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darkgray posted:I just spent the past few days devouring 百万回転生した俺は、平和な世界でも油断しない, and it's probably possible to describe as if Kenkyo Kenjitsu and Mushoku Tensei had a beautiful baby. Please translate it, somebody. Few Narou titles have managed to go against my expectations quite like this, and the second half is particularly remarkable. A series about an extremely paranoid serial reincarnator that doesn’t believe a peaceful world could actually exist sounds pretty cool. I’ll give it a read, at least! Is it finished? It’s already at 164 chapters and they’ve been coming out at a pretty good clip.
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Oct 28, 2019 18:24
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blastron posted:Is it finished? It’s already at 164 chapters and they’ve been coming out at a pretty good clip. Yep, complete at roughly 800 pages. The author has another title that's been LNized too. Might have to read it.
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Oct 28, 2019 18:39
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darkgray posted:Yep, complete at roughly 800 pages. The author has another title that's been LNized too. Might have to read it. Oh, it's the same author as Old Vampire and a Holy Girl, that was a cute little series. Might have to check this other one out.
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Oct 28, 2019 19:40
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Eopia posted:If I had to point out a single point in wandering inn that made me think 'this probably isn't for me', it'd have to be the sudden inclusion of all the fairy nonsense. For me I made it to the clown.
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Oct 29, 2019 02:54
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What are the best web and light novels to read if you’ve never read one before? I know of some older stuff like Baccano but not much. Including LNs because I don’t see an LN thread in the first 3 pages of the forum
icantfindaname fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Oct 30, 2019 |
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Oct 30, 2019 05:30
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icantfindaname posted:What are the best web and light novels to read if you’ve never read one before? I know of some older stuff like Baccano but not much. Including LNs because I don’t see an LN thread in the first 3 pages of the forum I think this thread also covers LNs... although at this point, either of the isekai threads covers LNs too  This is basically the only one I ever talk about but Ascendance of a Bookworm is the first one I read and it kinda set my expectations for other WNs too high. After reading it I looked for other WN and LN stuff and that was the only time I began to appreciate just how much Bookworm avoided so many tropes that it turned out I really hate. I suppose your liking of it would largely depend on how much you can tolerate very slow burn plot development and general slice of lifeyness though.
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Oct 30, 2019 10:30
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icantfindaname posted:What are the best web and light novels to read if you’ve never read one before? I know of some older stuff like Baccano but not much. Including LNs because I don’t see an LN thread in the first 3 pages of the forum I'd always recommend Cultivation Chat Group. It's a ton of fun. Tunicate fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Oct 30, 2019 |
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Oct 30, 2019 17:12
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Tunicate posted:I'd always recommend Cultivation Chat Group. It's a ton of fun. Seconded.
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Oct 30, 2019 18:00
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Tunicate posted:I'd always recommend Cultivation Chat Group. It's a ton of fun. Thirded. Also If you enjoy villians and are willing to invest some time. Reverend Insanity is a fairly well done tale in my opinion.
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Oct 30, 2019 18:28
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I'd also throw out a recommendation for "Kenkyo, Kenjitsu o Motto ni Ikite Orimasu". It's a comedy set in a school, and it's well-written and well-translated so the jokes are actually funny. It's almost a comedy of manners, since a lot of the humor comes from the intimidating rich girl protagonist trying to do normal things. It's really light and basically nothing happens, but it's a delight to read so that doesn't really matter. Bookworm is also great, though the start is really slow and it took me awhile to start sympathizing with the protagonist. e: Speaking of which, I was wondering about this for awhile... what was the first popular "reborn as the female villain in a love story" novel? I see KK started in 2013 and Bakarina was 2014 so that came afterward, but were there other popular ones before it? nrook fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Oct 30, 2019 |
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Oct 30, 2019 19:15
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icantfindaname posted:What are the best web and light novels to read if you’ve never read one before? I know of some older stuff like Baccano but not much. Including LNs because I don’t see an LN thread in the first 3 pages of the forum Re:Zero is good as far as web novels go (though it was also turned into a LN and obviously an anime that covers the first few arcs). The writer has a very good feel for crafting impactful/memorable scenes and characters, and the end product ends up feeling like far less of an amateur affair than the vast majority of other WNs. Like, something about the way it's written makes it far easier for me to visualize the way characters look/talk and what's happening in the various scenes than it is when I read most other action/fantasy stuff. Probably the only thing I don't like about it is the romance stuff, though it's still better than most WNs in that regard.
