|
LLSix posted:Do you have a link to Grimgar? Sounds interesting. Like Argas said, it's licensed; I've been reading the actual volumes (of which there was a lot translated; it was a really pleasant surprise, since I've been ignoring the series ever since it was licensed and the online translations stopped around the 4th volume, and then suddenly I notice that it's translated through like the 11th or 12th volume). I imagine the Kindle versions aren't that expensive. Your phrasing implies you may not have heard of the anime, though? There was an anime adaptation of the first volume a few years back (or was it the first two volumes? I think it only covered the first) that was pretty good and is probably a good way to check the series out.
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2019 06:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 09:23 |
|
|
I'm intrigued by Grimgar but between the anime and some spoilers it doesn't seem quite happy/upbeat? It's not misery porn or anything near but it's also a far cry from the more default isekai tone of hopeful adventure?
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2019 22:51
|
|
|
yeah, grimgar is pretty bleak, mostly because it eschews the power fantasy that is usually part of isekai stories.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2019 22:54
|
|
|
gimme the GOD drat candy posted:yeah, grimgar is pretty bleak, mostly because it eschews the power fantasy that is usually part of isekai stories. From what I've been reading so far, it seems to pick up a bit around volume 5 (in terms of the protagonist's party hitting a stride where they aren't getting routinely wrecked by groups of child-sized humanoid monsters). Simply by virtue of the fact that he's obviously going to stay alive, the protagonist ends up becoming competent, but other characters are explicitly far more talented than he is, including ones who started out at the same time he did. And I wouldn't necessary consider the overall tone bleak, even though depressing things happen. Like there's plenty of comedy moments and what have you, with the bleak periods only following specific depressing events. That being said, it's definitely the case that there might be some mutual exclusivity with regards to "people who enjoy typical isekai WNs are less likely to enjoy something like Grimgar," since the former are basically trying to accomplish something completely different than the latter (being a power fantasy/wish fulfillment vehicle, as opposed to a normal fantasy story). edit: A decent point of comparison for "bleakness" might be Rokka no Yuusha, another good fantasy series (though not technically isekai). I would say that Rokka overall has a much bleaker tone than Grimgar (though it's also really good and I'll never stop being depressed that it's probably never going to be finished). Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Feb 7, 2019 |
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2019 00:05
|
|
|
Yeah, I definitely enjoyed Rokka but there's this sort of glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel for them. Harder to say with Grimgar and I just don't feel like I want it to read it when it seems like it can dive into sadder things.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2019 00:27
|
|
|
The biggest problem with Grimgar is Ranta's continued existence. Unless later volumes fix that, of course.
|
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2019 03:45
|
|
|
The Sandman posted:The biggest problem with Grimgar is Ranta's continued existence. Pretty sure Ranta becomes way less of a dick later on, especially after the part the last few eps of the anime covered.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2019 11:26
|
|
|
Grimgar is one of the few anime I could be arsed enough to watch in the last few years and it’s pretty good! That first 6v1 fight against the goblin really hits home how much they suck, and not in a comical way. It’s certainly grim(har) but has enough light moments to not be oprressive. I thought about picking up the books but was unsure of their quality level but heard good things Also the archer girl picking her class because she heard it gets a wolf puppy later on is me
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2019 17:56
|
|
|
The Sandman posted:The biggest problem with Grimgar is Ranta's continued existence. As of late Volume 5 Ranta is still terrible, though everyone acknowledges it so it doesn't run into the "people accept that 'being a piece of poo poo' is just the way he is" problem. They basically tolerate his presence because he's actually fairly competent in combat (and fills an important role as a sort of melee DPS/off-tank) and also can help push them to be more ambitious (which is good since everyone else in their party is very risk-averse), but no one really forgives him (especially the girls). Zodiac-kun makes up for Ranta somewhat, at least. He speaks for the audience regarding Ranta. (I forget if he shows up in the anime at all; I want to say he doesn't show up until they start fighting kobolds in volume 2).
