Light Novel Recommendations

[Allen]

Originally Posted by Zakoo

Same question for monku no tsukeyou ga nai love comedy, i find the manga interesting so I'm wondering how the LN is.

Pretty late, but better late than never I guess. Monrabu is a pretty easy read. It is pretty straightforward and does a good job on using the illustrations. I'd say it's worth reading if you liked the main couple.

Originally Posted by Kunagisa

I think I'm just getting lame in mind and more picky, haven't been able to find too many interesting books. Then again, this thread has been pretty dead too. Maybe it's not just me?

I'm more or less like this too. I still find some fun LNs but that's it. There are very few titles which I would recommend for being actually good or interesting unless it's new stuff from authors you already know of.

From the last few months I loved reading Saikyou Series (god bless more Aikawa Jun), Hexennacht and Zitsuryoku but I'm really biased towards the authors.

Anyway, there is only one title which I found out to be really interesting called letters/vanishing. It is a sci-fi LN where a concept known as Meta-Physical World Language (MPWL) exists. Everything in the universe is formed by words. Some people can see these words naturally (off-priori) while most of people can only see the MPWL if they make a surgery. The off-priori may even be able to manipulate these words and this means that they can do some pretty neat things. I mean, they can literally "recreate" the world around them depending on their level of affinity with the MPWL.

The first volume is very "heavy" because it does have lots of infodump. The characters were just okay to me so it had some boring parts. The second volume was pretty good though. The author managed to expand the setting while having more light-hearted scenes with some romance, comedy and action. There is a little bit of gore too. Btw, the main character of the series is a cute 14-year (don't remember exactly) old serial killer.

The best thing here is how the author uses the MPWL and works on some interesting topics (boundary between life and death, how does a personality is created, mental grammar, AI) while using real knowledge from programming, philosophy, biotechnology, arts, etc. Oguri's illustrations are pretty good too.

Oh, I guess there is Sukasuka too if you like a fantasy setting. Not your usual type of story and it is kind of anti-climatic. The LN that somehow managed to revive after getting axed

[DarkAkira]

Not sure if I'm asking in the right thread, but I want to find the title of the novel this page scan belongs to. So if somebody know the title please write it, thanks in advance.

UPDATE
If someone is interested, it was 憐 Ren 刻のナイフと空色のミライ. The writer is 水口敬文.

[Kunagisa]

Read this in a few hours, and I must say I'm continued to be surprised by how good Tokyo Inroaded is. Since there are various synopsis for the story online I'll skip the intro. Due to the Trans Shot mechanics, volume 1 and 2 of the series are hotblooded as fuck. Imagine you spend half the battle just doping the crap out of yourself. The adrenaline comes not from just the physical combat but also the act of injection as well. There's not enough EOM (spell this backward), or the so called invincible Enemy of Mankind, action in volume 3, but this is heavily made up by how the series suddenly went Infernal Affair/The Departed on my ass with a sudden coup de tat. Honestly, the whole volume went by really fast and felt more like a movie in retrospect, and that ending Spoiler for heavy spoiler: I cannot accept Kana and Ren ending on "opposite" faction, this is so frustrating on so many levels after all the things they did for each other until the last part. It's great that Mai turned around and 姉妹丼 is possible now, but Ren's completely screwed without Kana. No connections to patrons, no human radar, no money, no trainer, no HIMAWARI, still no Hamlin dead, and still no Yui. Kana got her bro back, so half the reason for the partnership's over. With Artemis captured there's literally nothing to back him up now. On completely unrelated note, Shouichi's two girlfriends are hilarious as hell. Serve him right though, in more ways than one. ... well the really, REALLY horrible news was that this series is very closed to being axed due to horrible sale (unlike speculations of the afterward in volume 2, Iwai explicitly said this in volume 3). I hope the few of you whom I know read this is lurking somewhere make sure you order the volume soon (within 2 weeks of the sales date). I think SukaSuka from the same publisher got saved due to great e-book sale, so hopefully this pull through. Kadokawa pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Well even if this do end up getting axed, the books are worth every single penny I spent on them.

[pervypig]

I just finished the Chinese translation of I am a Royal Tutor in My sister's dress. My gosh it's one of the better comedies that I have read. There's already a manga adaptation for it up to volume 1, but the entire series last up to Vol. 7. It's strange nobody continued it's translation after volume 1, because it's actually one of the best light-hearted comedy LN from the same author of Bungaku Shoujo. If no-one decides to translate this, I just might take this up in my free time...