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Oct 30, 2019 19:21
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AtomikKrab posted:Thirded. Also If you enjoy villians and are willing to invest some time. Reverend Insanity is a fairly well done tale in my opinion. Does Reverend Insanity get better? I stopped around when MC got to a new city after the beginning one and found the character interactions to be relatively flat. MC effortlessly outsmarting everyone and the lack of any tension just made me hate his guts.
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Oct 30, 2019 19:34
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I just stumbled onto this. It is terribly translated, but pretty funny: https://www.yasashiinosekaiwa.com/2016/12/14/2015-nendo-nyugaku-shikenmondai-kyoka-konyaku-haki/ If it said 2055 instead of 2015 it would be scarily realistic.
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Nov 1, 2019 15:40
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Wow, Metaworld Chronicles is the most Xianxia english webnovel I've gotten through more than a couple of chapters of. It's competently written, but it has all the hallmarks of a typical CN Xianxia story. Super special MC who can't take a poo poo without making GBS threads on the Lost McGuffin of Plot forwarding. Everything revolves around said MC, with people changing all their priorities to either help or hinder depending on whether they're intended to be roadblocks or not. The MC waxing poetically about principles and morality while consistently being shown to have none when push comes to shove, often in the same chapter as she chides someone else for acting unprincipled. It's enjoyable in the exact same way Xianxia is enjoyable, but I feel sort of tricked. I'm used to my Xianxia coming as either a stilted translation or extremely poor writing. Or both.
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Nov 2, 2019 01:02
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Cynic Jester posted:Wow, Metaworld Chronicles is the most Xianxia english webnovel I've gotten through more than a couple of chapters of. It's competently written, but it has all the hallmarks of a typical CN Xianxia story. Super special MC who can't take a poo poo without making GBS threads on the Lost McGuffin of Plot forwarding. Everything revolves around said MC, with people changing all their priorities to either help or hinder depending on whether they're intended to be roadblocks or not. The MC waxing poetically about principles and morality while consistently being shown to have none when push comes to shove, often in the same chapter as she chides someone else for acting unprincipled. It's enjoyable in the exact same way Xianxia is enjoyable, but I feel sort of tricked. I'm used to my Xianxia coming as either a stilted translation or extremely poor writing. Or both. Wait until you get to the part where she whines about how she isn't getting two huge inheritances, but only one, and she is forced to live in a luxurious apartment instead of a mansion. This is a setting where a lot of people live in really horrible slums. (minor spoilers) IShallRiseAgain fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Nov 2, 2019 |
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Nov 2, 2019 02:23
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IShallRiseAgain posted:Wait until you get to the part where she whines about how she isn't getting two huge inheritances, but only one, and she is forced to live in a luxurious apartment instead of a mansion. This is a setting where a lot of people live in really horrible slums. (minor spoilers) My favorite one so far is her being shocked at magical napalm and how inhumane it is. After 200 chapters of the incredibly wide variety of horrific spells she has used to murder the everloving poo poo out of everything.
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Nov 2, 2019 02:43
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Nemo Somen posted:Does Reverend Insanity get better? I stopped around when MC got to a new city after the beginning one and found the character interactions to be relatively flat. MC effortlessly outsmarting everyone and the lack of any tension just made me hate his guts. Yes, the Tension starts to ratchet up in the arc after the city. And you are not really meant to like the MC, as the story tells you. NOT A NICE GUY.