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2019 18:15
|
|
|
iirc the aftermath of the big Kobold king fight is where the anime ended
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2019 15:03
|
|
|
For any Cradle readers, Underlord was confirmed today for March 1 release, and put up for pre-order. The Amazon page has the following synopsis: A tournament approaches. All around the world, great clans and sects prepare their disciples to fight against one another in a competition of young Underlords. Even the Blackflame Empire is drawn in, but their youth are not strong enough to compete. Yet.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2019 00:26
|
|
|
Caught up with My House of Horrors. It's still going strong almost 300 chapters in, although I think the writer maybe set up too many baddies in the current plotline to keep the pacing as snappy as the earlier story arcs.Ytlaya posted:Like Argas said, it's licensed; I've been reading the actual volumes (of which there was a lot translated; it was a really pleasant surprise, since I've been ignoring the series ever since it was licensed and the online translations stopped around the 4th volume, and then suddenly I notice that it's translated through like the 11th or 12th volume). I imagine the Kindle versions aren't that expensive. I had not heard of the anime, thank you. Looks like its on Hulu so I'll give it a try.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2019 05:20
|
|
|
I know that I’ve been posting a lot lately about Cradle series, considering that it isn’t even technically a webnovel, so I promise this will be the last one out of me for a while. With Book 6 of the series, Underlord, currently on pre-order for March 1 release it is a great opportunity for people who don’t read the series to catch up. Apparently the author agrees with me, because he is offering the collection of the first 3 novels, Foundation, on sale for $2.99 for the next 5 days (usual price $9.99, separately purchased price $15). Jump in while it’s cheap! The idea of the series is that the author, Will Wight, has taken the core concepts of a xianxia world (martial arts based magic, meditating to advance your power, a power scale with incredible verticality) and made a believable world out of it. The magic system is very well defined, like he took a xianxia power system and made it almost Sandersonian. The writing isn’t exactly Faulkner, but it is miles ahead of most serialized trash, especially most serialized trash that also needs to get translated. The series avoids a lot of the tropes which bring down xianxia stories - the protagonist isn’t a super genius, the female characters are great and not mindless slaves of the hero, the advancement (for the most part) feels earned. Thanks to the series being written in novels instead of chapters, you don’t get the same word/chapter bloat that you get in typical xianxia stories. Give it a shot! Silynt fucked around with this message at 17:13 on Feb 11, 2019 |
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2019 17:09
|
|
|
The rest of it sounds quite interesting, but-Silynt posted:The series avoids a lot of the tropes which bring down xianxia stories - the protagonist isn’t a super genius, the female characters are great and not mindless slaves of the hero, the advancement (for the most part) feels earned. This is why most people read them, tbh. They're a low-anxiety read to destress with. It's kind of complaining about how romance novels are guaranteed to end in a happily ever after.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2019 17:21
|
|
|
Megazver posted:The rest of it sounds quite interesting, but-
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2019 17:43
|
|
|
Well, xianxia is probably more or less aimed at men, so it sort of goes without saying that it's popcorn reading for men. There are other genres of Chinese fiction that are aimed at women that have a whole different slew of problematic tropes.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2019 18:02
|
|
|
Basically, the defining element of Cradle is in the nature of the gift that the protagonist was given by a supremely powerful being in the opening chapters. He didn't get some special skill or ability that lets him cruise to godhood, but a terrifying vision of his future and some basic tips on where he needs to go and how much strength he needs to hire (or obtain) to avoid it. As a result, he can punch above his weight because he always, always goes for the high-risk, high-reward option - his own personal safety and the enemies he makes along the way are largely irrelevant if everyone in his hometown will die hideously in thirty years' time (or less). It results in a particularly tense, ground-level take on the xianxia formula where gods and demigods wave their continent-levelling dicks at each other while our protagonist spends most of his time skulking around frantically hoovering up power-ups and trying not to attract the attention of anyone too unpleasant... only to discover that he's attracted the attention of everyone unpleasant and needs to fight like a cornered rat to make it out alive with most of his limbs intact. It also presents a fun contrast with the female lead, who's the other kind of martial arts protagonist, a gifted prodigy formerly apprenticed to one of the baddest dudes on the continent who gains power through a regular cycle of brutal training and (relatively) honourable combat against challenging rivals.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2019 18:18