[Ladiusman]

So I decided to read Akuma no Mikata after hearing some people talk about lately, so I picked the 1st volume of yhe chinese translation. And holy shit is this good, just like everyone said it was. Ueo really loves his characters and it definitely shows.

So has anyone else also read this?

[O.N.Owen]

So one of my friends recommend Satougashi no Dangan wa Uchinukenai: A Lollypop or A Bullet. Seems to be from the same author as Go Sick.

Has anyone read it and can give me a review? Plan to get it from Kinokuniya.

[apr]

Originally Posted by O.N.Owen

So one of my friends recommend Satougashi no Dangan wa Uchinukenai: A Lollypop or A Bullet. Seems to be from the same author as Go Sick.

Has anyone read it and can give me a review? Plan to get it from Kinokuniya.

I wrote a review here years ago, but it's somewhat spoilery, so I can't exactly ask you to read that. The short version is that Lollypop is very good, go get it immediately.

[Sparteh]

Can anyone recommend something easy in terms of Japanese (RnY level or below)?

[Zefyris]

Satougashi no dangan is a very nice short novel, definitely worth the buy.

Originally Posted by Sparteh

Can anyone recommend something easy in terms of Japanese (RnY level or below)?

tsukumodou kottouten or Hakomari, I'd say.

[zerodragon]

has anyone heard anything about "astraea of lion huanggang and heresy" and "Result my community flame, was incarnated in all pretend to negotiation skills" saw the color pics and fell in love (mainly the second one) i was wondering what they about and if they are any good?

Spoiler for NSFW astraea of lion huanggang and heresy:

Spoiler for NSFW"Result my community flame, was incarnated in all pretend to negotiation skills:

[Kunagisa]

Yowa-chara Tomozaki-kun is #8 from the last KonoRano Sugoi! I actually glanced over the title at the time, but I'm glad this series got some exposure for I would have never found out about this otherwise. I did write a long ass non-spoiler review, but feels the length is too .. obnoxious.

Originally Posted by Modified synopsis from Volume 1

Life is a shit "game", there are no simple rules that one can follow to "beat" it. High customizability is a high spec character's privilege. For weak characters, there are only unfairness and overwhelming disadvantages.

Therefore, the game of life is shit.
Coming from an avid and top class gamer like me, this conclusion is irrefutable.

-"But life's a god-tier game," coming from a fellow high-ranked player, this is the one comment that I cannot ignore.

Aoi Hinami, the school's perfect heroine who is blessed with insanely high spec since her birth. What if she also tells you that she can teaches you the rules of life-game? Imagine yourself in my foot, there's no way you would believe that right? But ...

tl;dr: Read this is you want a healthy dose of positivism in life.

Spoiler for really long impression:

First I want to say I quite enjoyed this series.

To put it plainly, I’m not really an avid fan of the “youth” concept in LNs. I have not read Toradora, Seishun Buta, Oregiaru etc. Yowa-chara is something I read by chance. The first volume took me around 3-4 days to finish while commuting. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience so I immediately borrowed a VPN and bought volume 2 and 3 on Bookwalker (all eBook version of the series is region blocked). This time it took also around four days to finish both volumes.

The two biggest impression upon completion are “positive energy is essential to life” and avoid “missed opportunities”.

Chance encounters are some of the most interesting experiences, and for our protagonist, the heroine is one such person who is able to change his outlook in life. Using gamer terminologies to convince Tomozaki, Hinami claim that she is the ultimate “guidebook” that can help Tomozaki “beat the game of life.” And the story begins with such unlikely engagement! We can call this luck or bullshit, but randomness give rise to life to begin with! To me, my life also became non-monotonous because my effort to seize the difference chances that came in my way. In a way, this is exactly the same as Tomozaki’s realization that Hinami is the one who brought color to his life. The feeling of familiarity is certainly quite welcome.

Tomozaki is pretty garbage at the beginning, but to quote Mizusawa, he is an intelligent idiot. Of course, Tomozaki is a “weak” character, but surprisingly he doesn’t require much guidance. He is able to complete most of the tasks assigned by Hinami albeit with quite a bit of effort. To me, those tasks are pretty much normal human behaviors, so the fact Tomozaki can do them isn’t worth praises; however, his attitude since the beginning has been non-irritating, so reading his struggle has been quite rewarding in terms of entertainment. In turn, rather than calling Hinami Tomozaki’s guide, I feel like she’s more like his mother. Other online reviewers lamented that they wish they read this back in high school, and I’m inclined to share this opinion. There are a bunch of tips that I feel are obvious but practical.