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Nov 2, 2019 05:10
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icantfindaname posted:What are the best web and light novels to read if you’ve never read one before? I know of some older stuff like Baccano but not much. Including LNs because I don’t see an LN thread in the first 3 pages of the forum Forge of Destiny is a great place to start. It does one of the best jobs of explaining what all the terms mean in cultivation stories. After reading it, the other stories made a lot more sense. By the way, can we get this added to the OP? FoD is also excellent. Cradle is the other good beginner one, for many of the same reasons, but is sadly not free. You can buy the books off Amazon. I'm struggling to think of an Isekai story I actually liked. Nothing is coming to mind, sorry. That's kind of depressing because I loved reading stories about people transported to fantasy worlds as a child, but most online Isekai's don't even reach the low bar expected of children's books. You may want to check out the recommendations from the Web Serial thread if you're just looking for online stories instead of just the genres this thread usually focuses on.
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Nov 2, 2019 05:13
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icantfindaname posted:What are the best web and light novels to read if you’ve never read one before? I know of some older stuff like Baccano but not much. Including LNs because I don’t see an LN thread in the first 3 pages of the forum I recommend Spice and Wolf, Full Metal Panic, Problem Children from Another World, and Suzumiya Haruhi. Each one represents their specific genre well
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Nov 2, 2019 06:48
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Metaworld is really frustrating because it would be a lot better if it actually delved into all the lovely parts of the mageocracy that constantly get referenced as window-dressing, or PoV the demihumans or whatever. Instead the MC constantly remarks on how terrible the world is and makes speeches about morals, only to immediately show that in practice she absolutely doesn't actually have those. Probably doesn't help that every time a content poll comes up everybody just votes for more xianxia.
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Nov 2, 2019 16:36
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Linnaeus posted:I recommend Spice and Wolf, Full Metal Panic, Problem Children from Another World, and Suzumiya Haruhi. Each one represents their specific genre well Does Problem Children/Mondaiji actually have an official translation? The fan-translation was difficult to read, and the anime only covers the first 2 volumes...
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Nov 3, 2019 05:36
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devildragon777 posted:Does Problem Children/Mondaiji actually have an official translation? The fan-translation was difficult to read, and the anime only covers the first 2 volumes... No it doesn't, and I forgot how bad the English translations were. Looking through the officially translated list, there's basically nothing else good in that genre lol I guess since this is for someone new to LNs, I'd replace it with Sword Art Online.
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Nov 3, 2019 06:19
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Linnaeus posted:No it doesn't, and I forgot how bad the English translations were. Looking through the officially translated list, there's basically nothing else good in that genre lol Not Re: Zero?
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Nov 3, 2019 18:34
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Is it just me, or is hypocrisy a really big thing in xianxia stories? It feels like Japanese and Western fantasy are a little more likely to have their protagonists be goody-two-shoes heroes, or 'lol, gently caress off, I'm evil' psychopaths, whereas xianxia stories will very commonly have backstabbing, murderous monsters who nevertheless jerk themselves off about how chivalrous and virtuous they are 24/7. Is this actually a thing, and if so, why?
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Nov 3, 2019 18:57
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Darth Walrus posted:Is it just me, or is hypocrisy a really big thing in xianxia stories? It feels like Japanese and Western fantasy are a little more likely to have their protagonists be goody-two-shoes heroes, or 'lol, gently caress off, I'm evil' psychopaths, whereas xianxia stories will very commonly have backstabbing, murderous monsters who nevertheless jerk themselves off about how chivalrous and virtuous they are 24/7. Is this actually a thing, and if so, why? Looking at xianxia as teenage self-insert power fantasy fanfiction answers a lot of questions.
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Nov 3, 2019 19:38
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Darth Walrus posted:Is it just me, or is hypocrisy a really big thing in xianxia stories? It feels like Japanese and Western fantasy are a little more likely to have their protagonists be goody-two-shoes heroes, or 'lol, gently caress off, I'm evil' psychopaths, whereas xianxia stories will very commonly have backstabbing, murderous monsters who nevertheless jerk themselves off about how chivalrous and virtuous they are 24/7. Is this actually a thing, and if so, why? Yes it is. Might makes right is key to these stories, but because they're relatively simple power fantasies, it only applies when the main character is mighty.
