Reviews Amateur / Webnovel appreciation and recommendation Thread

Kyougar

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I wanted to make a thread about the massive amount of free Novels on the web.
This thread should be used to introduce other readers to the Novels you have read in the past or that you are currently reading.
Also, many Amateur/Webnovels have a presentation and description problem. "Character X goes on an Adventure!" is an acceptable blurb for a 40k word novel, but when your Novel breaks 500k words, it is quite lacking.

Personally, I read a fuck-ton of novels daily and have mostly given up on reading dead-tree books (because of the costs). the daily amount of reading depends on how invested I am in the world and if I am using public transport. Some days, I only read 10k or 20k words but when I am in heavy focus mode and want to know what happens next, I can read up to 100k words in a day and neglect my gaming time.

Because of the amount that I read, any novel below 100k words isn't even considered unless it is part of a series. It could be the bestestestest Novel of all time, if the end is too soon, I have to find another novel just after a day.

We should also discuss if Fanfiction should be included ;)


The first Introduction goes to:

[UWSL][UWSL]WORM[/UWSL][/UWSL]




Official Story Blurb:
An introverted teenage girl with an unconventional superpower, Taylor goes out in costume to find escape from a deeply unhappy and frustrated civilian life. Her first attempt at taking down a supervillain sees her mistaken for one, thrusting her into the midst of the local ‘cape’ scene’s politics, unwritten rules, and ambiguous morals. As she risks life and limb, Taylor faces the dilemma of having to do the wrong things for the right reasons.
Official Website: Worm
Fan-made Audiobook: Home – Worm Audiobook
Arc by Arc Podcast by a reader who already finished Worm and by a first-time reader:
Official sequel: "Ward" Glow-worm - 0.1 - Parahumans 2
Author: John "Wildbow" McCrae
Wordcount: Worm: 1.7 Million words, the sequel Ward closed in on nearly 2 million words.

Worm was a surprise for me. I had never liked Superhuman stories or comics. But after stumbling on Worm, I was immediately hooked. The setting and the powers were so different, there was no baddie of the week to fight, you were immersed in the world and the conflicts that had an ongoing narrative. The female protagonist was also a plus. And she controls bugs!
Looking at my saved ebooks (I copied the text of every chapter from an arc into a pdf and read the pdf), I finished that monster in just 10 days! that is over 170k words in a day. (there were points in my life where I read novels for 12 hours a day)

1.7 Million words are long, so here is a bit more spoiler-y synopsis of what is happening throughout the novel: You start as a bullied girl who gets superpowers because of a traumatic event and decide to become a hero. Plans don't survive the contact with other superpowered people and you decide to become a hero that pretends to be a villain to get other villains behind bars. STUFF happens and you go deeper and deeper into the rabbit holes, having burned bridges, trying to save other people that are under the thumb of more powerful supervillains and so on.

Worm is one of the most successful western Webnovels of all time if we just take the Fanfiction story counts as a metric. It has more FF stories than 98% of all dead-tree books. The science-fiction boards "Sufficient Velocity" and "Spacebattles even have a separate Forum just for Worm fanfic, no other Novel or Franchise on those boards has that. From 10 million messages on the creative writing board on Spacebattles, 2.2 million belong to the Worm board. On SV, 650k of the 2 million Messages are in the Worm board of the Creative Writing Forum.

The Sequel: I read only a third of it yet, had started it and decided to wait for it to end. It has ended now... But I can't bring myself to finish it. I have too much issues with how the world and characters are now displayed to get much joy from reading the sequel. It goes into heavy spoilers on why that is.
 
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Kyougar

Kyougar

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[UWSL][UWSL]Mother of Learning[/UWSL][/UWSL]




Official Blurb:
Zorian is a teenage mage of humble birth and slightly above-average skill, attending his third year of education at Cyoria's magical academy. He is a driven and irritable young man, consumed by a desire to ensure his own future and free himself of the influence of his family, whom he resents for favoring his brothers over him. Consequently, he has no time for pointless distractions or paying attention to other people's problems. As it happens, time is something he is about to get plenty of. On the eve of the Cyoria's annual summer festival, he is killed and brought back to the beginning of the month, just before he was about to take a train to Cyoria. Suddenly trapped in a time loop with no clear end or exit, Zorian will have to look both within and without to unravel the mystery before him. And he does have to unravel it, for the time loop hadn't been made for his sake and dangers lurk everywhere... Repetition is the mother of learning, but Zorian will have to first make sure he survives to try again - in a world of magic, even a time traveler isn't safe from those who wish him ill.
Author: Domagoj "nobody103" Kurmaic
Genre: Timeloop Modern-Fantasy
Official Website: Ersetu - Mother of Learning Universe
read it here: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21220/mother-of-learning
Audible Narrator Audiobook (don't know about the quality):
Wordcount: 820.000


