What (light/web novel) are you reading?

[chronodekar]

What light/web novel are you reading? A discussion thread on our non-fanfiction reading.

I just spent the last 4 days on a semi-binge reading of "The Rising of the Shield Hero". Baka-tsuki originally had translations, but the first 2 volumes got pulled due to an official english release. .. I think. Anyway, my source is this very helpful link - http://swordandgame.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-rising-of-shield-hero-volume-1.html

The story is about a random guy (Iwatani Naofumi) who gets pulled into a magical world after reading a book. The story doesn't even hide the fact that this is a blatant rip-off from 'Curious Play' where the heroine was sucked into a book. And that's where the similarities end. Naofumi has been given the role of 'Hero of the Shield' or Shield-Hero, as I like to think of him and needs to 'save the world' with 3 other heros holding different weapons - sword, spear and bow.

The fun part of the story begins around chapter 3 or 4. Naofumi gets back-stabbed and labelled as a criminal. Then we come to the story of how he slowly rises in the world, despite all the prejudice about him. I'm currently at chapter 198, the point where .. well, lets ignore spoilers for now, but darn, I need sleep.

Anyway, as interesting as the story is, the lack of ... romantic commitments from the Hero's side is starting to annoy me. Sure, he has a good reason and all ... but I kindof wish I was reading something else. No, I'm not looking for a Rom-Com, but rather a nice fantasy story like this one, but where the hero is hitched. There was that one other story where an otaku gets reborn as a baby, but beyond a point, the cast felt too two-dimensional for me.

Anyone got any good reading suggestions?

-chronodekar

 

[Watashiwa]

I really, really don't like Shield Hero. The start is very promising, but after the wave or whatever it's called the whole thing just loses its charm. Part of the problem is that it's set up to be a guy fighting both his depressive tendencies and an unjust society, but it turns out that the society is rotten to the core and the good parts of it are all on his side after all. It could have still worked if it had been headed in that direction from the start, but it wasn't.

Here's something that I do like, The Zashiki Warashi of the Intellectual Village. The idea is that in order to sell super luxury branded products, Japan implements a system of intellectual villages, basically super high-tech towns that emulate the look of rustic Japan. Not only are the resulting products organic, but they're made with the highest quality ingredients by master craftsmen. As a side effect of the return to all-natural environments, youkai start coming back and living alongside people. While this is really cool, it's also quite dangerous. Like in the myths there are RULES about how you can interact with Youkai, and if you break those rules you're going to get hurt. Not because the youkai hate you, but because it's in their nature to behave the way they do.

What do you think happens when clever, unscrupulous people start thinking about those highly dangerous monsters who never quite understand how humans work?* They start making "packages", or setting up circumstances where a youkai's particular power can be invoked or directed against chosen targets. The packages are horribly deadly, especially since youkai powers don't have to follow scientific law or common sense. Learn your youkai lore or pay the price.

There are four protagonists, a high schooler who is adored by youkai, his older police detective cousin who is hated by youkai, a deadly supernatural assassin, and her younger sister who is very much in love with the police detective (to his eternal horror). And there's the Yashiki Warashi, who does not embody the usual stereotypes of her species, and is hiding more secrets than any two of the main characters combined.

The translation and editing are hardly top of the line, but I think it's gotten better over the last two years, and the stories are usually interesting if overwrought. I'm liking the slowly building metaplot that started in the third book.

*(most of them die.)

 

[BlackSun]

Currently reading:
Magi Craft Meister
Risou no Himo Seikatsu guy in his twenties is summoned to become a queens husband due to being related to a prince who eloped to Earth 150 years ago. It´s very slow.
Only Sense Online : no one is summoned to another world, no death games, just a push over guy having adventures as a crafter/support on the first VRMMO.
Push over because firends and family get him to do almost everything they want, including staying in a female avatar.

I´ll add more tomorrow, if I don´t forget.

Edit: better formatting, more links
Mushoku Tensei : 34 yo NEET otaku is chased out of home by his family and dies trying to save some teenagers from an uncoming truck. Wakes up reincarnated in a fantasy-like world with more magic power anyone should have. I like this one better than Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (Rise of the Shield Hero). It´s completely translated too.