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Nov 3, 2019 19:48
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Darth Walrus posted:Is it just me, or is hypocrisy a really big thing in xianxia stories? It feels like Japanese and Western fantasy are a little more likely to have their protagonists be goody-two-shoes heroes, or 'lol, gently caress off, I'm evil' psychopaths, whereas xianxia stories will very commonly have backstabbing, murderous monsters who nevertheless jerk themselves off about how chivalrous and virtuous they are 24/7. Is this actually a thing, and if so, w Because the protagonists are always right because otherwise how could they be the protagonists so therefore whatever they do is good and what others do is evil. Another pitch for Sage Monarch being the worst thing I've ever read because the MC acts like the world's biggest rear end in a top hat, only getting worse as he gets stronger, and there's literally never a person that has went from neutral or unfriendly to ally or friend. Even characters that help him eventually get murdered the second they're not useful because the writer drops in a line how the MC could tell they weren't loyal. It feels like it could be an incredible setup for a reversal or comeuppance but I know it's never going to happen but he's never actually been weakened for more than a chapter nor ever lost a fight. I hate it but keep hate-reading it. Shout out to Lu Sheng (Way of the Devil), the best MC despite being a literal monster, for making friends out of enemies and generally improving the life of everyone regardless of their standing. The story has also taken some weird turns of multiple planes within alternate universes which has let the story breathe a little by allowing some interesting sub-stories. It reminds me a lot more of Overlord than a xianxia clone since there's a lot of interesting factions and characters maneuvering in the background but with less weird gross stuff, but also less skeleton-dad.
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Nov 3, 2019 21:50
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If Sage Monarch is the worst thing you've ever read you're lucky. It's nowhere near as poorly written and repetitive as something like Peerless Martial God, and the protagonist hasn't raped anybody. My favorite recent novel is Divine Throne of Primordial Blood, because the protagonist's cheat is mostly just being smart, and his goal is to overthrow the bloodline cultivation aristocracy by creating a cultivation system anyone can use and giving it away to all of humanity.
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Nov 3, 2019 22:31
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I was literally about to call out Peerless Martial God as the worst offender in the hypocrite MC. I haven’t read it since the early days of the translation boom, but I had to drop it after the 3rd time that the MC lectures at some young master about the immorality of killing other people on a whim, and then immediately killing him.
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Nov 3, 2019 22:49
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Darth Walrus posted:Is it just me, or is hypocrisy a really big thing in xianxia stories? It feels like Japanese and Western fantasy are a little more likely to have their protagonists be goody-two-shoes heroes, or 'lol, gently caress off, I'm evil' psychopaths, whereas xianxia stories will very commonly have backstabbing, murderous monsters who nevertheless jerk themselves off about how chivalrous and virtuous they are 24/7. Is this actually a thing, and if so, why? The protagonist of Ze Tian Ji/Way of Choices is a good person, and there's a whole arc who that builds up to him repudiating standard Xianxia protagonist morality. I've heard that Pivot of the Sky (same author) has a focus on how the greatest good a person could do is share their gifts/knowledge, but I haven't read it. By contrast there's Reverend Insanity, where both the author and the protagonist are under no illusion that the MC isn't an awful monster.
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Nov 3, 2019 22:56
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English webnovel, but Godking's Legacy is basically an intentional parody of the self-justifying rear end in a top hat Xianxia MC. Your mileage might vary, but I find it very funny. It helps that the MC is easily distracted and has one brain cell.
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Nov 3, 2019 23:42
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SITB posted:The protagonist of Ze Tian Ji/Way of Choices is a good person, and there's a whole arc who that builds up to him repudiating standard Xianxia protagonist morality. I've heard that Pivot of the Sky (same author) has a focus on how the greatest good a person could do is share their gifts/knowledge, but I haven't read it. I don't think Pivot of the Sky has the same author as Way of Choices. Though it seems to be well regarded. I'm only familiar with The Path Toward Heaven by the same author, but that one also had a fairly benevolent protagonist. Which, speaking of, I should catch up on one of these days. I let it lapse after it got eaten up by the great evil known as Qidian.