Mother of Learning is my favorite Amateur Novel. I was hooked from the first chapter. It is Timeloop done right on all levels. It starts with the mystery of the loop, finding out about the Invasion of the city, branching out into the wider conspiracy in the country, goes global and has a satisfying end-fight.
The characterization is superb, Zorian grows in bounds as a character and social person, his sister is just adorable and this Novel is probably the only time where I want to cuddle and hug sentient giant spiders.
What many Timeloops fail to realize, is that there is a world outside the bubble of the protagonist. And doing things differently affects it differently. The people who Zorian influences with his actions, or even saves, will be affected by Zorian NOT doing it in the next Timeloop. And the ones he saved... will die. You have this scene at the start where Zorian helps a little, sad girl getting her bicycle out of the river while it is raining non-stop. Just a chance-encounter for a few minutes. Dozens of Timeloops later, Zorian meets the girl again, and we and Zorian suddenly remember, that the girl would have stood at the bridge over the river on all of those different Timeloops and would have finally gotten home without her bicycle and no chance of getting another one from her parents for the foreseeable future.
This happens all over the Novel, you suddenly realize that the people you spent an awesome time with either spent their time alone or with their normal schedule, or will meet an untimely end.

Now that the Timeloop is over, nothing would be more awesome than a normal continuation set in this world.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
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I'll second Mother of Learning. I've binged the entire thing in like 2 weeks or something. It really is an incredibly satisfying read.
 
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Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
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Alright, let's do this!

[UWSL]Release That Witch[/UWSL]



Official Blurb:
Chen Yan travels between worlds, ending up becoming an honorable prince in a medieval fantasy world. Yet this world was not quite as simple as he thought. Witches with magical powers abound, and fearsome wars between churches and kingdoms rage throughout the land.
Roland, a prince regarded as hopeless by his own father and assigned to the worst fief, spends his time developing a poor and backward town into a strong and modern city, while fighting against his siblings for the throne and absolute control over the kingdom. Join Roland as he befriends and allies with witches and, through fighting and even farming, pushes back invaders from the realm of evil.
Author: Er Mu
Genre: Kingdom-building Isekai
Length: 1498 chapters / 2.23 million words
Website: Release That Witch

One of my favorite webnovels. Release That Witch, corny name aside, is a chinese Isekai focused on kingdom building. The main character, a chinese engineer, suddenly finds himself in a different world after he died - in the body of Roland Wimbledon, a useless prince who got sent into far away border region to keep him away from the important political stuff.
The world he finds himself in is similar to a medieval Europe with fantasy elements: There are monsters and there is also magic, but only women can use it and are hunted and killed by the church.
Roland doesn't have any special powers, so he only has two things to give him an advantage in this new world:
His knowledge from our world and his acceptance of witches. He researches magic and combines it with his modern-day knowledge to aid in the growth of his domain. And as he learns more about the world and its history, it becomes clear that the "medieval Europe" is only the surface and this world has many more weird, fantastical and dangerous things in store for him and his allies...

Basically the MC plays Civilization and brings his domain into the industrial revolution while everyone else is stuck in the middle ages and it's satisfying.
Incredible worldbuilding, fascinating magic and fantastical elements, cute romance and lots of well fleshed-out side characters make this a highly recommended read.
 
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Kyougar

Kyougar

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Love RTW, Got stuck on Chapter 799 and did my daily's on Webnovel to unlock the rest of the chapters. Have to finish it sometimes but am undecided on continuing on 799 or completely start again. The longer I wait, the more likely it is that I will start from the beginning.

RTW is the go-to Webnovel I recommend for people asking about Chinese Webnovels. It is the most accessible for a western audience, which is good, but it is mostly NOT like traditional Chinese Webnovels which is kinda bad, when people search for Novels like RTW and find 90% Wuxia and Xianxia Novels in all forms.
It has more in common with Japanese Isekai Novels and shames 98% of them.
 
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Kyougar

Kyougar

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Today, we learn about

[UWSL]Caelum Lex[/UWSL][UWSL] [/UWSL]



Official blurb:
It’s a trying time in the central clusters of the galaxy. A shadow organization of powerful figures are tightening their grip to seize control, free planets are struggling to maintain their independence, and Leta Adler somehow ended up on a pirate ship.

This is Caelum Lex, a sci-fi space opera following the crew of the Dionysian (the irony of the name is not lost on any of them) and its mission to stay afloat in a Span ever more trying to shoot it down.

