Light Novels.

llik3

Have you ever read LNs? I perused an SAO one in what? 2013? and since then I've tested the waters every so often.

They really make me cringe like...bad I feel they comprise all the bad things about manga and anime - well, that's all they consist of really. I guess it's the other way around, the writers of anime and manga just skim some of the filth when adapting them to their respective medium.

Are all writers of LNs horny male teens with shit for brains or maladjusted and uncultured 40-somethings?

What has been your experience?

One I've enjoyed slightly even though I stand by all I said above: Hai to Gensou no Grimgar

LoliPantsu

I got the Log Horizon, Overlord and Spice and Wolf light novel but I only got half way into them because I lose interest in books fast. I guess they're alright but manga is a lot better IMO.

doublemunch

The Haruhi series is the only LN series I can say I thoroughly enjoyed (read no.8 today), but I guess that they're meta and a little unorthodox in how they're ordered, and Tanigawa clearly puts a lotta love into them.
Hoping to get LH, but as >>44367 says you usually get more out of the manga for things like this.
imo unless it's critically acclaimed it's a no go, same with normal books.

llik3

LoliPantsu wrote:
I got the Log Horizon, Overlord and Spice and Wolf light novel but I only got half way into them because I lose interest in books fast. I guess they're alright but manga is a lot better IMO.

Is Spice and Wolf ok by real book standards? I really liked the anime.

Backlash

I've only read one LN; IIRC, it's called "Kyoukaisenjou no Horizon".

The anime is hands-down the best I've ever seen, but the LN has this nasty habit of having to communicate every single detail in a scene. Chief example of this: A shot that spanned thirty seconds in the anime ran for three to six pages in the novel.

It makes the LNs a total slog to read, which is a damn shame because it's an excellent series with entertaining characters set in a surprisingly original and immersive high tech/high fantasy world. It's a veteran writer too, so it's not like the first few books were a one-off. But seriously, when your second novel has a larger word count than the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, it's time to cut some of the fat.

malmon

I haven't read any, but I have the Index series downloaded for whenever I actually have a reasonable means of reading them.

PetersPark

Are all writers of LNs horny male teens with shit for brains or maladjusted and uncultured 40-somethings?
As Light Novels are just a medium, generalization like this really don't work.
While I do admit that I expect the absolute worst when I see "LN adaption", the medium as a whole isn't only bad.
But I do imagine that most ln authors are probably pretty young. It's the kind of books, you are expected to buy like 3 for each $5 at random and then continue buying what you like every 3 month, but western publisher don't really seem to understand this concept.
Personally I'm a big fan of what's translated of zaregoto, by nisioisin. I can also recommend the Faust anthology it is filled with extracts from Light Novels, short stories and manga from the most recent and freshest authors in japan (that's at least what they state). Sadly enough most good LN adaption only get translation years after and then get sold with close to zero promotion for crazy prices (looking at you baccano) and stop getting published after Volume 2.
I also heard very good things about Boogiepop.

tn5421

There were a few light novels I picked up that I particularly enjoyed.

Goth: A Novel of Horror
Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World
Magic Moon
and other stuff whos names I have forgotten.

tftp

The Yahari light novels are great for both those who have and haven't watched the show.

By the way, here are all volumes 1 - 11 and the .5s here https://www.reddit.com/r/OreGairuSNAFU/wiki/index in ePUB and PDF.

floattube

tftp wrote:
The Yahari light novels are great for both those who have and haven't watched the show.

By the way, here are all volumes 1 - 11 and the .5s here https://www.reddit.com/r/OreGairuSNAFU/wiki/index in ePUB and PDF.

Read the first one in the series and liked it but for some reason never picked it back up.

Other than that, I read the Welcome to the NHK novel (not that great tbh) and Haruhi which is probably the best LN series ever.

llik3

I like Gene Wolfe best. :-P

There seem to be several worth picking up - Seeing as it is summer vacation after all, I'll try some more!