|
|
|
Elephant Parade posted:Not that I think you meant to imply the opposite, but "female characters are mindless slaves of the hero" is a problematic trope in a way "the main couple gets together" isn't. Because of that trope, xianxia novels are unlikely to work as "low-anxiety" or "de-stressing" reads for women—though I'm a dude, so this is only an assumption on my part. I must admit my eyes glanced over the middle item and I was just responding to the first and last. But yeah, what sunken fleet says.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2019 19:52
|
|
|
Ytlaya posted:Like Argas said, it's licensed; I've been reading the actual volumes (of which there was a lot translated; it was a really pleasant surprise, since I've been ignoring the series ever since it was licensed and the online translations stopped around the 4th volume, and then suddenly I notice that it's translated through like the 11th or 12th volume). I imagine the Kindle versions aren't that expensive. Watched the first 5 episodes of the anime on Hulu this weekend. Both my wife and I are enjoying it. I have to agree with everyone else that Ranta is objectively a bad person. To be fair, the anime makes this super obvious with Ranta spending a lot of his time talking about how bad he is. My wife made an interesting point that the anime seems to be more focused on the interpersonal relationships than the fighting or world building. Even the art style for the characters is different from that of the backgrounds. Is that true of the manga as well?
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2019 20:00
|
|
|
Megazver posted:The rest of it sounds quite interesting, but- I feel like there's a line where something goes from "pulp entertainment that may be low brow but is executed well enough" to "someone enjoying this reflects very poorly on their taste." Even if you ignore the actively problematic stuff, I just can't put myself in the headspace of someone who gets any sort of enjoyment from a series where the protagonist is just loved by everyone and is super powerful with no real challenges. It's like reading the log of someone playing a video game with cheat codes (sometimes literally in the case of these WNs, lol). It's kinda like the difference between enjoying a fluffy romance with interesting/good characters and enjoying a romance where the love interest is just a stereotype who exists for the sake of the protagonist's happiness. The fact that someone derives enjoyment from the latter in the first place kinda says something about them. It's not like having shallow characters and bad plots is necessary for a story to be "low stress." Silynt posted:I know that I’ve been posting a lot lately about Cradle series, considering that it isn’t even technically a webnovel, so I promise this will be the last one out of me for a while. With Book 6 of the series, Underlord, currently on pre-order for March 1 release it is a great opportunity for people who don’t read the series to catch up. Apparently the author agrees with me, because he is offering the collection of the first 3 novels, Foundation, on sale for $2.99 for the next 5 days (usual price $9.99, separately purchased price $15). Jump in while it’s cheap! I like that you keep mentioning it, because I've been meaning to read that series for a while and keep forgetting. LLSix posted:Watched the first 5 episodes of the anime on Hulu this weekend. Both my wife and I are enjoying it. I have to agree with everyone else that Ranta is objectively a bad person. To be fair, the anime makes this super obvious with Ranta spending a lot of his time talking about how bad he is. My wife made an interesting point that the anime seems to be more focused on the interpersonal relationships than the fighting or world building. Even the art style for the characters is different from that of the backgrounds. Is that true of the manga as well? Yeah, they're pretty clear about Ranta being awful and them barely tolerating his behavior. I hope that it actually explores later what the gently caress is wrong with that guy, since he clearly has some issues. It mostly focuses on the characters and on how the protagonist psychologically deals with things as a genuinely average person without amazing talents. In the light novels it spends a lot of time inside Haruhiro's head (arguably too much). The things he worries about are pretty "realistic" given the circumstances. Since it's based off a light novel series, not a manga, so there's not really any art other than the several illustrations in each volume. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Feb 11, 2019 |
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2019 21:52
|
|
|
