What Light Novel are you reading right now?

[Tesla]

At the moment I'm reading then switching over to something else every few chapters or full volumes on several series. Right now it's Psycho Love Comedy, Campione, RE: Monster, Mushoku Tensei, Zhan Long, Highschool DxD, Mahouka, and I recently bought volumes 1-12 of Spice and Wolf so I'll be reading that for a while.

[julyan]

I finally got my hands on NT12. Now I won't feel guilty reading baka-tsuki's translation.

[Seth]

I´ve finished Index NT 10 now. Wow. That was one hell of a ride .

First of all: Othinus not as a magic god but as a "normal" girl is more than hilarious. I loved every of their little interactions between the fights.

 

Also the very first fight, "hm, who is gonna be his first opponent, probably somebody weak at first. FREAKIN´ ACCELERATOR WITH HIS WHITE WINGS." Funny though that he was actually the only person to really hold back against him, other than some girls who are supposed to be all over him

.

The other highlights were Touma totally exploiting Kanzaki´s weakness and jumping of the flying fortress, the fight against Index and Birdway  

“Ehh? I just settled all this with Misaka, so do I really have to go over the same stuff again?” What a golden moment of Toumas denseness

[brawlbankai]

So I'm thinking about picking up the Oregairu series, because the anime isn't coming out fast enough. What I want to know is how important the events in the earlier volumes the anime either skipped or rushed through are.

 

Basically, can I just start reading in the middle of volume 8 or will I have to have read the rest of it to understand what's going on?

 

As for what I'm currently reading,

 

Absolute Duo: Volume 1

Chrome Shelled Regios: Volume 8

Date A Live: Volume 1

Highschool DxD: Volume 18

Infinite Stratos: Waiting for Volume 9

Hagure Yuusha no Aesthetica: Waiting for Volume 6

Log Horizon: Waiting for Volume 8

Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Waiting for Volume 14

Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai Kara Kuru Sou Desu yo?: Short Stories Volume/Waiting for volume Volume 9

Oda Nobuna no Yabou: Waiting for Volume 10

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance: Volume 13

Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testement: Waiting for Volume 12

[Tenkuru]

 

So I'm thinking about picking up the Oregairu series, because the anime isn't coming out fast enough. What I want to know is how important the events in the earlier volumes the anime either skipped or rushed through are.

 

Basically, can I just start reading in the middle of volume 8 or will I have to have read the rest of it to understand what's going on?

[brawlbankai]

I started reading from volume 8, but I recommend you to read from the start. Events that are often referenced in the later volumes didn't happen in the anime, so I was quite confused at some points. 

[Satsuki]

First time reading a LN.

Just finished Clotaku vol.1.

Moving on to Only Sense Online.

[julyan]

I just got my hands on some Tate no Yuusha volumes~

I'll be pretty busy for a while. I'm also reading a vn right now.

[Fred the Barber]

The second DanMachi LN came out on Amazon ~ a little bit ago, so I'm reading that now. I'm actually rather liking this series - things actually get consistently a little deeper and more interesting as the plot passes, so I'm curious to see where it's headed overall.

[Quark]

I recently bought volumes 1-12 of Spice and Wolf so I'll be reading that for a while.

[Fred the Barber]

I'm on volume 3. I like it so far! Just ordered the anime to go along with it.

 

I have my pile of Spice and Wolf volumes 8 - 14 right next to me, actually, and volume 15 pre-ordered. I am only putting it off to savor the experience and to save myself hardship later - if I'm too lax, I'll tear through all of them in a week or two, and then I'll just be sad that I have to wait so long for the last few volumes to be translated and released...

[Getsuya]

I started reading Fate/Prototype.

 

It's... pretty bad.

Here's the first few pages in a nutshell:

1. A kind of poem thing that is half about how horrible life is (including such lines as: in this black, or perhaps if we try our hardest a dark shade of gray, reality) and half about how amazing Saber is (male!Saber, since this is Prototype where the MC and Saber's genders are swapped)

2. Unsourced quote from the Bible

3. Two pages of the main character waking up, including such exciting moments as explaining how days work ('the day that should have been tomorrow had become today') an over-use of certain terms to pad out the length of the scene ('if she were asked she would say that she liked the feeling'... repeated 2-3 times in a single paragraph), and things the author thinks elementary-school aged girls think about ('she wondered when it was that she had become able to dress without anyone helping her'... did she? did she really? and even if she did is that really important for us to know?)

