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Discussion Web Novels/Light Novels: Like turn of the century pulp fiction but less cool.

Scornful Gaze

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So lads, I recently picked up the web novel version of Mushoku Tensei, seeing as the light novel translation is a massive dumpster fire of redactions and dishonesty. And I must say, what I've been reading thus far is the height of trash fiction and awful prose:

mushoku_tensei_cap_01.PNG
mushoku_tensei_cap_02.PNG

Magnificent.

So, what have you cultured gentlemen been reading? Surely you do read, don't you?
 

Halo

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1. Bold of you to assume i can read anything outside of code.
2. The last thing I read was How A Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom, I liked the administrative stuff during the first few books. I enjoyed it way more than I expected, and would like to see more books like this. There's just something great about politics and backdoor dealings that makes it so great to read. It became slightly more harem focused down the line but I still liked reading it and seeing the MC use modern techniques with the fantasy setting i.e. using their crystal(?) tech for daily state radio broadcasts.
Besides that I was reading Arifureta because I enjoy edgelord OP MCs, plus it had a blonde vampire loli. I'd give it an 8/10.
 

MKO_Reactor

varishangout.com
Artist
Reading that makes me want to read the Web Novel just to see how awful it is.
Anyway, I've been reading the Youjo Senki LNs. I highly recommend it to mil-hist faggots. The author really did their homework. Plus, it's not really EXACTLY like the Manga and the Anime.

There's also the Log Horizon LNs but those aren't so high up on the reading list.
 

immahnoob

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I don't get what you're talking about, @Scornful Gaze. That's peak writing.
Right now I'm reading wish-fulfillment shit from the Korean side. Since I enjoyed reading Second Coming of Gluttony, I went back to the Korean "original" (supposedly) called "Reincarnator".
I have to say, it's pretty fucking trash.
SCOG described the fights and did it rather well, this Reincarnator trash just skips a lot of it. I don't get why it's so long if most of what's going on is lots of fighting but almost no descriptions of the fighting itself.
The translation is also very poor and the author has an obsession with repeating himself a lot (I heard it is a Korean thing unfortunately), so maybe that's the reason why it's very long?

I've tried reading "Trash of the Count's family", but I just can't. The MC supposedly wants to lead a peaceful life, but can't decide between letting events go on as they do in the book and just trying to stay out of them or just changing them completely. The explanation for his actions doesn't help my suspension of disbelief.

I'm also reading Classroom of the Elite. Ayanokoji best MC.
Re:Zero, I'm waiting for the mongoloids on Witch Cult Translation to actually do their fucking jobs.
Overgeared as well, I'm just curious where this shit'll go eventually.
 

Kach

varishangout.com
I've been reading mushoku tensei too, even tho i'm kinda stuck at volume 20.5 (it's the most boring one so far imo).
also started reading fate/strange fake, looking amazing so far but i wouldn't recomend it if you're not very deep in the fate rabbit hole.
planning on starting majo no tabitabi soon too, hope it's as good as the anime.
 

luisizqui

varishangout.com
Right now im reading konosuba because i really liked the anime and i fucking love megumin, i cant have enough megumin.

Before that i finished reading The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village, is really good novel if you like youkais, and before Halo get hype with the zashiki warashi i need to say that she is not a loli, but there are 2 lolis pretty much from the beggining, i really recomend reading atleast the first novel.

Almost finished reading Madan no ou to vanadis, it isnt that great but i liked it.

I also readed 10 volumes of Heavy Object and i really recomend it, this one have an anime so you can always watch that.


 

immahnoob

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Right now im reading konosuba because i really liked the anime and i fucking love megumin, i cant have enough megumin.

Before that i finished reading The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village, is really good novel if you like youkais, and before Halo get hype with the zashiki warashi i need to say that she is not a loli, but there are 2 lolis pretty much from the beggining, i really recomend reading atleast the first novel.

Almost finished reading Madan no ou to vanadis, it isnt that great but i liked it.

I also readed 10 volumes of Heavy Object and i really recomend it, this one have an anime so you can always watch that.
Oh yeah, I also recommend Heavy Object. The duo bellend MCs are great.
 

AkaneMH21

varishangout.com
Im not a reading person, to the point that when i read manga tend to unconsciously skip dialogs (dyslexia sucks :dead-inside:), but so far when i'm bored/away from the pc, i like to read the Tensura LN and planning in one moment or another to start Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun.