Join Leta, a not-so-sheltered-anymore doctor with a mission of her own, the captain she can’t stop butting heads with, his engineering genius of a brother, and the whole crew as they traverse the trials and tribulations of the universe, the mysterious Society, and each other.
Author: (it was seriously hard to find that out! Hayley Greenhalgh, Jenn Bane
Genre: Space Opera Adventure
Official Website: Wordcount: 650.000 in 151 chapters

Probably not many people know of or have read Caelum Lex, if the nonexistent buzz and/or discussion about it are to go by.
It is a Space Opera about a "kinda" Pirate Vessel and a female Doctor who is hiding on it. It heavily plays into dystopian, slavery, and political themes. The galaxy is alive, you get invested into the characters and mystery get its fair share.
But the most striking feature of this Webnovel is:


The one to three drawn pictures of situations, characters, and locations every chapter. Seriously, I was baffled by the consistency of the release and the pictures to accompany it. The first few chapters are a bit rough picture-wise but it gets better after chapter 5 to 10.

I never found any work from the team after it :(
 
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Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
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RTW is the go-to Webnovel I recommend for people asking about Chinese Webnovels. It is the most accessible for a western audience, which is good, but it is mostly NOT like traditional Chinese Webnovels which is kinda bad, when people search for Novels like RTW and find 90% Wuxia and Xianxia Novels in all forms.
It has more in common with Japanese Isekai Novels and shames 98% of them.
Lol same. I've recently binged most of Lord of the Mysteries, which is amazing and also extremely easy to reccomend - because it's also not a "typical" genre for chinese webnovels 😅 . It's also isekai, but lovecraftian/occult themed. It was just finished like 2 months ago and is almost completely translated. I was thinking of waiting until the last volume is translated as well before writing a rec about it, but I might as well just go for it right now. It's easily become one of my all time favorites.
 
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Ascheroth

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[UWSL][UWSL]Lord of the Mysteries[/UWSL][/UWSL]




Official Blurb:
With the rising tide of steam power and machinery, who can come close to being a Beyonder? Shrouded in the fog of history and darkness, who or what is the lurking evil that murmurs into our ears?
Waking up to be faced with a string of mysteries, Zhou Mingrui finds himself reincarnated as Klein Moretti in an alternate Victorian era world where he sees a world filled with machinery, cannons, dreadnoughts, airships, difference machines, as well as Potions, Divination, Hexes, Tarot Cards, Sealed Artifacts…
The Light continues to shine but mystery has never gone far. Follow Klein as he finds himself entangled with the Churches of the world—both orthodox and unorthodox—while he slowly develops newfound powers thanks to the Beyonder potions.
Like the corresponding tarot card, The Fool, which is numbered 0—a number of unlimited potential—this is the legend of “The Fool”.
Author: Cuttlefish That Loves Diving
Official Website: Lord of the Mysteries
Genre: Lovecraftian Steampunk Fantasy "Isekai"
Length: 1394 chapters (presumably also around ~2 million words).

Just all around amazing. Our reincarnator Klein Moretti finds himself entangled with the supernatural underside of this alternate world due to the bizarre nature of his reincarnation. He also learns that he was not the first reincarnator - someone else arrived before him and brought some of modern culture and technology into this alternate world.
The worldbuilding and lore is incredibly rich. There are multiple fleshed out historical eras with tons of organizations, important characters and secrets - and lots of it ties back into the current state of the world and the ongoing plot.
The main character is very smart, scheming and cautious. But so are all the other characters in this novel. The "action" is not so much focused on pure combat with fantastical abilities - though there is also a good amount of that - but battles of wits and scheming. And boy do some of those schemes run deep. There's also plenty of important three-dimensional side characters and different perspectives - after all the MC starts very early to secretly create his own secret society where he (succesfully) pretends to be a god :whistle:.
The author is also very very good at foreshadowing and build up. This is clearly a story that was completely envisioned from the very beginning, where nothing is unimportant and no "filler" exists.

Like I mentioned before, it's easily become one of my all-time favorite stories - beyond just webnovels. It's that good.
 
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Kyougar

Kyougar

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[UWSL][UWSL][UWSL]Lord of the Mysteries[/UWSL][/UWSL][/UWSL]




Official Blurb:

Author:
Cuttlefish That Loves Diving
Official Website: Lord of the Mysteries
Genre: Lovecraftian Steampunk Fantasy "Isekai"
Length: 1394 chapters (presumably also around ~2 million words).

Just all around amazing. Our reincarnator Klein Moretti finds himself entangled with the supernatural underside of this alternate world due to the bizarre nature of his reincarnation. He also learns that he was not the first reincarnator - someone else arrived before him and brought some of modern culture and technology into this alternate world.
The worldbuilding and lore is incredibly rich. There are multiple fleshed out historical eras with tons of organizations, important characters and secrets - and lots of it ties back into the current state of the world and the ongoing plot.
The main character is very smart, scheming and cautious. But so are all the other characters in this novel. The "action" is not so much focused on pure combat with fantastical abilities - though there is also a good amount of that - but battles of wits and scheming. And boy do some of those schemes run deep. There's also plenty of important three-dimensional side characters and different perspectives - after all the MC starts very early to secretly create his own secret society where he (succesfully) pretends to be a god :whistle:.
The author is also very very good at foreshadowing and build up. This is clearly a story that was completely envisioned from the very beginning, where nothing is unimportant and no "filler" exists.

