything with a shield is hilarious. The authors for the poo poo we read seem to like making the MC a special snowflake so make his special snowflakeyness be having the balls to pick being an ogre and just have them ragdoll everyone forever.
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Jan 13, 2018 22:45
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The story would mostly focus on him bumping his head in doorways, having trouble sitting down and drinking from little cups.
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Jan 13, 2018 22:53
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I've read one of those, except it was the opposite deal, where the protagonist foolishly chose to become a Fairy, and ended up super tiny, with everyone around her accidentally killing her over and over again, since her bones would snap like twigs at the merest touch. It was pretty amusing.
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Jan 13, 2018 23:54
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I wanna read a "trapped in the game" story only the game is Dominions and ALL LIFE EVERYWHERE IS EXTINGUISHED IN A TITANIC WAR BETWEEN MAD GODS.
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Jan 13, 2018 23:59
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Cynic Jester posted:I want to read a VR or reincarnation story where the MC picks a big monstrous race like ogre or giant or whatever not for rapist fun times but because physics is a stone cold bitch and the mass and momentum of an appropriately sized weapon for one of them would be absurd. Also because the idea of a regular sized person blocking a gigantic anything with a shield is hilarious. The authors for the poo poo we read seem to like making the MC a special snowflake so make his special snowflakeyness be having the balls to pick being an ogre and just have them ragdoll everyone forever. This would actually get boring pretty fast and just be a different iteration of the usual "MC is really strong and owns everyone" plot. Like, I'm not sure how to keep "MC is big and thus hits hard" interesting for multiple chapters. I've said this before, but I want one of these WNs to just play the "protagonist is reincarnated and needs to beat the demon king" aspect straight, instead of these endless zany twists on a genre that doesn't seem to exist. Just have a story where the protagonist gathers a party and goes on an adventure to beat the bad guys.
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Jan 14, 2018 00:07
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Cynic Jester posted:I want to read a VR or reincarnation story where the MC picks a big monstrous race like ogre or giant or whatever not for rapist fun times but because physics is a stone cold bitch and the mass and momentum of an appropriately sized weapon for one of them would be absurd. Also because the idea of a regular sized person blocking a gigantic anything with a shield is hilarious. The authors for the poo poo we read seem to like making the MC a special snowflake so make his special snowflakeyness be having the balls to pick being an ogre and just have them ragdoll everyone forever. Closest thing I can think of is "I hate being in pain, so I think I'll make a full defense build" (Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu). The protagonist eventually gets the ability to turn into a giant kaijuu monster and goes around stomping other players in pvp. I don't know if the translation's gotten to that point yet, though, it's been a while since I read it. Ytlaya posted:I've said this before, but I want one of these WNs to just play the "protagonist is reincarnated and needs to beat the demon king" aspect straight, instead of these endless zany twists on a genre that doesn't seem to exist. Just have a story where the protagonist gathers a party and goes on an adventure to beat the bad guys. I was trying to think if I've ever actually read a story where the demon king is actually a genuine villain that the protagonist needs to kill them as the main objective of the story. Every time, they're actually a good guy/forced to be evil by someone else/the protagonist is tricked by the gods or kingdom/just the leader of another country/actually another reincarnated japanese person/etc. I guess Death March kind of treats them seriously, for now at least? And the Demon King is at least treated as a threat/the final boss in Konosuba.
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Jan 14, 2018 00:52
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Ytlaya posted:I've said this before, but I want one of these WNs to just play the "protagonist is reincarnated and needs to beat the demon king" aspect straight, instead of these endless zany twists on a genre that doesn't seem to exist. Just have a story where the protagonist gathers a party and goes on an adventure to beat the bad guys. I think you're supposed to just play Dragon Quest for that.
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Jan 14, 2018 00:53
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in the different world magic is too far behind, the unintentionally hilarious ln where the author's type-moon fan fiction self-insert oc is part of a standard hero summoning, the demon king exists and is a villain. not the main villain or anything, but still, he's there. too bad the later volumes swerved so heavily into tedious harem crap.
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Jan 14, 2018 05:35
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darkgray posted:I think you're supposed to just play Dragon Quest for that. Yeah I always thought the original playing it straight hero summoned to defeat the demon lord stories were all the RPGs released for NES and SNES.
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Jan 14, 2018 08:58
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Ytlaya posted:This would actually get boring pretty fast and just be a different iteration of the usual "MC is really strong and owns everyone" plot. Like, I'm not sure how to keep "MC is big and thus hits hard" interesting for multiple chapters. As the posters above said, this would just be Dragon Quest with whatever isekai jokes the author threw in anyway. Without some weird (and usually dumb) gimmick, the story is too plain to be worth telling. If you're a good enough writer to make that kind of plot compelling, why not just write something more interesting in a similarly compelling way? I don't think the problem with most WN's being hella trash stems entirely from the premises used, you can't really expect much from novice writers and/or teenagers; their lacking skills show no matter the subject matter.
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Jan 15, 2018 00:25
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Silento posted:As the posters above said, this would just be Dragon Quest with whatever isekai jokes the author threw in anyway. Without some weird (and usually dumb) gimmick, the story is too plain to be worth telling. If you're a good enough writer to make that kind of plot compelling, why not just write something more interesting in a similarly compelling way? I don't think the problem with most WN's being hella trash stems entirely from the premises used, you can't really expect much from novice writers and/or teenagers; their lacking skills show no matter the subject matter. I agree too, that's the crutch right there. If you want a standard "protagonist gathers party and defeats evil lord" story then there are plenty of good, published authors who write exactly that.. except in the genres of High Fantasy and Scifi. A well-popularized example is Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Frodo gathers his fellowship of nine and defeats the dark lord Sauron. What's left over in the WN space is then the authors who don't have the talent or don't put in the effort of writing a compelling narrative and interesting characters, who self-publish online because they have no chance of getting their works on print. Ytlaya, you mention wanting a straight reincarnated protagonist, but the reincarnation aspect is itself a gimmick that authors, who are weak at world-building and creating sympathetic protagonists, use as a crutch so they can explain the world to the reader and establish instant rapport ("hey, I'm a regular guy from Earth too! this protagonist is like me"). In the case of MMO-like reincarnation, the author doesn't even need to world-build, they just say "This is an MMO-like, with levels and programmed rules. You know how this works, let's move on to our protagonist munchkinning like only protagonists can do." Same with Dragon Quest-based fantasy reincarnation, if you see a slime as the weakest monster, you already know everything about this world, heroes and demon kings included. What remains is only to see what "twist" the author puts on an already tired trope. Rarely there are actual good authors and works, and pretty much all of them are mentioned in this thread. In order to get more recs on English language works, you could go to the Book Barn subforum, which also has a web serial megathread.
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Jan 15, 2018 20:07
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it's not like terrible webnovels invented the concept of isekai. it's faded in and out of popularity for decades for books, movies and games. the only twist webnovels have on the formula is a vague dragon quest aesthetic.
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Jan 15, 2018 20:17
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