Rather than blaming the world for its shortcomings, gaining self-awareness and putting in more effort would allow oneself to see the world in a new perspective. Compare to escapist enjoyment often provided in other LNs, this is something I enjoy greatly.

There are many other things I want to say, but given the book is not translated, most would fall on deaf ears. I do want to mention that I like the three heroines so far.

Hinami’s literal perfection.
Nanami’s positivity.
Kikuchi’s angelic presence.

But there can only be one for our protagonist, personally I’m rooting for Hinami. If Tomozaki can finally mature enough to write his own guidebook to life, he can certain “beat” Hinami at her home field and win her heart, which would be the perfect scenario at the end. BUT, I’m quite okay with whatever the outcome. People who know me would definitely agree that my life is not filled with happiness at the moment, but this book simply reminded me that I am leading a very fulfilling life.

This book’s sale is average, the chance of anime adaptation is also low, but I still hope it can continue on for another 5-6 volumes. As a debuting writer, I feel this story is quite polished already. The story play around the concept of “game”, “player”, and “character”. The presentation feels a bit too farfetched at points, but definitely doesn’t detract from the read. The absolute best part for me are the chapter titles, which are both thematic and synoptic.

I don’t read much, but this is definitely the most “light novel”-ish LN I’ve read in recent years.

PS: 人生は神ゲー！
PPS: おにただ！！
PPPS: Thanks for reading if you got this far!

[bakato]

Originally Posted by Kunagisa

Yowa-chara Tomozaki-kun is #8 from the last KonoRano Sugoi! I actually glanced over the title at the time, but I'm glad this series got some exposure for I would have never found out about this otherwise. I did write a long ass non-spoiler review, but feels the length is too .. obnoxious.



tl;dr: Read this is you want a healthy dose of positivism in life.

Spoiler for really long impression:

First I want to say I quite enjoyed this series.

To put it plainly, I’m not really an avid fan of the “youth” concept in LNs. I have not read Toradora, Seishun Buta, Oregiaru etc. Yowa-chara is something I read by chance. The first volume took me around 3-4 days to finish while commuting. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience so I immediately borrowed a VPN and bought volume 2 and 3 on Bookwalker (all eBook version of the series is region blocked). This time it took also around four days to finish both volumes.

The two biggest impression upon completion are “positive energy is essential to life” and avoid “missed opportunities”.

Chance encounters are some of the most interesting experiences, and for our protagonist, the heroine is one such person who is able to change his outlook in life. Using gamer terminologies to convince Tomozaki, Hinami claim that she is the ultimate “guidebook” that can help Tomozaki “beat the game of life.” And the story begins with such unlikely engagement! We can call this luck or bullshit, but randomness give rise to life to begin with! To me, my life also became non-monotonous because my effort to seize the difference chances that came in my way. In a way, this is exactly the same as Tomozaki’s realization that Hinami is the one who brought color to his life. The feeling of familiarity is certainly quite welcome.

Tomozaki is pretty garbage at the beginning, but to quote Mizusawa, he is an intelligent idiot. Of course, Tomozaki is a “weak” character, but surprisingly he doesn’t require much guidance. He is able to complete most of the tasks assigned by Hinami albeit with quite a bit of effort. To me, those tasks are pretty much normal human behaviors, so the fact Tomozaki can do them isn’t worth praises; however, his attitude since the beginning has been non-irritating, so reading his struggle has been quite rewarding in terms of entertainment. In turn, rather than calling Hinami Tomozaki’s guide, I feel like she’s more like his mother. Other online reviewers lamented that they wish they read this back in high school, and I’m inclined to share this opinion. There are a bunch of tips that I feel are obvious but practical.

Rather than blaming the world for its shortcomings, gaining self-awareness and putting in more effort would allow oneself to see the world in a new perspective. Compare to escapist enjoyment often provided in other LNs, this is something I enjoy greatly.

There are many other things I want to say, but given the book is not translated, most would fall on deaf ears. I do want to mention that I like the three heroines so far.

Hinami’s literal perfection.
Nanami’s positivity.
Kikuchi’s angelic presence.

But there can only be one for our protagonist, personally I’m rooting for Hinami. If Tomozaki can finally mature enough to write his own guidebook to life, he can certain “beat” Hinami at her home field and win her heart, which would be the perfect scenario at the end. BUT, I’m quite okay with whatever the outcome. People who know me would definitely agree that my life is not filled with happiness at the moment, but this book simply reminded me that I am leading a very fulfilling life.