Oh yeah, I also recommend Heavy Object. The duo bellend MCs are great.
Didn't know that Heavy Object had LN, maybe before Tomozaki im going to read Heavy Object better.
 

Hopeful

varishangout.com
For light novels, I'm catching up on my backlog of A Certain Magical Index (written by the same author of Heavy Object and Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village).

For web novels, I don't know what the sentiment is towards non-eastern stuff here is, but I found Unsong recently and I've already reread it more than three times.
 
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immahnoob

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For light novels, I'm catching up on my backlog of A Certain Magical Index (written by the same author of Heavy Object and Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village).

For web novels, I don't know what the sentiment is towards non-eastern stuff here is, but I found Unsong recently and I've already reread it more than three times.
Ohhhh, I had no idea Index and Heavy Object were from the same author.
Looks to me like I should start actually remembering authors, kek.

Also, what's this Unsong about? I don't know, I'm short on time nowadays and I don't want to start something I won't finish.
 

Hopeful

varishangout.com
Also, what's this Unsong about? I don't know, I'm short on time nowadays and I don't want to start something I won't finish.
Local computer scientist finds a way to begin the apocalypse with cryptography, also Apollo 11 cracked the sky and now demons run free on Earth. You can check my original post for a link to the TV Tropes page for a better summary.

And yeah, Kamachi is a god. I can only aspire to write as much as that man does.
 

translation gundam

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I read all sorts of things, but you want something pulp fiction.
try reading the demon city Shinjuku /demon city blue series because that shit the most 90s shit ever and fucking amazing look at this cover art,
and the main characters are all kinds of hardcore like Chinese main character hardcore. the issue is only the demon city Shinjuku book , Demon Palace Babylon, Maohden and Yashakiden The Demon Princess. the rest of the series never got touched for official translation. but the shit that is out is off the fucken chain. and this is written by Hideyuki Kikuchi the dude behind vampire hunter D, and other such works as Wicked City & A Wind Named Amnesia for example, and the artist is Shinichi Hosama.

51fTFrVPcJL._SX346_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
81QL+Jq2ldL.jpg
51-N0Or35YL.jpg
51W3aZQsADL.jpg


thats why Accelerator reads heavy object in the anime

View attachment 1071
the guy who writes index & heavy object Kazuma Kamachi.
he is a fucken mad lad and borderline insane.
what I am about to post is quotes from a book written about him here is a link to this gold mine
this part talks about some of the rumours and his work habits


  1. he continued to write while suffering from norovirus.
  2. I've got it all in my head," he said, and even though he didn't have the manuscript in hand, he held a meeting based on his memory of the exact line numbers.
  3. He completed the second volume of A Certain Magical Index in just seventeen days.
  4. Before the release of the fifth volume of "A Certain Magical Index," I had almost finished writing the sixth volume and had also completed the plot for the ninth volume.
  5. In addition to writing novels, he has been unusually quick in submitting draft plots for "Railgun of A Certain Science" (spin-off manga), for which he is in charge of drafting.
  6. In addition to writing novels and drafting manga plots, I sometimes work on multiple jobs at the same time, such as short stories for award-winning novels and draft scenarios for games.
  7. Around April 2007, he gave me a verbal synopsis of "Heavy Object" and I replied, "That's a good idea, but I'm sure you're busy right now, so if you can write it, let's do it.
  8. A few days after I was asked if I could write about the second volume of "Heavy Object," I said yes. A few days after I said yes, I suddenly received an email. I thought it was a plot, but when I printed it out, it was a manuscript of several hundred pages.
  9. He writes and brings in a manuscript with no deadline set at all, or a manuscript for the next meeting before the meeting.
  10. When I requested an original short story for a magazine project, he brought me a full-length story with no set deadline along with the completed manuscript.
  11. My break from writing is to work on another manuscript.
  12. He always participates in script meetings and post recordings for anime, except when he is sick and writes the basic drafts for all original episodes.
  13. He always writes a novel for each anime series as a package bonus. There are always enough for two Dengeki Bunko books.
  14. Even with this, there are many manuscripts that have been put on hold due to various reasons (voluntary rejection, postponement of release, etc.). If I put them all together, I could make five Dengeki Bunko books.
  15. At most, he has supervised the simultaneous serialization of seven comic books.
  16. The main scenario of Square Enix's smartphone game "Diffusion Million Arthur" was written entirely by Kamaike, and he also supervised all the settings for each card character. The same goes for "Divergent Million Arthur".
  17. When I asked him to write one short story for a magazine project, he came to me before the deadline and said, "I've written about ten stories, please choose one.
  18. He continues to bring me new manuscripts with deadlines that I haven't even set. I keep telling him and he keeps coming back.
  19. He kept sending me new manuscripts with deadlines I hadn't set.
  20. I've been publishing a new book every month since the end of 2002, and I still have about a year's worth of manuscripts in stock (as of October 2005).
  21. I asked him, "How can you write so much? he replied, "If I don't write, I'll crash. It's like an aeroplane.

