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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:if you like the magic + science parts of rtw, you might enjoy the english wn a hero's war. it spends a whole lot of time on experimenting with magic using the scientific method and using the results of those experiments on industrialization. however much like rtw, it is super goddamn dry at times. Yeah, I've read that one. I actually thought that RTW did the science stuff better than A Hero's War; in the latter, sometimes they'll go into detail, but a lot of stuff just seems to get invented really quickly--the guy invents a thriving university in 3 paragraphs!
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May 29, 2018 16:42
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Update: I tapped out of RTW for now at chapter 600 now that all he's doing is making bigger and better guns nonstop, so I tried reading Resume of a Reincarnated Girl but the translations I've read are even rougher than RTW; I do notice though that more than one group has tried translating it; do any of them do a good job? Because the one I read unironically uses the word "mage-samas" and the following chapters (possibly by a different translator?) were only marginally better.
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Jun 2, 2018 17:30
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Congratulations blastron on completing the milestone of translating arc 1 in full! (Now is probably a good time for non-regular readers to catch up.) I can't wait to see how that one guy in your comments section hates this chapter because of how unrealistically it portrays fantasy food culture
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Jun 11, 2018 09:53
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Sampatrick posted:Hey I recently asked about this in the other Web Novel, but what are some good web novels that have good translations? http://blastron01.tumblr.com/honzuki-contents
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Jul 9, 2018 05:49
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Getsuya posted:I’m burning out of Bookworm (I just finished part 3 book 2) and need another adorable-but-not-creepy series to read. It’s so hard sorting through all the loner harem wish fulfillment crap on Narou. We seem to be progressing through the series fairly closely to each other so if you burn out I won't have anyone to discuss with  (not that we ever did) but I guess it'll give me time to catch up with you.I'm just about to finish the part where Wilfried takes over Rosemaine's duties for a day and wow is this kid a piece of poo poo Also, it's a RED Panda! Totally different! Edit: I get what you mean though; prior to this I had to go through what felt like several chapters of her reporting to and being reported to by Ferdinand and Benno about so many different things Argue fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Oct 4, 2018 |
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Oct 4, 2018 05:15
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Getsuya posted:I loved Ferdi’s concert though. What was going in in that chapter? Is it the part following the minor attack on the new temple where it's all just Maine being lectured by Ferd and then crying about it to Benno? Because that's the part I just finished last week and it sure felt like forever.
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Oct 4, 2018 12:16
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Getsuya posted:Bookworm continues to be 90% progress reports and 10% juicy interesting dramatic plot. This is the problem with net fiction that also shows up in most fanfics; these are essentially stream of consciousness works with little to no editing for content. It’s hard even when writing a traditional novel where you already have the order of events pinned down not to be too wordy or include everything that pops into your head regardless of whether it adds to the story, so that is magnified quite a bit when you’re writing a story with no clear ending in mind and you’re just trying to pump out a chapter to upload every day. I can't even remember the last Maine chapter I read that wasn't just her sitting at a table talking to one of the grownups. I don't think I'm where you're at but I just spent an hour last night having darkgray help me understand what's going on in a chapter and I'm only half done with it! I think I have a love hate relationship with the excruciating detail with which the author describes everything; on one hand this is exactly the level of detail I want in a story like this, but on the other hand it is painful to get through when you read Japanese as slowly as I do. I'm at the chapter where they explain their multi-stage plan to spread rumors across the county in order to make people have a favorable opinion of her. I think some interesting stuff might be happening soon based on the illustrations though!
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Oct 30, 2018 06:04
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Bakanogami posted:I finally got around to reading Kusuriya no Hitorigoto and have really been enjoying it. It kind of gives me a Bookworm vibe with the smart and witty commoner female MC using her brains to solve the problems of higher ranked nobles and such. The whole pseudo-Chinese imperial court thing is a neat setting, too. It has a slow arc or two but overall is strong. lol I started reading the manga version based on this rec and I thought I was in for some medicine-making antics then suddenly it became a poison-centric detective manga, which owns. Unfortunately at my reading level I only have room for one raw novel at a time  I still have like 500 chapters of Honzuki to go before I can move on monsters have finally appeared and it only took 214 chapters
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Nov 21, 2018 07:10
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Can someone help me recall some minor plot details from Honzuki ~ch 217 or so; I'm not good enough at reading that I can just scan backwards to find the answer What is Maine's progress on the printing press at this point? The woodworking guy Ingo is asking her for improvements on the existing printing press, but last I recall, she had only just demonstrated the concept of movable type the last time she'd had a meeting. And also, wasn't it Johann's job to build it? In fact she tells him to coordinate with Johann. What are the wood guys for?