 

Or in other words this book is purple prose through and through. I think the author panicked when they asked him to write the 'original concept' for Fate in novel form and kind of splooged words all over the page. It's not entertaining to read. Hopefully it gets better, I guess I should give it more than 2-3 pages to hook me, though the book is really short if you take out all the bonus chapters and the short comedy manga at the end. I almost want to just skip this and go right to Fate/Apocrypha which sounds much more interesting, but I also want to get through Prototype so Fate/Stay will be super weird when I finally read it (what? Saber is a girl? nahhhhh)

[Abyssal Monkey]

I started reading Fate/Prototype.

The entire thing is literally just a giant troll.  It is just a concept for a Grail War, and it only sets everything up and never gets past the setup.  It basically says "Heres how everything was summoned, here are the Masters' powers, here are the Servants and how they interact, imagine the rest".  I personally found it quite humorous.  If you really want a fulfillment out of it, there is a manga which supposedly is rebooting it, and completing it.

Whoops, that was Strange Fake 

 

Personally, I put Apocrypha on hold until Canon finishes it, first half of Volume 1 was pretty good, and because I know that it's already 2/3rds finished, with only 1 volume left, I'm gonna go crazy if I don't finish it. It's the same reason why I stopped reading Owari no Chronicle at book 5.  I know for a fact that at the current rate of translation, that Js06 is gonna finish it before the end of June, because he translates stupid fast. 

 

I started reading MA-Series on Baka Tsuki.  Oh boy, this one is pretty good.  I wanted an adventure series, I got an adventure series with some good comedy.  It's sporting some really old tropes that I haven't seen in awhile, so even though it follows a pretty constant formula book to book, I'm still enjoying it immensely. 

[Down]

Getsuya: I'm pretty sure Sakurai's prose is always like this though.

It seems to be a bit polarizing, since some people love it and other are annoyed by it.

[Getsuya]

Getsuya: I'm pretty sure Sakurai's prose is always like this though.

It seems to be a bit polarizing, since some people love it and other are annoyed by it.

I'm a lot more forgiving of this kind of thing when it's in English, but when I'm reading in Japanese I feel like they're wasting my time when I finally get done unscrambling the kanji and grammar and realize I just wasted my concentration reading purple prose.

[LinovaA]

I just started what will be the second light novel series that I have ever read; Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria.

 

I ended up reading half of volume one before going to bed last night, and I plan on finishing that before I go to sleep tonight. So far it is really awesome and I am really enjoying it. I should really read light novels more often.

[brawlbankai]

I just started what will be the second light novel series that I have ever read; Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria.

As often as I've seen this series mentioned, I'm surprised I haven't started it yet.

 

I might pick it up after I finish the last two volumes of Oregairu.

[Abyssal Monkey]

I just started what will be the second light novel series that I have ever read; Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria.

 

I ended up reading half of volume one before going to bed last night, and I plan on finishing that before I go to sleep tonight. So far it is really awesome and I am really enjoying it. I should really read light novels more often.

This, as far as I can tell, considering I gather most of my information via random sources, would be considered a cult classic in the west in the LN community.  It's nowhere near high profile enough to ever consider getting an anime or official english translation, but is still regarded as an excellent story.  Before they split, and I guess now that they have, it dominated MAL's "manga" charts only getting beat out by Berserk by .01 points.  Now that it got split, its winning by a good .25 points, and considering the fanbases of some of the major communities, like -monogatari, that's quite a significant margin for something that never got any high profile advertising.

 

For my opinion, the series might be one of the best displays of romance I've seen in a long time.  We also get to see the exceedingly rare male yandere.  The author knows how to use the medium of novel to his advantage to hide information to build up suspense. I remember last year picking it up on a whim during chemistry class thinking "I'll try it out and read it for this class period.", but I never put it down after that. 

 

In MAou news, I couldn't stop laughing when the flute in book 3 was illustrated as a recorder.  As much as I hate to say it, light novels written before 2005 seriously have a different feel to them, and I really do prefer them over some of the newer stuff getting translated that is all romcoms, edgy dark stuff, or just really obvious attempts at fanservice, rather than attempting to actually tell a good story.

