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good regression stories are ambitious and at least slightly weird. bad regression stories are obviously about the author writing about getting revenge on people they went to high school with. the rest tend to be so generic and unoriginal that it isn't worth forming an opinion about them.
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Aug 3, 2022 18:06
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:good regression stories are ambitious and at least slightly weird. bad regression stories are obviously about the author writing about getting revenge on people they went to high school with. the rest tend to be so generic and unoriginal that it isn't worth forming an opinion about them. The best regression stories are the stories where there is a thousands of years old cultivator and they go back to the time when they were in college and still hold a major grudge against the people who wronged them.
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Aug 3, 2022 18:09
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4.8 of bookworm is out and it's a doozy. Also, here's a 1 minute summary of the story up to midway through part 4. https://youtu.be/6WeN3iOY2Kg
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Aug 14, 2022 02:30
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I watched the first season of Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles last night. It's pretty good but it felt like it was blasting through plot at turbo speed. I just looked it up and yeah, five light novels worth of story in 12 half hour episodes. Does anyone have an opinion on the light novels? Looks like J-Novel Club is about to drop the 20th English volume.
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Aug 18, 2022 15:20
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If you've seen the anime, you probably know what you're getting with Seirei Gensouki. Rio is the coolest, strongest dude, who has lots of pretty girls attracted to him. It does actually stand out a bit even within the many works of the same premise, since Rio is actually pretty good-natured and respectful person, not a callous jerk who goes around murdering people willy-nilly. Even if that is a sadly low bar, a lot of series don't clear it. It's pretty generic, but if you want something like that, you could do a lot worse.
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Aug 19, 2022 05:42
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Only thing I remember about it was the demihuman girl asked him to put a slave collar on her and he was like “wtf? No? Of course not? Throw that piece of poo poo collar away” which cleared a huge isekai bar right there
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Aug 19, 2022 10:40
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I'm pretty much done with reading the LNs of That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime. I skimmed more than half of Vol 13 and there is nothing in the first third of Vol 14 that's holding my interest. Reflecting on it the series was charming right up until the already overpowered main character became a full on Demon Lord and then it went from "this is kinda stupid but I like these handful of characters" to "this is stupid and the author keeps adding more and more characters, each one more OP than the last". I was hoping that it would course correct after a couple of volumes but vol 14 spending an entire fifth of the book upgrading a handful of characters to demon lord status has really killed it for me.
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Sep 2, 2022 03:59
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8one6 posted:I'm pretty much done with reading the LNs of That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime. I skimmed more than half of Vol 13 and there is nothing in the first third of Vol 14 that's holding my interest. Yeah, I remember enjoying it up until the inevitable tournament arc, which just bored me into quitting.
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Sep 2, 2022 04:37
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if characters keep powering up, they need to actually do something interesting with that power. in slime, they usually power up again instead.
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Sep 2, 2022 07:02
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Reading Der Werewolf and the the main character brings up crop rotation to someone with failing crop yields and they already tried it. Kind of refreshing in an isekai.
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Sep 2, 2022 15:08
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8one6 posted:I'm pretty much done with reading the LNs of That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime. I skimmed more than half of Vol 13 and there is nothing in the first third of Vol 14 that's holding my interest. While there was already a certain event that started killing my interest in Slime, the way it handled the Clayman character was the final nail in the coffin. It spent multiple volumes building up this character as an antagonist working from the shadows, with no payoff. As soon as Rimuru meets him, he just uses his mary sue status to just instantly defeat him with no trouble. Also, the cast is really bloated when they barely bother to develop the existing characters aside from the most basic character traits.
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Sep 2, 2022 19:19
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I just finished Konosuba vol 17 and that was a pretty fun way to end the series.