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Dec 11, 2018 14:30
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Bakanogami posted:Honzuki stuff But those methods use the same "press" part as in an actual printing press, a refurbished wine press thing to evenly distribute pressure across the whole page. That's a big wooden contraption and one of the main thing she needed woodworkers for. This must be it; the way it was phrased in the chapter made me think there was an existing movable type printing press and all that was left was to make gradual improvements, but it must be referring to the woodblock stuff she was doing earlier. Didn't help that one sentence in there threw me off because she was talking about "Gutenberg's printing press" and darkgray had to point out to me that it referred to actual Johannes Gutenberg's printing press, and not her organization called Gutenberg.
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Dec 11, 2018 18:37
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I can understand that frustration if the book takes place in earth history in a time when we know the thing has already been discovered, but expecting it to be true in a fantasy world seems to me to be some kind of earth-centric hindsight bias. Hourglasses seem obvious to make but after the Greeks (may have) used it, it didn't resurface until a few hundred years later in Western Europe. The Greeks even technically had steam power very early on in the first millennium but they only ever thought to use it as a toy. It's reasonable to me that a fantasy world may not have developed everything at the same rate or in the same order as us, especially when the world has magic functioning as substitutes for "obvious" inventions such as (Bookworm) magic being used to stabilize carriages instead of anyone inventing suspensions or upholstery, or say, in The Wandering Inn, when there's ample evidence to suggest that whoever created the world set up the LitRPG system to incentivize people to obsess over war instead of spending time developing entertainment to the extent that the earth people have introduced, or any number of other books where nobody thought to invent fertilizer because they'd been relying on ambient mana in the soil to nourish plants (I suspect Bookworm is going to be doing this too, but it hasn't yet). And if part of the entire premise is uplift fiction, then I'm certainly willing to cut them even more slack. This kind of reminds me of the short story "The Road Not Taken" where earth gets invaded by teleporting aliens but it turns out that the aliens have extremely primitive weapons, and their signature technology, teleportation, was actually an incredibly simple and overlooked scientific principle that was a head-slapping moment for all our scientists, after which teleportation became "obvious" to us. edit: see: that Ryan North video above Argue fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Jan 3, 2019 |
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Jan 3, 2019 14:41
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Are there any isekais about a warrior from a fantasy world who gets reincarnated as a high schooler in modern-day Japan, and then they discover that a popular MMO is a recreation of their home world, so they use their knowledge of their home to become a top player in the MMO
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Jan 4, 2019 11:47
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Delete the post saying you're dropping it then post a fake chapter 97 where Maine dies and the series ends
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Jan 7, 2019 05:28
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I translated Honzuki chapter 97 to see if I could, and I finished, but... this is not a task I can sustain at my current level, as I am currently able to type faster than I can actually understand it. It does need a second pass but should be readable. Ugh on trying to format a Tumblr post though. http://cmarguel.tumblr.com/post/182051814151/ascendance-of-a-bookworm-chapter-97 Argue fucked around with this message at 11:42 on Jan 16, 2019 |
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Jan 16, 2019 07:55
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blastron posted:I don’t have time to read it now, but if you think you’ll be able to legit take this on, let me know and I’ll drop a link to redirect readers to your page. Also, for formatting, I recommend using Markdown. It’s pretty easy. Yeah I definitely didn't have time to commit at my skill level, but it doesn't matter now because someone has picked it up! http://infinitenoveltranslations.net/ascendance-of-a-bookworm/chapter-91-100/chapter-97-preparations-for-the-star-festival/ Edit: I think the chapters I'm on have got to be the ones someone was complaining about many pages ago where it's nothing but people reporting to Maine. She just received letters from like 4 people each one requesting to talk to her, so I assume the next 8 chapters at least are all gonna be consultations, lol Argue fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Jan 28, 2019 |
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Jan 28, 2019 04:41
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Crossposting from isekai thread: YESSSSSSSSSSSS FINALLY http://yaraon-blog.com/archives/145924?fbclid=IwAR2hBcwKMroCE8P17Ot9plLiLwcTPBhiKq6dx0G21zGWt1PpcE8jURVTLDA
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Mar 6, 2019 15:00
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They could drop half the chapters of arc 1 and I still can't imagine a good stopping point to end a 12 episode run on. If they drop 3/4ths of the chapters maybe they could end it with Maine inventing paper? And that would still be only halfway through the first volume. But if Ferdinand is in there maybe they're adapting a later arc; a lot of isekais start with the MC as a noble so maybe they're gonna go straight to arc 3 or 4.