Like I mentioned before, it's easily become one of my all-time favorite stories - beyond just webnovels. It's that good.
Any site where I can read it without doing daily quests for a year to unlock all chapters?
 
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Kyougar

Kyougar

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Today is High Fantasy time

[UWSL][UWSL]Tarrin Kael, Firestaff[/UWSL][/UWSL]



Official blurb:
This is a universe of fantasy (mythology, were-wolves, were-cats and other were animals, powerful wizard magic and sorcery to name a few items). Tarrin, his life and world are changed in drastic ways. Follow him as he adjusts to his new life and overcomes many obsticals
Author: James "Fel" Galloway
Genre: High Fantasy Epic, Transformation, Furry(?)
Length: ~ 2 million words in the Firestaff series divided by 5 books, additionally ~ 1 million words in the sequel series "Pyrosian" divided in 3 books.
Official Website: Worlds of Fel

Hoo boy, I have to finish this series. Currently on book 3 or 4 (have to check my kindle, read the series when I was 4 weeks away from home with spotty internet).
Starting premise is, that a local boy with magic affinity is found in his village by some Academy scouts and is invited to Hogwarts, eh the local Academy. Before he even leaves the local premises, he is attacked by a werecat in the next city and becomes a werecat himself. he still can go to the academy but he is more powerful now. Not long after, he gets a quest by a goddess to find the "Firestaff" and save the world.

The Sennedar Universe is big and filled with lore and history. The biggest issue I have with this series is the sometimes glaring rewriting of past events to serve the plot. Sometimes it is just a historical event that was mentioned one time that was changed later but there are two or three instances of scenes in the beginning, who were written, completely changing in later parts. I can remember one event where the protagonist mentions that his family home was burned down by a raid after he left and several hundred thousand words later, the raid and the fire had never happened. And those glaring consistency issues were never fixed!

All in all, it is a good High Fantasy series with a heavy focus on Animal transformation. (Basically every animal and their dog are Were-Variants, if you can stomach it)
There is also a 1.7 million words Hard SciFi series (Subjugation) from the Author which starts as the Protagonist and all humans being slaves to an Alien race and goes Empire Building in later books. It relies heavily on Harem tropes, though.
 

Ascheroth

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[UWSL]Renegade Immortal[/UWSL]

Official Blurb:
Wang Lin is a very smart boy with loving parents. Although he and his parents are shunned by the rest of their relatives, his parents always held high hopes that he will one day become someone great. One day, Wang Lin suddenly gained the chance to walk the path of an immortal, but found that he only had mediocre talent at best. Watch Wang Lin as he breaks through his lack of talent and walks the path towards becoming a real immortal!
Author: Er Gen
Official Site: Renegade Immortal
Genre: Xianxia
Length: 2088 chapters (should be somewhere between 3 and 4 million words)

Alright first things first: Yes, the blurb is incredibly generic and tells you absolutely nothing, we'll fix this in a bit.
Renegade Immortal is one of the earlier works of famous Xianxia author Er Gen, and from the ones I've read likely my favorite. Maybe my favorite Xianxia in general.
What is a Xianxia, you ask? Well literally it means "Immortal Heroes" and is a genre of chinese webnovels, in which people "cultivate" to become immortal, by contemplating the "Dao" and gaining enlightenment. And the scale usually quickly gets big. Cultivators can live thousands, if not hundreds of thousands or millions of years, fly through space and destroy entire planets. There are all sorts of wondrous magical abilities, treasures and creatures.
Due to the enormous escalation in power levels and age, this genre usually focuses mainly on the Main Character who does something in a certain region, gets stronger, leaves the region and all characters behind to get to the next one, repeat. There usually aren't many sidecharacters that stick along for the entire journey.

Now what makes Renegade Immortal stick out in this genre are imo a few things: first of all, you get fleshed out side characters who stay relevant throughout the novel, and the "beginner village" areas aren't forgotten either.
When you read a bunch of webnovels you usually start noticing that they have their own tropes that are common in most works, and unfortunately some of them are pretty tasteless. Renegade Immortal does a good jobing avoiding most, if not all, of those tropes.

Wan Ling, the main character, is a regular human boy who gets picked up by a sect of immortals and starts walking the path of a cultivator. However, he quickly has to learn that this world is not a rosy one... In order to survive he has to become cautious, scheming and ruthless.
This is another novel where the main character is actually smart, but so are all other characters. One of the main antagonists especially is just brilliantly written. There is romance as well.