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Sep 4, 2022 06:52
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Danmachi volume 17 is kind of a frustrating read. Freya uses a God power loophole to try and gaslight Bell, who can't really do anything to get out of the situation. Meanwhile Hestia and Hermes spend the entire page count to deus up their own competing loophole, leaving the plot unresolved until the next volume. In other news two English volumes of Bookworm came out in the last couple of months and I need to catch up on that. 8one6 fucked around with this message at 07:12 on Dec 26, 2022 |
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Dec 26, 2022 07:10
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Wrapped the English vol 21 and EX novels that came out in November for Re:Zero. Volume 21 finished the arc and therefore I assume would be the content of a potential season 3 and it was overall...fine. Greed was a bad villain but it was at least a decent comeuppance, but just about all of the others were pretty lackluster and didn't really end in any sort of satisfying manner. The whole arc was way too blatantly and conveniently structured to split characters apart with the villains and it was just really hard to have any investment in the conflict. The EX volume which was some Priscilla/Al backstory might be some of the most embarrassing LN writing I've seen and I struggle to see what it sought to accomplish for those characters that it could not have just taken care of in the main story with a paragraph or two. The EX novels in general have proven very unnecessary and I'm not sure why I bother to keep up with them other than I guess sometimes they take the place of one of the main novel volume releases so it's a feeling of "well I might as well grab it since it's been a long time".
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Dec 26, 2022 13:39
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Just finished Yokohama Station SF and it was an interesting read. A furure where an out of control replicating tech has caused a train station to take over all of Japan. It's basically a way less bleak Blame! It had more than its fair share of convenient coincidences to keep the plot moving but I liked the main character and it was an enjoyable read.
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Jan 23, 2023 05:35
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Edit: nevermind.
8one6 fucked around with this message at 08:15 on Mar 30, 2023 |
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Mar 30, 2023 08:03
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I've been reading a bunch of translated light novels recently, so I figured I would post a bit about them. Villainess Lv99: Reborn as the secret boss in a combination RPG/dating sim, Yumiela enjoys her medieval magic school life, even if her impossible strength and general oddness make it hard for her to connect with other people. Solid comedy volume. The writing isn’t particularly good and the plot is all over the place, but it fulfills the first rule of comedic fiction: it must be fun to live in the main character’s head. The main character marches to the beat of her own drum, and it’s entertaining to see her bounce off the supporting cast. Apothecary Diaries (vol 1-3): The young apothecary Maomao finds herself in the imperial harem, and despite her withdrawn nature and desire to keep her head down, she finds herself solving mystery after mystery there. Apothecary Diaries is a serial mystery series, where Maomao finds herself drawn into one question after another; each volume contains several loosely connected events. Anyway, this one’s really good. The setting is interesting; Maomao is fun; the male lead, who teases the private Maomao relentlessly but has his own childish side, is easy to like; and the supporting cast are well-realized, as you would want from a mystery series. The Secret Saint (vol 1-4): A young knight must hide that she is the reincarnation of the Great Saint, a beloved historical figure from 300 years ago. This is a comedic adventure series; the titular saint goes around poorly hiding her OP inherited powers. There are flashes of brilliance— a passage in the first book, in which she drunkenly disdains how saints are treated in the modern day, stands out— but in general the series is unfortunately mediocre. The supporting cast ranges from fine to boring but doesn’t really have any standout characters. ‘The volumes each have way too many side stories.
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Jun 14, 2023 23:55
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I just read a romance LN where the male lead is named Rockman
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Jul 1, 2023 02:09
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the current one i been constantly following and actually paying a few dollars a month for coins to unlock chapters is How to Survive in the Academy
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Jul 1, 2023 04:57
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GateOfD posted:the current one i been constantly following and actually paying a few dollars a month for coins to unlock chapters is How to Survive in the Academy this one is a pretty good execution of an entirely standard premise, reincarnated as a minor character in a magic high school videogame (plus accidental harem). felt like the author put a bit of effort into coming up with reasons for typical genre conventions to occur in the story without straining common sense.
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Jul 5, 2023 22:56
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As I crack open "The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life" volume 1 I say to myself "certainly this will be the Japanese fantasy story where the main character doesn't buy slaves"
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Jul 24, 2023 07:48
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No no he's a slave in name only she wants to be his Friend Master. Started reading the manga for that a while ago and really liked the art and the set up but the main character jumped right to slavery out of seemingly no where so fast I think I got whiplash.
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Jul 24, 2023 14:40
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The cover looks neat, I probably give it a look if I see it on the Barnes and Noble shelves. A bit behind on a bunch of LNs though.