I've been reading Forge of Destiny and its not bad, but it assumes you're already familiar with cultivation tropes. I've never read any cultivation stories, so I'm not, and while I can kind of follow along I feel like I'm missing something. Any suggestions for an entry-level cultivation web novel?Silynt posted:I know that I’ve been posting a lot lately about Cradle series, considering that it isn’t even technically a webnovel, so I promise this will be the last one out of me for a while. With Book 6 of the series, Underlord, currently on pre-order for March 1 release it is a great opportunity for people who don’t read the series to catch up. Apparently the author agrees with me, because he is offering the collection of the first 3 novels, Foundation, on sale for $2.99 for the next 5 days (usual price $9.99, separately purchased price $15). Jump in while it’s cheap! I read the free sample and it is really good! $3 for 3 books is also a pretty good deal. Picked it up and looking forward to reading them later.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2019 23:06
|
|
|
What's your tolerance for poo poo fiction? Most of the popular translated cultivator novels are real bad. Coiling Dragon is probably a decent gateway. It's not good, but it's not awful and it is completed.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2019 23:32
|
|
|
A Will Eternal is probably the most entertaining translated cultivation novel. Desolate Era is the one I think of as the platonic ideal of the genre. Coiling Dragon is by the same author as DE and nearly the same story except it's flavored as western fantasy, which is interesting but means it changes a lot of the usual terminology so it's probably not what you want.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2019 23:38
|
|
|
I haven't really read any that I'd consider a good primer. The Cradle series will definitely do a good job introducing you but it uses almost none of the same terminology. No dantians or meridians here. IMO this is good because Will Wight uses more descriptive language that doesn't assume you know what that poo poo is. I got my foot in with My Disciple Died Yet Again. The translator for MDDYA also goes for what I feel is a better translation of some terms. It's not a good primer and it's basically a parody of the whole genre. But even without knowing the stuff, it's relatively easy to catch on because Cultivation stuff is basically a genre that draws from a lot of genre staples that you've seen all over the place in other shows, just drawing it together under one roof and layering it with Daoist terms. The way sect members compete internally is basically like Harry Potter/typical fictional boarding school stuff dialed way up. There's still a veneer of politeness but the real rules for a lot of Cultivation stories is that strength is all that matters. After that I got into I Shall Seal The Heavens. AFAIK it's the sort of stereotypical Cultivation story, just with a lot more shenanigans because the protagonist is shameless and greedy. It won't really introduce the things to you but it helped me appreciate My Disciple a lot more after seeing how a more typical Cultivation story played out. A Will Eternal is written by the same author and leans far, far more heavily on the shenanigans part and is more enjoyable for it. I think Cultivation Chat Group is easier to get into than ISSTH and AWE because it's far more casual about Cultivation and likes poking fun at itself. One of the protagonist's friends is a webnovel writer who writes cultivation stories, for instance. The protagonist also never really joins a sect or anything and avoids those aspect of it. It's sort of slice-of-life but rather than hanging around school he's hanging out with other cultivators and getting into shenanigans that benefit him but are also often at his expense. I think it'll be easier if you could give us examples of what you feel you're missing.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2019 00:04
|
|
|
i eat tomatoes wrote desolate era, coiling dragon and a shitload of other webnovels. dude's prolific as hell. his works lack the offensive garbage the genre is saturated with, but as a tradeoff they are okay at best. well, except shattered star, his post-apocalyptic and eventually interstellar sci-fi webnovel (that is honestly still just cultivation after a bit of find/replace). that one's very racist.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2019 00:05
|
|
|
I dunno, I'd suggest Library of Heaven's Path and A Will Eternal, and maybe check the glossary every once in a while when you start out.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2019 01:01
|
|
|
Megazver posted:I dunno, I'd suggest Library of Heaven's Path and A Will Eternal, and maybe check the glossary every once in a while when you start out. library's a good conventional one to start out with that doesn't have the horrible parts of many others, and you can drop it when you get bored with the repetitiveness of the humor (or you can keep going like me, a dummy). the original translator used pinyin for the cultivation realms in the beginning which makes it a bit tougher when you're not used to Chinese stuff but other than that it's very readable
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2019 01:54
|
|
|
Library of Heaven's Path was the first cultivation novel I read, if you read it you'll quickly be familiarized with a lot of the typical tropes and I think it's pretty funny (if repetitive eventually). It's harder to read now that qidian underground is dead though
