The Ups and Downs of Web Novels and Light Novels
I'll go ahead and begin with an intro to my current experience with Light Novels and Web Novels in Japanese. For the last two years, I've been reading them at a rate of 60-100 chapters a day (faster in the case of below-average size chapters). I primarily read fantasy with a side of science fiction (no, not just isekai, though I love isekai). This isn't hard, because fantasy and science fiction make up over three-quarters of all the LNs and Web Novels out there. This is a bit ironic to my eyes, since it was the reverse with VNs, where romance and slice of life made up over 90% of all JVNs.
The great thing about web novels is that you can read them at your leisure without paying anything, and if you like it, most good authors have a patreon you can contribute to or get a light novel release you can buy to put money in their pockets. The downsides are that there are usually three bad web novels for every one good one, and even the good ones usually have problems with the writing (a web novel I read recently used incorrect kanji for common phrases in a number of cases, making it annoyingly hard to read).
The good thing about Light Novels is that they generally have added and more refined content compared to the original material, and they generally also come along with at least some pictures to help you get an idea of what the characters look like (some Japanese authors just suck at describing character appearances beyond hair color and skin color). The downside is that light novels are generally more expensive than standard paperbacks or ebooks and rarely go down in price even after years or even decades have passed. As such, they are often a huge burden on the pocketbook (in particular, a lot of LN series give you very little content for each $10 volume, as little as one hundred fifty short pages in a lot of cases, which is totally not worth it).
The upside of web novels in terms of content is that web novels tend to be more freeform and creative. However, in exchange most are never completed and many of them just trail off because the writer runs out of ideas. This is opposed to Light Novels, where I've definitely experienced situations (repeatedly) where authors are just continuing out of momentum and the story never goes anywhere... which is horrible when you are already overpaying for novels that are far too short for the money in question. It is pretty common for LN series to run to 20+ volumes and yet never really get anywhere...
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