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Jul 24, 2023 15:26
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Mariela is at least properly horrified by the slavery and only buys Sieg because she honestly wanted to help him, but lol at 1. how fast it got to slavery, of course it did, why expect otherwise and 2. how all the cute, quirky, and non-threatening guys are suddenly actually completely unrepentant slave traders who only hate it because the slaves smell and poop in the compartment. (They say "oh we transport only whatever we are paid to" but my dudes, you were negotiating a sale price with the slavemonger, not fulfilling a delivery contract) I'm halfway through and I like everything else so far, but there's an ominous line said to the slavemonger by Malraux about how she'll probably be doing business with him in the future. That had better mean she's selling potions to him (although maybe don't do business with a slave trader); if she starts collecting more slaves lol I'm out (please don't go there I like the Japanese take on alchemists in fiction)
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Jul 25, 2023 11:01
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I mean the general issue is that it doesn't matter what the supposed justification for owning slaves for the characters are, the author could have easily written a story without slavery instead.
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Jul 25, 2023 12:34
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Yeah and it's nuts to me how often it happens. Like certainly there are ways for characters to end up together.
BattleMaster fucked around with this message at 12:46 on Jul 25, 2023 |
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Jul 25, 2023 12:42
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How’s the alchemy though. Is it an isekai or a self set fantasy story. Is she an OP alchemist.
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Jul 25, 2023 14:38
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BattleMaster posted:Yeah and it's nuts to me how often it happens. Like certainly there are ways for characters to end up together. usually it’s either the protagonist saving someone and that’s why they join them, and the slavery is a formalization or concretization of that moral debt bond, or the alternative is the protagonist actually buys a sentient being for utility and the slavery creates an illusion of sociality or multi-character interaction where the reality is that you are still reading a story that is fundamentally a solo adventure where only the prerogatives of the protagonist can drive the story and everyone else may as well be a magic tool. or both in each case the function is i think indicative of a particular type of laziness: isekai is, more than anything else right now, purely wish fulfillment, but it’s also rather embarrassing in that capacity. when you write out a wish fulfillment fantasy, everyone gets to see your whole rear end. other people might see it and decide not to go down this road with you. anyway one of the things this compels you to do is to insist that whatever debauchery you’re about to have your character engage in, other people are worse, and for every harem you assemble the other world has a dozen bandit lords with an epstein temple in a cave. so don’t think too much about how gross my guy is
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Jul 25, 2023 18:20
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My favorite genre of wish fulfillment story is still the ones with plots like "grown-rear end adult who is literally like 40 goes back in time and owns his teenage bullies and attracts the girl he had a crush on." Sometimes it seems very transparent that the author is channeling their own personal feelings. Like the protagonist's rage at his bullies is a bit too real. Feels like reading someone's diary. I've seen this show up in Chinese stuff more than Japanese, but I'm honestly not sure which is sadder. On one hand, the time travel fantasy is almost endearingly pathetic in its scope, but on the other hand it doesn't contain the sheer nihilistic despair and loneliness necessary for the "I'd be fine with completely leaving my entire life and world behind" fantasy. In either case, it's still pretty depressing, at least for the ones where the protagonist starts out as a grown adult.
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Jul 26, 2023 01:26
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Picked the Alchemist one up since I saw it at the store and thinking of it. Also picked up Happy Marriage. Its so thin compared to Alchemist. Its less than 200 pages, while Alchemist is hulking at 350~ 
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Jul 26, 2023 01:32
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GateOfD posted:How’s the alchemy though. Is it an isekai or a self set fantasy story. Is she an OP alchemist. So it isn't an Isekai, it's a fantasy time travel story. The man character has a complication with the hibernation magic she uses to survive a terrible monster attack, and wakes up 200 years later to find her kingdom in ruins. Not a bad setup IMO, it has a lot of the narrative effects that being an Isekai would have like the character having to learn about the world, and her having some knowledge of the history and rules of it without having to explain it as something like having played the exact same video game it's based on or whatever. The alchemy is kind of novel too. Like a lot of Japanese stories I've seen it's a magical discipline that people need talent and training to cast the transmutation magic needed to make things, and things other than potions can be made for it. But the transmutation magic is gained by making a pact with a ley line and the powers only work in that locale, and things made with it fade when away from the ley line if they aren't properly preserved. So what's actually interesting is that the main character isn't actually a particularly good alchemist, but because of the locality of the alchemical power and because of the apocalypse that wiped everyone else in her kingdom out, she's overpowered by virtue of being the last alchemist and the only one who can make that stuff anymore, even if her knowledge and skills were pretty basic. So her being able to make basic healing potions is a real asset when the only other option is to find rare well-preserved 200 year old potions. Like aside from the slavery angle it's cute and fun so far so I just hope it doesn't revisit that and just does fun fantasy economics and slice of life stuff.