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Nov 3, 2019 23:45
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Darth Walrus posted:Is it just me, or is hypocrisy a really big thing in xianxia stories? It feels like Japanese and Western fantasy are a little more likely to have their protagonists be goody-two-shoes heroes, or 'lol, gently caress off, I'm evil' psychopaths, whereas xianxia stories will very commonly have backstabbing, murderous monsters who nevertheless jerk themselves off about how chivalrous and virtuous they are 24/7. Is this actually a thing, and if so, why? I think its a selection bias for author avatars, bad western stories and fanfics with author's pets have that happen too (there's a superhero cyoa that got lped which has a great example of that, i think it was like choice of heroes or something like that)
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Nov 4, 2019 00:37
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AtomikKrab posted:Yes, the Tension starts to ratchet up in the arc after the city. And you are not really meant to like the MC, as the story tells you. NOT A NICE GUY. Well, yeah, but it's more that if there is nothing interesting going on, all that is left for the reader is a hatred for the MC. The story needs other elements to make me want to read about someone horrible.
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Nov 4, 2019 00:57
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Jymmybob posted:Shout out to Lu Sheng (Way of the Devil), the best MC despite being a literal monster, for making friends out of enemies and generally improving the life of everyone regardless of their standing. The story has also taken some weird turns of multiple planes within alternate universes which has let the story breathe a little by allowing some interesting sub-stories. It reminds me a lot more of Overlord than a xianxia clone since there's a lot of interesting factions and characters maneuvering in the background but with less weird gross stuff, but also less skeleton-dad. Lu Sheng at least acknowledges that he's not a hero, but he will help actual heroic guys out because those people generally pay back favors when you need them. Most morally good protag is still Song Shuhang
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Nov 4, 2019 01:01
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Tunicate posted:I think its a selection bias for author avatars, bad western stories and fanfics with author's pets have that happen too (there's a superhero cyoa that got lped which has a great example of that, i think it was like choice of heroes or something like that) I guess it feels more standard and routine in xianxia stories? Even low-tier self-insert dreck from Japanese and Western authors often seems to let someone be who they are without pretence (whether that be angel or demon), or at least put some effort into justifying their character's warped worldview, even if it's just 'this guy is a hero as written by a colossal misogynist'.
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Nov 4, 2019 02:26
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Nemo Somen posted:Well, yeah, but it's more that if there is nothing interesting going on, all that is left for the reader is a hatred for the MC. The story needs other elements to make me want to read about someone horrible. I don't even hate the mc, as the story goes on theres plenty of interesting things at least from my own perspective. Also other characters and their events crop up as well.
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Nov 4, 2019 04:26
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In Forge of Destiny sequel news the MC just finished a fight that made her little bandit scuffle look like Xmas loving morning and poo poo Just Got Real for the Main Plot
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Nov 4, 2019 22:55
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To be fair, hypocrisy is really the only sane reaction to living in a xianxia world. You might believe some value system in the abstract, and you can even enforce it among cultivators weaker than you, but if you follow it yourself you're just going to get merked by a more powerful cultivator who doesn't, unless there's an even more powerful cultivator who enforces them on them, and so on. I'm really enjoying Though The Heavens Should Fall (xianxia/cultivation novel by the writer of the Iron Teeth books) and a big reason why is that the author explores stuff like what it'd be like to meet a high-level cultivator (loving terrifying, when it doesn't kill you outright) and what a civilization run by super-high-level cultivators would look like. The MC does have the typical "STRENGTH is the ONLY thing that MATTERS in LIFE!" attitude, but he has relatively selfless reasons for doing so (avenging a dead friend) and he's not openly hypocritical about it (so far). Also this made me laugh: quote:“How can I use this ability? I don’t think I actually benefit from sucking up ki this way. It doesn’t get added to my core and it seem like a difficult thing to use in a fight.”
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Nov 5, 2019 00:00
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I was contemplating giving up on Cradle halfway through book 5 and posting to ask if Lindon ever gets to actually win a fight then hoo boy the second half happened. 
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Nov 5, 2019 00:05
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