I have some critic as well though. There are certain parts here and there in the first few hundred chapters that can feel rather aimless and a bit exhausting to read. The novel drastically improves after this bumpy stretch though. I really recommend sticking with it, it's an incredible ride overall.
 
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Kyougar

Kyougar

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Nov 2, 2018
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Get a seat stranger, we are hearing about this today:

[UWSL][UWSL]The Wandering Inn[/UWSL][/UWSL]



Official Blurb:
An inn is a place to rest, a place to talk and share stories, or a place to find adventures, a starting ground for quests and legends.
In this world, at least. To Erin Solstice, an inn seems like a medieval relic from the past. But here she is, running from Goblins and trying to survive in a world full of monsters and magic. She’d be more excited about all of this if everything wasn’t trying to kill her.
But an inn is what she found, and so that’s what she becomes. An innkeeper who serves drinks to heroes and monsters–
Actually, mostly monsters. But it’s a living, right?

This is the story of the Wandering Inn.
Author: "Pirateaba"
Official Site: The Wandering Inn
Genre: Slice of Life, LitRPG, Fantasy
Length: Currently over 6 Million words.
Status: in Progress, no end in sight

I have a love-hate relationship with the Wandering Inn. The writing speed is phenomenal, she sometimes puts out 100k words in a week! And the quality of the writing is great. But the World is so insanely large with so many POV'S! Some POV changes are awesome, mostly the ones who still are in the vicinity of our Protagonist. But I lost more and more interest in the POV's on other continents or from the goblins that I first started to just read the first sentences of a paragraph, to know what's up, to completely skipping entire chapters of POV's I couldn't care less about. That was the point where I had to stop 15 months ago. Maybe it was burnout after 4 million words, but I didn't want to skip complete chapters. I will continue in a year or three.

The characters themselves are great and diverse, the setting is refreshing (she is the only human near a city mostly populated by Reptiles, a Gnoll Minority, and Underground ants, while human cities are further away). The start is quite chill and mostly revolves around the Inn at first, but like I said, the story widens up massively with dungeons, explorations, wars and other continents.

Here, have a Bonus Mrsha!
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
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[UWSL]Way of Choices[/UWSL]



Official Blurb:
To pick is to choose. This is a story about choices. Three thousand worlds full of gods and demons, with a daoist scroll in your hand, you are able to control the entire universe…

At the beginning of time, a mystical meteor came crashing down from outer space and scattered all over the world. A piece of it landed in the Eastern Continent, with mysterious totems carved upon it. Through the observation of these totems, humankind comprehended the Dao and established the Orthodoxy.

Several thousand years later, the fourteen years old orphan Chen Changsheng left his master to cure his illness and change his fate. He brought a piece of marriage vow with him to the capital, thus began the journey of a rising hero.
Author: Mao Ni
Official Site: Way of Choices
Genre: Eastern Fantasy
Length: 1184 chapters (probably ~2 million words)

Way of Choices is one of my favorite eastern fantasy webnovels. It has it all, lots of memorable side characters, great character development, romance, political intrigue, morally grey antagonists, an unusual main character, interesting fights, etc.
It also doesn't entirely revolve around constantly getting stronger, training, fighting, etc. It takes over a hundred chapters until the main character even gets some powers.
Most of all though, I absolutely adore the prose. Mao Ni has a very flowery and unique style that I really enjoy.

The one negative is that the ending is kind of lackluster. All the main story threads are actually tied up very well, but the author starts expanding the world at the end only to tease it a bit and then leave it open.

Some sample writing I've saved (entirely unrelated scenes):
With a boom, the stream water was jolted several hundred zhang into the air and then fell back down like rain. The cliffs of the mountain path and the grass fiercely shook, with muffled booms ringing out nonstop. The yellow, lantern-like persimmons on the trees fell one by one. Whether ripe or unripe, they all fell to the ground and were pulped into paste. Just like the corpses and flesh by the stream bank.




After some time, Luo Bu turned to Chen Changsheng and asked, "Do you also have a girl that you like?"

Chen Changsheng nodded and said, "I do, but I haven't met her in a while."

Luo Bu appeared very interested, asking, "She likes you?"

Chen Changsheng felt rather embarrassed as he softly grunted in affirmation.

Luo Bu slightly arched his brow and asked, "If you have a lover, why aren't you seeing her?"

It was clear that he did not approve of Chen Changsheng's way of doing things.

To him, the most difficult part was developing affection, but since they were already lovers, they had to always stay together. It was not allowed for them to separate.

Chen Changsheng thought this question over, then said, "It's not convenient to meet, and also…she has a few rather important things to do."

Luo Bu said no more. Taking a large gulp from the wine pot held in his fingers, he muttered, "Mutual affection…just what sort of feeling is that?"