 

Also, every time I see your signature, I can't help but think of Machina from Tsuki Tsuki!.  I don't know why, but it really reminds me of her, so who is it actually?

[LinovaA]

So I finished volume one of Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria and started volume 2. Pretty good stuff still.

 

I also picked up Rokka no Yuusha as my friend sent me a link showing that the anime was coming out in July. Figured I would check out the source material. The prologue along with the first chapter alone hooked me and I am really looking forward to reading the rest of it.

 

Why didn't I get into light novels sooner? O_o

 

Also, every time I see your signature, I can't help but think of Machina from Tsuki Tsuki!.  I don't know why, but it really reminds me of her, so who is it actually?

 

I see that resemblance, but her name is Satomura Momiji, from Fortissimo EXS//Akkord:Nachsten Phase.

[Kurokusari]

So I finished volume one of Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria and started volume 2. Pretty good stuff still.

So far it's only written until volume 6 and I can say that you will be one us dying for the story to continue when you finish until the latest. And I can say that the sheer awesomeness of the work will continue and even get better. *stops before starts spewing spoilers*

 

 

Moving on to Only Sense Online.

Not really putting you down but OSO has some strange storytelling. It's first person but as a reader, it's like your watching someone play an MMO. Not exactly bad since the theme is a VRMMO but it's lacking a certain sense of oomph. I stopped midway in Volume 3 since it's starting to get old.

 

I just finished volume 9 of Antimagic academy and the protagonist is still one heck of a siscon. I haven't started volume 10 yet since I might run out of stuff to read once school starts. LNs being my only entertainment during 4 hours of travel. Btw there's gonna be a 2-cour adaptation if it covering until volume 9 so yay.

 

By the way any fans of Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance? The anime adaptation was crap but I still love the LN. Been waiting for about a year now for Volume 14 to come out and it was announced to be released this summer, along with a new illustrator (the illustrator being the same one for Clover Days and mostly ALcot VNs).

[Tenkuru]

So far it's only written until volume 6 and I can say that you will be one us dying for the story to continue when you finish until the latest. And I can say that the sheer awesomeness of the work will continue and even get better. *stops before starts spewing spoilers*

In case you don't already know, volume 7 is coming out on the 10th of June 

 

 

By the way any fans of Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance? The anime adaptation was crap but I still love the LN. Been waiting for about a year now for Volume 14 to come out and it was announced to be released this summer, along with a new illustrator (the illustrator being the same one for Clover Days and mostly ALcot VNs).

A new volume this summer with a new illustrator that does work for Alcot? Now that is something I highly look forward to.

[Satsuki]

 

It's first person but as a reader, it's like your watching someone play an MMO. 

That's the summary of my childhood gaming experience

[Kurokusari]

In case you don't already know, volume 7 is coming out on the 10th of June 

Hot damn I didn't know that. I just hope that the translator is as hyped as us and finish it in a week.

 

 

A new volume this summer with a new illustrator that does work for Alcot? Now that is something I highly look forward to.

Yeah there was a sample and it certainly does look good. Although it's kinda sad to know that the original illustrator will stop due to health issues.

Sample:

 

That's the summary of my childhood gaming experience

Is this the same case as mine, being pushed around by the older brother? XD

[brawlbankai]

Yeah there was a sample and it certainly does look good. Although it's kinda sad to know that the original illustrator will stop due to health issues.

Sample:

 

Now I'm really looking forward to volume 14. Still kinda sad to see the previous illustrator go, I actually enjoyed the artwork. Est is adorable either way though.

 

Just out of curiosity, how did the anime turn out in the end, I dropped it after 4 episodes.

[Kurokusari]

Now I'm really looking forward to volume 14. Still kinda sad to see the previous illustrator go, I actually enjoyed the artwork. Est is adorable either way though.

 

 

Don't worry too much about the artwork. The illustrator might be different but the new one is trying his best to imitate the original artwork so the outcome wouldn't be that different.  

 

 

Just out of curiosity, how did the anime turn out in the end, I dropped it after 4 episodes.

 

I have no idea how the anime turned out. I dropped it after episode 2 since it made me feel like an idiot getting hyped. The hype was enough for me to stay awake until 3 am (with classes where I need to wake up at 4) to watch the raws. Then shit hit the fan the very first episode and I thought maybe it will get better but it didn't . . . I decided to stop my image of the LN gets messed up, too.