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Mar 7, 2019 15:18
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Wow, it's getting at least as far as halfway through arc 2. This has to be a 26 episode season, right? Animation looks... passable. Not top tier, but it's not the most action-packed of stories anyway so I don't think I'll mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfPyxG-ZbFM
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Mar 8, 2019 04:38
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It could end at the dream world bit we see at the end of the trailer which would feel appropriately season finale-ish. Agreed on the concerns but I'm hoping for the best.
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Mar 8, 2019 06:12
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Don't give me too many details but does Maine ever enact social change on top of her inventions? Because boy (Arc 3) I just read ch 232 and the nobles sure are cavalier with the lives of people. It's probably too much to hope for that she overturn the entire hierarchy but is she at least going to tell the nobles "hey maybe don't charge people for just 'disobeying nobility' and don't mass execute villages for treason and for god's sake don't execute people by turning them into stone"? Maybe I've been spoiled by novels where the main characters are less compromising with their morals but she just seems so acquiescent to everything.
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Apr 1, 2019 11:25
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Okay, that's satisfactory enough for me to keep reading; I just wouldn't have been comfortable if I knew she wasn't going to end up challenging the status quo at all, since the extent to which she's doing it currently is taking credit as the savior of the village for reducing their punishment from "slaughter the whole village" to "execute 6 people and raise taxes on everyone else".
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Apr 1, 2019 15:03
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Yeah, TWI is actually what I was referring to just a few posts up when I was expressing frustration with Maine being unable to change the status quo in her own novel. My main problem with the prose is an over-reliance on particular narrative techniques and idioms, which makes it sound amateurish sometimes, but that's small potatoes compared to the overall product, which I love. The characters are great, and for me I think it finds my ideal balance between slice of life antics and high fantasy adventure. I would recommend reading the Wordpress version on wanderinginn.com because sometimes the author plays with the web format a little to shake things up. For instance, we learn that one character's memory was wiped of some information, and if you go back to the chapter where that wipe happened, the information that was wiped is actually right there in spoilered text. I just checked the RR version and although it has some of the text color changes, it doesn't do that. Don't worry, the gimmick stuff is used very sparingly.
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Apr 2, 2019 03:23
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Is the kinda bad part the part I complained about before or is that yet to come? I am on chapter 242 where I've said this in the past but I like the obsessive detail Honzuki gets into but sometimes it gets really hard when you're only at an intermediate level in Japanese and you have to wade through chapters like "Measuring my bodyguard for her new clothes" and have to Google japanese fashion words, etc etc.
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Jun 9, 2019 08:16
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I came across some person who's translating a condensed version of Honzuki; skipping entire chapters. I don't think you can get a full picture of the story from it but a lot of highlight chapters have been translated, like the first big Trombe fight, and the dream world chapters, etc. The grammar is... passable; it's a cut above machine translation for sure but nowhere near blastron's quality. On the other hand, the choices for the nouns are... questionable, IMO. "Blue Templar" and "Blue Witch" for 青神官 and 青巫女, and loving "Sylphstar" for Sylvester. If any of you really need a fix, it's here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X7MJdmCc-ZzxrnIeR5r9oWsGhftgkSJ6sKqnUru1mRo/edit#gid=0 But you'd be skipping a lot of stuff that happens inbetween.
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Jun 9, 2019 15:32
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that's the best part of isekais But also her cooking tribulations involve her moaning that she doesn't have soy sauce and not having enough knowledge to recreate it herself so she just makes other dishes that just don't hold a candle to food with soy sauce
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Jun 9, 2019 15:53
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Oh my god it was only while watching today's Honzuki episode that I realized why Maine's dad is so irrationally jealous of Otto... "Otto-san, daisuki!" I'm not entirely sure that tracks at all given that they're not actually speaking Japanese in that world, but the anime definitely seemed to be playing up the homonym.