Gun-Ota ga Mahou Sekai ni Tensei shitara, Gendai Heiki de Guntai Harem wo Tsukucchaimashita!?: Another reincarnated otaku, this time a miltary otaku who actually had a job. This one had the disapointment of not having talent for magic though. Worth trying at least the first few chapters to see if you like him and the setting.

Sendai Yuusha wa Inkyou Shitai: back in middle school, Yashiro Yuu was summoned to become a hero. He defeated the Demon King and went home. Three years later, he is accidentally summoned again to the same world, along with four other people who are supposed to defeat the Demon King again. He doesn´t agree with coming out of retirement.

I´ll see if I remember some more worth recommendign.

 

[H-Man]

Magi's Grandson

A Japanese guy dies and wakes up as a baby in a different world, raised by a "Magi". He's taught many things that helps him survive as he grows for the next few years, except for the most crucial of them all...

...common sense.

Now he must learn how to have the common sense of a different world from his own.

 

[the DragonBard]

I'm following a few.

High School DxD. A tale of a relatively good hearted pervert whose dream is to become Harem King, who gets killed on his first date... by the girl he's with. He wakes up the next day perfectly fine, with no one else having any memory of his date. He soon finds he has been resurrected as a devil, and wields a powerful magic weapon bonded to his soul.

Campione: Former high school baseball player (who was capable of playing on the national level) is transformed into a supernatural powerhouse after killing a god. Now, the target of fear and hatred by the supernatural world, he must try and find his way through this new world. And all he wants is a normal life.

 

[AJ_Katon]

Monogatari Series: Various supernatural stories involving different girls and a vampire boy.

Worm: Superheroes and escalation.

Oregairu: Very cynical boy meets somewhat perfect girl, yahello girl, and waifu teacher and solve problems.

Hatakarou Maou-sama: Demon king works at Mcdonalds.

 

[H-Man]

Hataraku.

 

[chronodekar]

Hataraku.

What's this one about?

-chronodekar

 

[Watashiwa]

Hataraku.

What's this one about?

-chronodekar

It had an anime a little while ago. Basically a demon lord loses to the hero in a fantasy world, and he and his right hand demon come to Tokyo to escape. They find work and rent a cheap apartment while they try and figure out how to regain their magic power on a magic-less world, and deal with the hero who followed them. And then MORE people from fantasyland start showing up.

The title translates to "The Hardworking Demon King", the official English name is "The Devil is a Part-Timer". Both reference the fact that the demon king in question works part-time at a McDonalds.

 

[H-Man]

I mostly corrected the fact that it was written wrong last post.

 

[daniel_gudman]

Death March in Another World
Suzuki, a programmer that's working overtime after getting pulled from the RTS game to the MMO game because the other guy quit, wakes up in the MMO game. But he's got the complete-battefield-clear "Meteor Shower" command from debugging the strategy game; by chapter two, he's the Lord of OPness as a level 310 character. From a setting that goes to such lengths to have an unfair protagonist, the first real fight was interesting because the main character was emotionally unprepared for a real battle.

How can I put it? I feel like all the weaknesses are because of things the author did to make it more popular. In other ways, it also kind of feels like the author saw Rising of the Shield Hero and thought to himself, 'I could write something better', and then put his money where his mouth was.

Updates pretty much every day.



Regarding Reincarnated to a Slime
A 37-year-old dude reincarnates as a Slime in another world, and basically, immediately becomes the most specialist slime there ever was. Well, this one is interesting because the story is more about establishing a country as it is about an individual.

Well, it still suffers from "Light Novel Protagonists have to be Ultra Special", that kind of condition.


Also updating daily (for now).



Gifting the Wonderful World with Blessings
The protagonist is sent to another world to defeat the Demon King. Unfortunately, the party he ends up recruiting is a total disaster full of troublesome people. This one plays the "Light Novel Protagonists have to be Ultra Special" for comedy; it's pretty funny, I think.

These are the same people working on Overlord, which is quite popular right now, so unfortunately this project is on the back-burner.



Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion
People from "This World" are summoned to another world, or rather, they appear in a certain tower without any known reason. The amnesia is a little too convenient, but the way that the main characters feel like normal high school kids struggling to deal with it; that's kind of interesting.

 

[Watashiwa]

FYI, the original version of Gifting the Wonderful World with Blessings apparently gets really dark in the last few chapters, with basically everything conspiring to ruin the main character's faith in humanity/the world. Still managed to have a happy ending, just not a typical one; also the light novels are following their own path.

Even so, Blessings is still about sticking a fork in as many light novel/webnovel tropes as possible while playing them absolutely straight. It's a cringe comedy.

Grimgal is awesome, a gritty take on the trapped in another world plot without being gratuitous. Shit goes bad, nothing comes easy (or free) for the main cast, the ambitionless main character is intensely jealous of his more successful peer, and he has an irreconcilable personality conflict with his party's designated moron. It's all fresh air.

Enough commenting about other people's recommendations, here's a new one. Madan no Ou to Vanadis is the best Western-style fantasy to come out of Japan in years. Oh sure, it's got all the trappings of the current trends--maids! cheesecake armor! harem!--but the content is all about battlefield tactics and fantasy politics. There's also a surprisingly interesting myth arc developing around the neighboring countries seven valkyries, seven rival demons, and the main character's weapon. Which is a bow. In fact, the entire series is named for it; the English title would be "The King of the Magic Bullet".

 

[seitora]

Beware of Chicken, a western-written novel with a Chinese xianxia setting that lightly makes fun of some of the xianxia tropes, with the main character fucking off from his sect to go build a farm

 

[Kenko]

Beware of Chicken, a western-written novel with a Chinese xianxia setting that lightly makes fun of some of the xianxia tropes, with the main character fucking off from his sect to go build a farm

It's an unusual read. And amusing.

 

[MastaofBitches]

The Loner Who Conquers The Other World the Web Novel version of Lonely Attack on a Different World

The writing can be a bit incomprehensible at times, due to Haruka being most definitely insane, but it's certainly enjoyable.

 

[seitora]

Caught up all at once on the last three months worth of Beware of Chicken, up to this chapter. Quite some big developments in the last few chapters that will probably open up the world some more.

 

[PCHeintz72]

finished reading light novel Realist Hero 13

 

[seitora]

Up to Chapter 14 of Enduring Good: [The Rationalist's Guide to Cultivation and Cosmic Abominations from Beyond the Stars] . It's reasonably constructed and coherent, but meh. I'm just not really feeling it as a story at all, so I'll probably skip out on it if I don't see it improve in a few more chapters.

 

[chronodekar]

I binged the first 3 volumes of,

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I'm Not the Demon Lord

in the weekend. Before I get into the LN itself, my motivation for reading it was for fanfic ideas - i.e. to read something, find a plot-point that would grate me and write up a story or oneshot. In that sense, Villainess Level 99 surprised me. i.e. I found each of the first 3 volumes very satisfactory. That's not to say it's a perfect novel or anything, but I enjoyed the show.

This is an isekai story and you get what's on the tin. Someone "remembers" their past life, realises they are a hidden boss and goes on an insane level-grinding spree. What is a bit sad is that our heroine ... is scatter-brained. Thankfully this does not mean she's dense. But is very, very air-headed. And very single-minded about leveling herself up.

Let me try and summarise the first volume. Our heroine has black hair. In the world she got re-incarnated to, it is a Bad Thing. In actuality? A mis-guided stereotype. Supposedly, the Demon Lord had black hair too and negative rumours spread from that. Things were so bad that her own parents kept her at arm's length - to the point of living in a completely different city!

After recovering her memories, at the tender age of 5 (might be 7?), she starts sneaking out of the mansion, goes into the forest/dungeon nearby and Level Grinds like no tomorrow. Eventually, when she was old enough, she gets sent to the academy where they do a mandatory find-your-level test on everyone. Most students are level 1 with a few level 4 or 5's around. There is a prodigy who's at level 10, but our heroine beats them all by showing up with level 99. For in-game context, the average military solder in the country is about level 20. Meta-game wise, the recommended level to defeat the Demon Lord with a party of 4 is level 40 (for each member).