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2019 03:11
|
|
|
AWE does have its problematic parts though. In particular, I remember the...two times? Where Bai Xiaochun uses his concocted pills to get his foes raped by beasts. The way it's written but not described makes me think the author thinks of it in a "oh something bad happened to those people, ha ha" way.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2019 03:18
|
|
|
A Will Eternal also apparently has a super rushed ending, because the author wrote the amount of chapters required in his contract, and wasn't interested in renewing it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2019 03:26
|
|
|
Can't be more rushed than the end of Coiling Dragon. And then the MC punched the universe so hard that it broke, and lo! from all his limbs Celestial Glory dawn'd, he was a god.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2019 06:31
|
|
|
Tobermory posted:Can't be more rushed than the end of Coiling Dragon. And then the MC punched the universe so hard that it broke, and lo! from all his limbs Celestial Glory dawn'd, he was a god. I thought Coiling Dragon was decent right up till that point and then felt let down by the series. Desolate Era had a much better ending that had proper closure.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2019 07:17
|
|
|
I just checked and LoHP is ~5.5 War and Peaces long at the moment. And I still enjoy it, somehow. It's goofy faceslapstick fun. EDIT: Because I am weird and thought this would be fun: War and Peace: 587,287 words A la recherche du temps perdu: 1,267,069 words Romance of the Three Kingdoms: ~800,000 words Library of Heaven's Path 1-1329: ~3,249,281 words Coiling Dragon: ~1,887,212 words Warlock of the Magus World: ~2,069,766 words I Shall Seal the Heavens: ~3,390,645 words Release That Witch 1-1327: ~1,850,109 words Cultivation Chat Group 1-749: ~1,528,944 words Reincarnation of the Strongest Sword God 1-1206: 1,874,734 words - I'd feel worse about reading this if I didn't skip 4/5s of it Sorry if this made anyone stare in the face of their own mortality or whatever. Megazver fucked around with this message at 12:34 on Feb 13, 2019 |
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2019 10:38
|
|
|
QU just left reddit, its still around. https://toc.qidianunderground.org/
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2019 15:18
|
|
|
oh sweet, thanks for that link
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2019 15:42
|
|
|
LLSix posted:I've been reading Forge of Destiny and its not bad, but it assumes you're already familiar with cultivation tropes. I've never read any cultivation stories, so I'm not, and while I can kind of follow along I feel like I'm missing something. Any suggestions for an entry-level cultivation web novel? There isn't really a whole lot you need to know; the series mostly sidelines the pill and meridian stuff (at least for normal readers; those decisions are kinda made in the "background" later on if you're just using reader mode), and all you need to know otherwise about cultivation is that it's a linear system where there's a physical and spiritual component and levels of both. Being higher level makes you stronger in various ways. Forge of Destiny is mostly good for its characters (and fight scenes, in my opinion), but I could completely see someone not getting into it because of the lack of a clear plot and conventional plot structure (though if that's the case it's unlikely you'll be able to enjoy most other web novels either, since many do this sort of "following the protagonist's growth" thing, rather than having some clear adventure or journey).
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2019 19:19
|
|
|
atelier morgan posted:QU just left reddit, its still around. thanks, i've been using boxnovel in the interim, but that site steals translations indiscriminately, many of them from sites that don't have paywalls to begin with. i prefer stealing from noted rear end in a top hat company qidian alone.
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2019 19:26
|
|
|
I finally picked up those Cradle books and am 38% through Unsouled according to my Kindle. loling at Lindon beating up a bunch of literal children. The setting is pretty cool and I'm curious to see how "higher level" fight scenes are written.
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2019 06:41
|
|
|
Ytlaya posted:I finally picked up those Cradle books and am 38% through Unsouled according to my Kindle. loling at Lindon beating up a bunch of literal children. He's really proud about it too. I like the implication that Lindon got beaten up by children 7 years before that. And probably again 7 years before that. He's tested his soul 17 times, at once every half year; so there should have been 2 festivals before this. I really wish the Suriel stuff would just go away. Earlier than that: I thought his family trying to take away the spirit fruit was exceptionally rotten.
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2019 15:33
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 09:23 |
|
|
Compared to most Xianxia families his is super kind and supportive.
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2019 16:41
|
|