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Oct 9, 2019 18:28
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It's great. There are a few boring arcs, yeah, but the hits far outweigh the misses. I like a lot of the characters, and I'm fairly sure that each reader has characters they'll love or hate based on their tastes. I wouldn't say the story drops interesting plots; it's just that it's primarily a slice of life story, so the details of day-to-day living take precedence over the very slow burn major plot points.
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Oct 16, 2019 12:54
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I have the opposite opinion; the goblins are treated as more human than... other works that may just treat goblins as something to be exterminated. There is a lot of goblin tragedy, yeah, but I don't think it's handled badly at all. And as far as hard topics being explored badly, if anything, TWI has the most on point politics of any web serial... which I guess is a low bar, but I think it mostly works. It's definitely got that issue of chapters being largely whatever the author wanted to write that day, but I view that as a plus. It's not as though it's a stream of consciousness description of what the grass looked like that day; most of the words consist of things happening and dialogue, even if said things happening are just "check out this new flavor of ice cream I made"--which there is a lot of.
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Oct 16, 2019 17:00
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A whole bunch of people started translating it after blastron so you'll find translations that are all over the place in quality. Like, I found one that translated what was obviously meant to be "Sylvester" as "Sylphstar" and referred to priests and priestesses as Templars and Witches. I actually did find one that seemed to have decent English and is still going, but I can't pull up the link from my phone and I didn't read it thoroughly enough to be sure of the quality. I think it was hosted on a site that hosts a lot of translated Chinese web novels.
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Oct 28, 2019 06:29
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It's been coming out bimonthly since May, and I believe the November 10 volume will have caught up to blastron. It's so fast that I'm kind of demotivated to keep reading the raws now...
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Oct 28, 2019 10:46
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icantfindaname posted:What are the best web and light novels to read if you’ve never read one before? I know of some older stuff like Baccano but not much. Including LNs because I don’t see an LN thread in the first 3 pages of the forum I think this thread also covers LNs... although at this point, either of the isekai threads covers LNs too  This is basically the only one I ever talk about but Ascendance of a Bookworm is the first one I read and it kinda set my expectations for other WNs too high. After reading it I looked for other WN and LN stuff and that was the only time I began to appreciate just how much Bookworm avoided so many tropes that it turned out I really hate. I suppose your liking of it would largely depend on how much you can tolerate very slow burn plot development and general slice of lifeyness though.
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Oct 30, 2019 10:30
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Yay https://twitter.com/BOOKWALKER_GL/status/1201777094541201409?s=19 I'm just so happy that it's finally getting an audience in the English-speaking world...
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Dec 3, 2019 10:54
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I liked stuff from that at the start but it got too obsessed with weaponry. At one point he was recruiting witches with powers thought to be too useless, then made a big deal of telling everyone "no, even a witch with non-combat powers can be effective at fighting" and I thought he was gonna deliver some science lessons to explain how they could use their powers cleverly... but no, his answer was actually to just give them a gun.
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Jan 26, 2020 04:46
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I keep seeing people complain about how unrealistic it is that people didn't know about broth in Bookworm because when you're struggling to find food, you use everything at your disposal, but may I present to these people my mom, who just now in this citywide lockdown tossed out a bunch of duck stock, possibly even a liter of it based on how much duck fat she collected (and is also planning to throw out).
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Apr 3, 2020 16:04
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I think they're specifically looking for xianxia and/or revenge do-over ones? The one I read and posted about just now in the wholesome isekai thread is one of those, although I was kinda bored because of all the "second son/eleventyeth prince" poo poo that all of these seem to do. I don't know if this is where they're going with it but I suspect that the character they just introduced 90 chapters in might be such a friend, because while the main character is a do-overer, the new character that befriends her appears to be an actual isekai protagonist (which is funny, because everything to that point was fairly mundane and more about internal politics). She was only just introduced so I can't say for sure, but if we're going to see the time looper and the outworlder hang out, I'm hoping it will be the kind of friendship you're describing.
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Jun 11, 2020 16:05
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