So, basically, she gets outed as a living weapon of mass destruction. Literally. Oh - the reason she's at level 99 is because that is the maximum level cap possible in her world.

If the story took itself seriously, there are many, many ways this could go. Instead, we have a comedy + slice-of-life plot. A lot of the fun (and burns) comes from our heroine misunderstanding the people around her and in turn, them mis-understanding her. But through it all - her instincts are Damn Good. Somehow, she gained an admirer who eventually becomes her lover + finacee.

There are stories where the hero/heroine is Dense about romance. Not here - in her heart she knows she likes him. And she follows her instincts. The comedy (or tragedy?) is that when she focuses her attention on courtship, she gets really shy and verbally goes into denial. At least - that's how it appears to most folk. Her partner - saint that he is - figures her out and is amazingly patient with her.

In the second volume, they go to visit his family and she (being of higher social standing) asks to get engaged to him - the parents agree. She (and him) are happy about that. But actually saying "I love you" to her beloved? That, gets her very, very shy. She finds it easier to jump out the nearest window than to say it out loud. It's cute.

It is tempting to call her a Tsundere - but that's very incorrect. She's not in denial about her feelings. She just finds it very, very hard to verbally tell him. But physically hugging, kissing, accidentally planning a wedding, realising that he is head-over-heels for her - that's all fine and dealt with in a surprisingly level-headed manner.

The first volume is the story of her defeating the Demon Lord - but without most of the public knowing it was her.
The second volume is about her discovering and ruining a coup in her kingdom. I really liked the writing, but the "villain's" motive in the second volume did not make sense. Actually, neither did the Demon Lord's motive in the first - but you can chalk that up to mandatory game events.
The third volume is about her dealing with meta-verse stuff and saving the day.

Let's get one important thing clear - there is very little, if any, battle tension in this story. Our heroine, Yumiella is an OP character from the beginning. There is almost nothing that can harm her. And even IF you amputate her limbs, she has a healing skill that lets her grow it back. It's ridiculous and insane! Heck, she even admits that to herself in her monologues.

Sooo ... why would you read this story? Actually - do I even recommend it? To be honest, it isn't a bad Light Novel. I heard they made an anime out of it and that's why I picked it up. Besides a few random youtube snippets, I haven't seen the show. The books are my primary source of knowledge.

It will mostly boil down to what you are looking for. This is a comical, slice-of-life story that I found enjoyable. It is not a master-piece in fiction writing. In terms of quality, I will rank it above-average.

I smiled a lot while reading this story. If you like fantasy, isekai, slice-of-life comedy - give Villainess Level 99 a shot. At least try the first few chapters. If you don't like it even after that - feel free to drop the book. The rest of the writing is more of the same.

As for my personal objective of looking for fanfic writing inspiration ... nothing jumps out to me. I found the story very, very satisfactory.

-chronodekar

 

[PCHeintz72]

Actually... I saw the anime, and was tempted to get the light novel of this... Anime is not bad, and seems to be somewhat consistent with your version of events.

She does eventually get forced to take over her own household after they were behind some assassination attempts on their own daughter, whom lives separately from them due to her black hair.

While mostly about the black hair, the protagonist sees her as some black blob, probably because she can see her dark aspected magic...
What I find interesting is they state that she is 99... this not actually true.. the system is specifically limited to 2 digits... she could be level 199 or 399 or some other super high level. NOTHING phases or bothers this girl.

The anime had one very interesting aspect come out at the end... the protagonist is actually being controlled by thier the narrative of the game, or by a player in Yumerias original world...

I do like how the king and queen specifically did not want her to kill the demon lord... not because it would not be right, but because of politics.

I also like dhow the prospective boyfriend, when believing a statement she made to turn down one person asking for her hand that she would only consider males stronger than her... goes out and trains to be as strong as he can.

I also liked that everyone is horrified when she tells them her training techniques to get stronger.

I do not thing she is actually an airhead per se, but introverted and not used to dealing with people... An actual air head would be Katarina Claus from Reincarnated as a Villianess.