This book’s sale is average, the chance of anime adaptation is also low, but I still hope it can continue on for another 5-6 volumes. As a debuting writer, I feel this story is quite polished already. The story play around the concept of “game”, “player”, and “character”. The presentation feels a bit too farfetched at points, but definitely doesn’t detract from the read. The absolute best part for me are the chapter titles, which are both thematic and synoptic.

I don’t read much, but this is definitely the most “light novel”-ish LN I’ve read in recent years.

PS: 人生は神ゲー！
PPS: おにただ！！
PPPS: Thanks for reading if you got this far!

Fascinating. It sounds like a light novelized self-help guide. Practically the opposite of Oregairu in terms of approach. The life, negativity, and escapist themes have been very popular in recent light novels. Oregairu and Re:Zero tackled escapism and cynicism by penalizing its protagonists for wallowing in them whereas this series has its protagonist make efforts to actively change his life.

[larethian]

I read a lot of self-development books alongside fiction and it sounds like something I'd be interested in. Thanks for the heads up.

[Wandering Soul]

Originally Posted by Kunagisa

Yowa-chara Tomozaki-kun is #8 from the last KonoRano Sugoi! I actually glanced over the title at the time, but I'm glad this series got some exposure for I would have never found out about this otherwise. I did write a long ass non-spoiler review, but feels the length is too .. obnoxious.



tl;dr: Read this is you want a healthy dose of positivism in life.

Spoiler for really long impression:

First I want to say I quite enjoyed this series.

To put it plainly, I’m not really an avid fan of the “youth” concept in LNs. I have not read Toradora, Seishun Buta, Oregiaru etc. Yowa-chara is something I read by chance. The first volume took me around 3-4 days to finish while commuting. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience so I immediately borrowed a VPN and bought volume 2 and 3 on Bookwalker (all eBook version of the series is region blocked). This time it took also around four days to finish both volumes.

The two biggest impression upon completion are “positive energy is essential to life” and avoid “missed opportunities”.

Chance encounters are some of the most interesting experiences, and for our protagonist, the heroine is one such person who is able to change his outlook in life. Using gamer terminologies to convince Tomozaki, Hinami claim that she is the ultimate “guidebook” that can help Tomozaki “beat the game of life.” And the story begins with such unlikely engagement! We can call this luck or bullshit, but randomness give rise to life to begin with! To me, my life also became non-monotonous because my effort to seize the difference chances that came in my way. In a way, this is exactly the same as Tomozaki’s realization that Hinami is the one who brought color to his life. The feeling of familiarity is certainly quite welcome.

Tomozaki is pretty garbage at the beginning, but to quote Mizusawa, he is an intelligent idiot. Of course, Tomozaki is a “weak” character, but surprisingly he doesn’t require much guidance. He is able to complete most of the tasks assigned by Hinami albeit with quite a bit of effort. To me, those tasks are pretty much normal human behaviors, so the fact Tomozaki can do them isn’t worth praises; however, his attitude since the beginning has been non-irritating, so reading his struggle has been quite rewarding in terms of entertainment. In turn, rather than calling Hinami Tomozaki’s guide, I feel like she’s more like his mother. Other online reviewers lamented that they wish they read this back in high school, and I’m inclined to share this opinion. There are a bunch of tips that I feel are obvious but practical.

Rather than blaming the world for its shortcomings, gaining self-awareness and putting in more effort would allow oneself to see the world in a new perspective. Compare to escapist enjoyment often provided in other LNs, this is something I enjoy greatly.

There are many other things I want to say, but given the book is not translated, most would fall on deaf ears. I do want to mention that I like the three heroines so far.

Hinami’s literal perfection.
Nanami’s positivity.
Kikuchi’s angelic presence.

But there can only be one for our protagonist, personally I’m rooting for Hinami. If Tomozaki can finally mature enough to write his own guidebook to life, he can certain “beat” Hinami at her home field and win her heart, which would be the perfect scenario at the end. BUT, I’m quite okay with whatever the outcome. People who know me would definitely agree that my life is not filled with happiness at the moment, but this book simply reminded me that I am leading a very fulfilling life.

This book’s sale is average, the chance of anime adaptation is also low, but I still hope it can continue on for another 5-6 volumes. As a debuting writer, I feel this story is quite polished already. The story play around the concept of “game”, “player”, and “character”. The presentation feels a bit too farfetched at points, but definitely doesn’t detract from the read. The absolute best part for me are the chapter titles, which are both thematic and synoptic.

I don’t read much, but this is definitely the most “light novel”-ish LN I’ve read in recent years.

PS: 人生は神ゲー！
PPS: おにただ！！
PPPS: Thanks for reading if you got this far!