edit: another short story about this madman, and did some cleaning up
I'm sure there will be more updates in the future, but for now, I'll leave you with this.
Of the 20 or so episodes I've mentioned, the one I remember most is (2), "I said, 'I have it all in my head,' and we had a meeting based on what I had memorized, line by line, even though I didn't have the manuscript at hand.
This was back in the days of Media Works when the office was still located in Ochanomizu (the current office is in Iidabashi. (Media Works merged with ASCII in 2008 and became ASCII Media Works.
I remember it was the third volume of "A Certain Magical Index," and I was still meeting with Mr Kamaike by phone because he was far away.
When discussing the manuscript with the author over the phone, I would tell him the number of pages that needed to be pointed out over the phone, and after reading out the relevant text, we would discuss how to fix it.
We do this page by page for a full-length book, so if there are many points to be pointed out or discussed, it can take three to four hours.
At that time, I also gave them the number of pages and lines to point out and confirmed the intent of the text.
The meeting went very smoothly. I remember that we got very excited at the part of the iron bridge battle scene between the hero, Kamijo, and one of the main heroines, Mikoto.
One hour after the meeting started. Suddenly, I noticed something strange.
I couldn't hear the sound of paper turning pages on the other end of the phone.
The phone was not a cell phone, but a landline. And he didn't have a laptop at the time, so it would have been impossible for him to work while looking at his desktop PC, which was located in a different place from the phone.
Needless to say, if you have a printout of the manuscript at hand, you will have to "turn the pages" during the meeting. There is the sound of turning, and the time lag.
But now I don't have to do that.
I had a bad feeling about ......, so I asked Mr. Kamaike with trepidation.
"Mr. Kamaike, I don't think you're expecting this, but ...... do you have the manuscript there now?
"No, I don't.
"But you understand all the things I've pointed out in detail on each page in my request for revision, don't you? Are you sure you don't need the manuscript at hand?
I have it all in my head, so I'm fine.
Kamaike, you're not an indexer, so please go to .......

here some links to some shit if anyone wants them.

link to folder filled with officially translated light novels.

https://lnwncentral.wordpress.com/
 
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Hopeful

varishangout.com
While we are praising Kamachi the god, if anyone would like to start reading Index/Toaru I would like to direct them here.

This preserves the original fan-translated names for various organizations and terminologies. English Puritan Church my ass.
 

Hexasheep93

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ok so as someone who is pretty much outside the loop on LNs and web novels. What is the appeal to them? what differentiantes a light novel/webnovel from a normal novel
 

luisizqui

varishangout.com
ok so as someone who is pretty much outside the loop on LNs and web novels. What is the appeal to them? what differentiantes a light novel/webnovel from a normal novel
In the west not that much, in japan they are smaller novels with easier kanji, here they are less thick novels, and if you read it in pdf its just a novel. Maybe there are diference i dont know about tho
 

translation gundam

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In the west not that much, in japan they are smaller novels with easier kanji, here they are less thick novels, and if you read it in pdf its just a novel. Maybe there are diference i dont know about tho
there also who is the intended audience as well, a lot of light novel readers are teenagers to young adults so a lot of the stories are marketed to those people.
now where web novels come in, is in japan there are quite a few websites where people make and publish their own stories online and its basically amateur hour in terms of writing.
syosetu being an example of such a website, and quite a few light novel publishers will headhunt on websites like syosetu and use those websites to find fresh talent, so if you ever wonder some light novels or web novels seem the same it because a lot of the people these publishers are getting are from those sites, and those websites have there own subcultures and metas.
and there is also the fact that the Japanese entertainment industry is very incestuous when it comes to there own influences.
 