Chen Changsheng did not hear this clearly and asked, "What?"

"Nothing, just drunken ramblings."

Luo Bu gazed towards the plains at the end of the stream, seemingly seeing that peak which was shrouded in clouds throughout the year, and a faint sadness tinged his face.

From his first glance upon waking, the Luo Bu in Chen Changsheng's eyes had always been elegant and yet indifferent, downtrodden but not unruly. However, he had never once seen Luo Bu like this.

This was a very faint sadness, yet his lush beard was unable to conceal it. Why did his young face appear so ravaged by time?

He truly wished to know Luo Bu's story, to know just what he had experienced.

"I'm a person without a story." Luo Bu very quickly broke out of this mood and offered the wine pot to Chen Changsheng as he indifferently continued, "Because I've lived too smooth a life. Other than a small trouble when I was small, I received everything that I wished for."

Chen Changsheng thought inwardly, then why are you so sad?

"But there are many things in this world that have no relation to your own efforts, like the love between man and woman, or great matters that decide life or death. No matter how much you struggle or grow, you can never be sure of victory, as these two relationships require a response."

Luo Bu pointed at the numberless stars above and said, "You can say to the starry sky that you don't want to go back, but the starry sky won't answer you. You will grow old, and then die. You can say to a girl 'I love you', but even if you're the best of the best, she just doesn't like you, but what can you do?"

The starry sky and girls would only quietly look back at the viewer, perhaps with pity or sympathy, but when would they ever change their mind?

A starry sky that could randomly change its hue, shape, and rules only existed in the oil paintings of Xuelao City.

Those girls who would implore or strive to be the girl that one loved might also be good girls, but regretfully, they were not the girl that he loved.

'But what can you do?'

This flatly-said question filled Chen Changsheng with a deep anguish.

Perhaps it was because he had once prayed to those infinite stars above to pardon his life.

He somewhat clumsily patted Luo Bu on the shoulder. He wanted to comfort him, but didn't know what to say.

The countless stars twinkled above.

The girl was in the distant south.

Thankfully, he said nothing.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,119
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113
[UWSL]Nine Star Hegemon Body Art[/UWSL]


Official Blurb:
Is he the reincarnation of a Pill Sovereign? Or is he a fusion of spirits? A youth whose Spirit Root, Spirit Blood, and Spirit Bone were all stolen - Long Chen must rely on his memories of divine pill refining arts and a mysterious cultivation technique, the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, in order to part the layers of misleading fog and solve a heaven-shaking riddle.
Heaven and earth are within his grasp as he steps through the cosmos, meets all kinds of beautiful women, and suppresses devils, demons, and gods.
Legend has it that when Long Chen arrives, the lands roar and heaven screams, ghosts sob and gods weep.
Translator Blurb:
Long Chen, a crippled youth who cannot cultivate, is constantly targeted and bullied by his fellow noble heirs. After a particularly vicious beating, he wakes up and realizes a Pill Sovereign's soul has somehow merged with him, giving him some additional memories. Within those memories is the mysterious Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, a cultivation technique that even he can train in, but whose secrets and origin are still a mystery to him. Relying on his improved instincts as he finally begins to cultivate, he realizes a huge conspiracy is underfoot within the Phoenix Cry Empire; a conspiracy involving his father, members of the imperial family, and even the Emperor himself.
In order to solve the mysteries around him, he must rely on his new alchemy techniques and the powerful but baffling Nine Star Hegemon Body Art. Countless enemies block him as he attempts to climb to the peak of the cultivation world.
Fate destined him to be only a chess piece, but he would not bow to the will of the Heavens.
Author: Ordinary Magician
Official Site: Nine Star Hegemon Body Art
Genre: Easter Fantasy, Comedy, Harem
Length: 3800+ chapters (~4-5 million+ words I guess)
Status: Ongoing, 1400 chapters translated, 2 chapters a day

This one's a bit of a guilty pleasure. Make no mistake, it's an unapologetic power fantasy to the extreme, but an incredibly entertaining one if I dare say so.
It's somewhat formulaic and full of tropes and (ab)uses all the tropes to the extreme - ...which weirdly enough makes things somewhat fresh and unique.

The MC is always the underdog wherever he goes and attracts trouble whatever he does. He wants to eat at a restaurant? Someone will come find trouble for him. He resolves the trouble? Turns out whoever made trouble has much stronger companions, family or a powerful faction behind him, who then want to get revenge, repeat.
This is literally MC against the entire world. Everyone wants to kill him or exploit him. Evil factions? Straight up want to murder him. "Good" factions? Want to stab him in the back and get him killed too. The world/nature itself? Also wants to kill him (I'm really not joking).
So what does he do?
His says "screw it" and creates his own faction to go against the entire world. He gets various "cheat" abilities that make it possible for him to constantly improve his allies so that they can keep up with him. That's one thing that in my opinion puts this above lots of other similar power fantasies. The are lots of fun side characters that accompany the MC, and the banter between them is hilarious. Even the harem aspect is handled decently.
The author is a master at infurating you because everything and everyone is "unfair", but you know MC and gang will eventually prevail and kick ass in the most badass, or hilarious way and it will be great.
Don't expect anything super deep, but what it is is immensely entertaining still.
 