So basically it's a novel that sends the message of embracing chances that come your way and not to miss opportunities that come your way. It also looks like the protagonists actively attempts to change his life without having to be torn down first. Definitely sounds like something I would be interested in.

[zeross87]

Hi, I’m on vacation and forgot to bring my light novels with me and I need something to read. To try them out I commanded both first volume of no game no life and DanMachi. Which one should I start with, which will I like best ? Didn’t watch any of the anime.

For reference I’ve read all of sao, accel world , log horizon, hataraku mahou sama, the beginning of konosuba (I like it but didn’t have time to read yet), but I totally disliked index. In general I don’t like dark thing.

And also which other novel should I buy ? (I’m speaking of any available in paperback)

[dragon1412]

Originally Posted by zeross87

Hi, I’m on vacation and forgot to bring my light novels with me and I need something to read. To try them out I commanded both first volume of no game no life and DanMachi. Which one should I start with, which will I like best ? Didn’t watch any of the anime.

For reference I’ve read all of sao, accel world , log horizon, hataraku mahou sama, the beginning of konosuba (I like it but didn’t have time to read yet), but I totally disliked index. In general I don’t like dark thing.

And also which other novel should I buy ? (I’m speaking of any available in paperback)

that's hardly speak much, I'm going to assume you can't read JP and use english only, which i have to question, which specific genre or trope you are interested in before making recommendations, since LN that have dark genre is actually a very small compare to the normal pool even in English one

[zeross87]

That’s why I included a list of those I’ve read this far in this list I forgot re:zero, strawberry panic, hibike , and chibi vampire

So yes English only , In LN I’ve read was principally isekai , but in anime genre I watch sol, comedies, romance, some fantasy and sf, and some like death note, FMA:B, code geass where I shouldn’t like the genre but they were too good not to like them .

[Hata]

Originally Posted by zeross87

Hi, I’m on vacation and forgot to bring my light novels with me and I need something to read. To try them out I commanded both first volume of no game no life and DanMachi. Which one should I start with, which will I like best ? Didn’t watch any of the anime.

the two are really two different works, no game no life is your typical Isekai transplant with super buff to dominate, while danmachie is your typical youth self grow from nothing to greatness through a lot of hard works and luck to overcome hardship, nothing wrong with either, for instant gratification Isekai works better in short volume, while the self growth type offer more satisfaction and get your blood boiling in the long run with redemption,

my preference is Danmachi, but Danmachi’s deliver high point is book 3, 5, 6, and 11, you won’t get much from reading book 1 alone. and Danmachi did contains some dark materials. just book 1 probably no game no life.

Originally Posted by zeross87

And also which other novel should I buy ? (I’m speaking of any available in paperback)

for light reading, I recommend Isekai Nonbiri Nouka (Farming Life in Another World) and Isekai Shokudou (Restaurant to Another World), neither is in English officially I am afraid, you would have to look up fan translation. and in the case of Danmachi and Isekai Shokudou, I would recommend you to watch the anime first.

[zeross87]

thanks for the answers. i totally plan to buy the fulls series not just vol 1, it's just i didn't know any of them and bought both on a whim. i'm a very heavy reader so i'm always starved of books to read.

by darks thing i mean like one of the main protag get killed and we have en entire period of describing the mental trauma of the rest of the cast. like SAO's saki's part, or grimgar manato's part (which were both small enough for me to bear, but was clearly the low for me), or senseless violence like higurashi .

thanks for the recommendation, to bad they have no paperback i love collecting and fill up my room with books (finally reached 1k books counting both manga and LN alone, and dunno how many other books i have, too many to count ); but hey i've bought a kobo because sometimes it can't be helped

i think i'll start with danmachi then, but can't really watch the anime first since i got such a joke of a net connection here and if danmachi get high in vol3, hey amazon is fast to deliver so no problem

[dragon1412]

Originally Posted by zeross87

That’s why I included a list of those I’ve read this far in this list I forgot re:zero, strawberry panic, hibike , and chibi vampire

So yes English only , In LN I’ve read was principally isekai , but in anime genre I watch sol, comedies, romance, some fantasy and sf, and some like death note, FMA:B, code geass where I shouldn’t like the genre but they were too good not to like them .

the 1st of recommendation should be Danmachi, adventure and Sol, with some occasional serious arc in between

the next on list should be Rokujouma, Sol and romance interaction are among the best here.

For LN available in English and Isekai genre, Death March is a good slow life story. General though it hard for Sol type story since most of them aren't in English