Hopeful

varishangout.com
what differentiantes a light novel/webnovel from a normal novel?
An analogy which I've heard before and like is that light novels are to novels the same way (English) young adult (YA) fiction is to fiction, because they use simpler language and are targeted to young adults/teenagers as well (as people have already said).
 

immahnoob

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Regular
Patron of the Forums
I read all sorts of things, but you want something pulp fiction.
try reading the demon city Shinjuku /demon city blue series because that shit the most 90s shit ever and fucking amazing look at this cover art,
and the main characters are all kinds of hardcore like Chinese main character hardcore. the issue is only the demon city Shinjuku book , Demon Palace Babylon, Maohden and Yashakiden The Demon Princess. the rest of the series never got touched for official translation. but the shit that is out is off the fucken chain. and this is written by Hideyuki Kikuchi the dude behind vampire hunter D, and other such works as Wicked City & A Wind Named Amnesia for example, and the artist is Shinichi Hosama.

View attachment 1353View attachment 1356View attachment 1355View attachment 1354


the guy who writes index & heavy object Kazuma Kamachi.
he is a fucken mad lad and borderline insane.
what I am about to post is quotes from a book written about him here is a link to this gold mine
this part talks about some of the rumours and his work habits


  1. he continued to write while suffering from norovirus.
  2. He said, "I have it all in my head," and even though he didn't have the manuscript at hand, he held meetings based on his memory of the exact number of lines.
  3. Completed the second volume of "Index to A Certain Magical Index" in just 17 days.
  4. Before the release of the fifth volume of "Index to A Certain Magical Index," he had almost finished writing the sixth volume, and had also completed the plot for the ninth volume.
  5. In addition to writing novels, he has been unusually quick in submitting draft plots for "Railgun of A Certain Science" (spin-off manga), for which he is in charge of drafting.
  6. In addition to writing novels and drafting manga plots, he sometimes works on several jobs at the same time, including short stories for bonus novels and draft scenarios for games.
  7. Around April 2007, he gave me a verbal synopsis of "Heavy Object", to which I replied, "That's a good idea, but I'm sure you're busy right now.
  8. A few weeks later, I suddenly received the manuscript of the first volume of "Heavy Object". A few days after I answered "yes," an email suddenly arrived for me. I thought it was a plot, but when I printed it out, it was a manuscript of several hundred pages.
  9. He wrote and brought me a manuscript with no deadline set at all, and a manuscript for the next meeting before the meeting.
  10. take a break from writing to work on another manuscript.
  11. When I asked him to write an original short story for a magazine project, he came back with the completed manuscript and a long story with no deadline set.
  12. He always participates in script meetings and recording sessions for anime unless he is sick, and he writes the basic drafts for all original episodes.
  13. He always writes a novel for each anime series as a package bonus. There are always enough for two Dengeki Bunko books.
  14. Even with this, there are still many manuscripts that have been put into storage due to various reasons (voluntary rejection, postponement of release, etc.). When I put them all together, I have enough for five Dengeki Bunko.
  15. At the most, I supervised the simultaneous serialization of seven comic books.
  16. he wrote all the main scenarios for the Square Enix smartphone game "Diffusion Million Arthur" and supervised all the settings for each card character. The same goes for "Divergent Million Arthur.
  17. When I asked him to write a short story for a magazine project, he came to me before the deadline and said, "I've written about ten stories, so please choose one.
  18. They kept coming back with new manuscripts with deadlines that hadn't even been set.
  19. He kept sending me new manuscripts with deadlines I hadn't set.
  20. Although I have been publishing a new book every month since the end of 2004, I still have enough manuscripts for another year (as of October 2005).
  21. I asked him how he can write so much. I asked him 「How do you write so much? It's like an aeroplane.

here some links to some shit if anyone wants them.

link to folder filled with officially translated light novels.

https://lnwncentral.wordpress.com/
Sometimes the dude wakes up in the middle of the night and sees Kazuma Kamachi over his bed with about ten manuscripts in his hands, all dirty with diarrhea and vomit from the norovirus he's not treating.

"Choose," Kazuma Kamachi says.
 
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