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Today, we learn about Zombies.

[UWSL][UWSL]Charon Docks at Daylight.[/UWSL][/UWSL]




Official Blurb:
It's six years after an infection turned a majority of the population into ferocious, zombie-like creatures that hunt during the day, forcing the living into a nocturnal state of existence. Survival is a continuous struggle when it's hide or fight, and the creatures aren't the only threat in a wasted America. Sometimes fighting is the only answer.
Author: Zoe Reed
read it here: Charon Docks At Daylight Chapter 1: Welcome To The New Age, a thriller fiction | FictionPress
Genre: Femslash, Post-Apocalyptic, Zombies, Drama
Length: 420.000 Words

We follow three protagonists in this Novel. Genevieve, a young Lieutenant of a military outfit that tries to protect the civilians and fight the Raiders. Echo, a young Raider who reluctantly is doing her job because her Uncle is the leader. And Dugan, a middle-aged man who tries to survive.
Genevieve and Echo have a history (previous Schoolfriends) and when they clash 6 years later, Echo finds out that the very first raid she partook in after the outbreak, her gang also attracted Zombies who swarmed the camp after the raid. Genevieve's Dad and Brother died.
The story revolves mostly around Genevieve and Echo coming to terms with their history and feelings and what the future brings. Dugan is quite detached from that storyline for a while.
The Zombies are not your standard fare and quite capable of some intelligence and cunning.
 

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Now for something a bit different:

[UWSL][UWSL][UWSL]My House of Horrors[/UWSL][/UWSL][/UWSL]


Official Blurb:
The hearse with the weird odor slowed to a stop before the entrance. The sound of pebbles could be heard bouncing on the ceiling. There were footsteps coming from the corridor, and there seemed to be someone sawing next door. The door knob to the room rattled slightly, and the faucet in the bathroom kept dripping even though it had been screwed shut. There was a rubber ball that rolled on its own underneath the bed. Wet footsteps started to surface one after another on the floor.
At 3 am, Chen Ge held a cleaver in his hand as he hid beside the room heater. The call he was trying to make was finally answered. “Landlord, is this what you meant by ‘the house can be a little crowded at night’‽”
Author: I Fix Air-Conditioner
Official Site: My House of Horrors
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Length: 1100+ chapters (probably around 2 million+ words)
Status: Ongoing

I've read about 500 chapters so far, it's very different from your usual chinese webnovel genres.
The main character, Chen Ge, runs his family's haunted hause in a theme park after his parents mysteriously disappeared one day. Eventually he finds a weird phone they left behind, and there is one app on it: A "game" about managing a haunted house - and it's his haunted house this game seems to manage.
In order to find the reason behind the disappearence of his parents and turn his haunted house into the best there is, Chen Ge decides to expand his haunted house with the help of the mysterious phone. He will have to investigate and survive dangerous haunted spots and come into contact with the supernatural side of the world. And hire actual ghosts as employees, to give his customers the best and most authentic experience.

Chen Ge is a fun main character, because he absolutely has a few screws loose and his interactions with ghosts and monsters are quite non-standard.
The book also actually focuses on his haunted house quite a lot, every time he gets a new attraction there are a few (dozen) chapters about some visitors exploring it and getting terrified, for example. It's pretty great.
The ghost stories, creatures and haunted locations are usually pretty creepy as well.
 
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Today, we are traveling through time. Kinda.

[UWSL][UWSL]Magestic[/UWSL][/UWSL]



Official Blurb:
The reader follows the cast of characters as they embark on a journey from 1985 to 2025, trying to fix the world as they go - as well as raising families. Disaster awaits the world in 2025, the aim being to prepare the world - if the world will allow them. The various world governments have their own ideas, and fixing the planet is not so straightforward for the mysterious Mister Magestic.
Author: Geoff Wolak
Official Site: http://www.geoffwolak-writing.com/ (currently dead) The only other legal site to read the Novel fully is on a sex site (don't know why, there are no sex scenes in Magestic (that I remember))
Genre: Time-Travel, Empire-building, History fix-it
Length: approx. 1 million words

This Novel is great! And the biggest plot-twist is right in the beginning. The protagonist is NOT the Time-Traveler. He is just the best friend of the Time-Traveler.
The story starts in the 80's in the UK and they first build up their Empire financially before expanding into Africa where they "uplift" the local population with Jobs, Industry, and their own para-military. Their biggest Project is a multi-national medical Unit to support Nations on Natural Disasters and Accidents. The point of the paramilitary unit is too fight against and prevent Terrorism with either preventing the triggers of religious fanatism (like the gulf wars) or killing historic figures or outfits before they become a problem. (It gets a little Anti-Islamistic there)
The goal is to prevent the collapse of society before 2025 through humanitarian aid when natural Disasters occur and to prevent wars and the radicalization of the middle east.
We follow the Protagonist (who has his own mind) through 40 years of his life, only partially knowing what happens next, believing the necessity of it all without knowing what exactly will happen in 2025.