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Jul 26, 2023 03:10
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Excuse me, just gonna drop a link to the John Brown Isekai for no reason
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Jul 26, 2023 06:15
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so she has a unique and highly lucrative skill set. she doesn't have to work with slavers, but does anyway. that sure is a decision the author made.
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Jul 26, 2023 07:01
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I started reading the great cleric since it's on backlog at jnovel. Pretty typical power fantasy type pulp fiction. Then in volume 4 the author turns the slavery way up. It was part of the setting, bad guy clerics having slaves, but come volume 4 the hero's buying slaves, turning criminals into slaves, having slaves that want to stay slaves. I just want to read about a guy who's strong or clever or something. Why do you have to own a human being as property
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Jul 26, 2023 09:20
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It's been a while since I read it but the hard turn to slavery in Great Cleric seemed to be editor influenced to me. Because the author could have easily glossed over staffing the new clinics. New Overlord volume came out and in just the first chapter we are like eight parties deep into a giant misunderstanding because Ainz just wants to be a good skeleton step dad but can't admit it. Also one of the younger adult elves seems uncomfortably obsessed with Aura.
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Jul 26, 2023 15:27
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Guyver posted:It's been a while since I read it but the hard turn to slavery in Great Cleric seemed to be editor influenced to me. Because the author could have easily glossed over staffing the new clinics. the thing about light novels is most of them are just edits of web novels, by the time the first print volume of great cleric was published the web novel was into volume 13. web novels in general are pretty haphazardly written, authors churn out multiple chapters per week and frequently ignore or forget about past events and characterizations.
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Jul 26, 2023 20:39
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BattleMaster posted:So it isn't an Isekai, it's a fantasy time travel story. The man character has a complication with the hibernation magic she uses to survive a terrible monster attack, and wakes up 200 years later to find her kingdom in ruins. Not a bad setup IMO, it has a lot of the narrative effects that being an Isekai would have like the character having to learn about the world, and her having some knowledge of the history and rules of it without having to explain it as something like having played the exact same video game it's based on or whatever. started reading it. oh, I remember this story, though when I read the first parts, it was done by a fan translation. So it be nice to actually read it for real with a real comprehensible translation.
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Jul 27, 2023 15:27
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this allusion meant posted:anyway one of the things this compels you to do is to insist that whatever debauchery you’re about to have your character engage in, other people are worse, and for every harem you assemble the other world has a dozen bandit lords with an epstein temple in a cave. so don’t think too much about how gross my guy is You're right that it's a form of wish fulfillment but I don't think it's from directly being compared to the comically low bar of slavers (since the slavers usually don't get especially punished in these sort of stories). I think it's the fantasy of someone basically worshipping you for absolutely minimum effort of niceness (not torturing your slaves). Which is a romance thing that existed before the slavery fad, kinda.
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Jul 28, 2023 02:27
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Guyver posted:New Overlord volume came out and in just the first chapter we are like eight parties deep into a giant misunderstanding because Ainz just wants to be a good skeleton step dad but can't admit it. Also one of the younger adult elves seems uncomfortably obsessed with Aura. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed by this one. There was all this build up of the Elf King's daughter actually possibly being a credible threat and then Ainz didn't even end up being the one to fight her. I guess the author really wants to finish things up quickly. I'm really worried the last arc will be rushed because there are multiple plot threads that need to be wrapped up.
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Jul 29, 2023 02:38
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I'm more disappointed because the first half was boring. I think No Death had a shot at actually beating Ainz or the other guardians. She was just unlucky to fight Mare who is a tank with spells to counter her broken weapon. The two fights were basically mirrors. With the elf king being the child of a player I wonder if the hero in the rumored sequel series will be another King of Avarice descendent a new isekai player.The author did say in the afterword that the next two volumes are the last two. Was there anything to the sequel rumor or was that just made up? Stink Billyums posted:the thing about light novels is most of them are just edits of web novels, by the time the first print volume of great cleric was published the web novel was into volume 13. web novels in general are pretty haphazardly written, authors churn out multiple chapters per week and frequently ignore or forget about past events and characterizations.
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Jul 29, 2023 04:04
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