And the Time Traveler is its own tragic figure. Spoiler for last fourth of the novel:
He is basically doing a time-loop, trying to safe the world and perfecting his approach, hoping that he will finally succeed
 

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Monarch of Evernight

Official blurb:
He rose from hardship, but was felled by betrayal. From then on, one man, one gun; treads the path between Evernight and Daybreak to become a legend. No matter what was destined to be his fate, he intends to become the ruler who dictates.
Follow Qianye as he traverse the wide, wild and bloody world of Daybreak and Evernight.
Translator description:
Monarch of Evernight is a steampunk fantasy novel with Western fantasy elements like vampires, werewolves, arachnids, and a sniper protagonist. The story is mature, dark, and involves deep intricate plots centered around large-scale wars and politics. It's largely different from traditional wuxia in that it has a faster pace, frequent action, and little to no fillers.
Author: Misty Rain of the South
Genre: Steampunk/Dark/Eastern Fantasy
Official Site: https://www.wuxiaworld.com/novel/monarch-of-evernight
Length: 1500 chapters
Status: Completed, but still being translated (currently at ~1100 chapters)

I've read around 800 chapters and I really like it (waiting until the next volume is translated before starting another binge).
I think the translater description covers it pretty well. It has a really cool main character and many equally interesting side characters and once again characters are actually smart (I know I keep highlighting this, but it's because in so many chinese webnovels most characters, especially antagonists, are dumb as bricks).
World(building) is pretty cool - flying contents with travel between them happening with airships - and there are many factions and lots of politics.
Warning: there is one pretty disgusting scene very early on:
At the beginning the main character gets sent into an "assassin training institue" for children. The training is pretty brutal and also involves raping (almost) everyone once (while they are still underage children). The explanation is to get them used to sex, so that it won't effect them in case it happens on a mission. It's very uuuuuuuuugh. Thankfully this is the only instance in the entire novel as far as I can recall, there is sex but it's otherwise all consensual and between adults (I hope I don't misrember 🤞 )

Edit: Unfortunately I can no longer recommend this. :confounded-face:
I had to drop it around chapter 1000, the story went really into a really weird and off-putting direction and the main character has been making lots of stupid and out-of-character choices.
 
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Great thread :thumbsupblob:
As someone who has not read any webnovels I have some technical question:
  • On which device(s) do you read the webnovels? Probably on the phone?
  • Is there an easy way to keep track of the current reading position? Are there any apps that can be used?
 
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Great thread :thumbsupblob:
As someone who has not read any webnovels I have some technical question:
  • On which device(s) do you read the webnovels? Probably on the phone?
  • Is there an easy way to keep track of the current reading position? Are there any apps that can be used?
I either read on PC or Mobile (when I am out of the house waiting for something or on public transport)

Royalroad and Webnovel.com have a last-chapter-read feature. With normal websites, I just leave the tab open on PC or Mobile.
 

Pommes

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I either read on PC or Mobile (when I am out of the house waiting for something or on public transport)

Royalroad and Webnovel.com have a last-chapter-read feature. With normal websites, I just leave the tab open on PC or Mobile.
Thank you for the information. Now on to pick a webnovel to start :thinking-face:
 

Ascheroth

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Great thread :thumbsupblob:
As someone who has not read any webnovels I have some technical question:
  • On which device(s) do you read the webnovels? Probably on the phone?
  • Is there an easy way to keep track of the current reading position? Are there any apps that can be used?
I read on the phone usually.

Wuxiaworld keeps track of your latest read chapters as well.
For other chinese/korean/japanese webnovels I keep track of them via https://www.novelupdates.com/
 
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Let us continue.

[UWSL]Azarinth Healer[/UWSL]



Official Blurb:
A new world with nearly unlimited possibilities. A status, classes, magic and monsters. Sounds good? Well, for Ilea it didn't come quite as expected as for some other protagonists, nor was there a king or god to welcome her.

The grand quest? Well, she might figure that out someday but for now, a new world with new food is prize enough. Her fists at the ready, she's prepared to punch and get punched, however long it takes and however many limbs she might have to regrow.

Ilea Spears is your average sarcastic kick-boxing fast food worker and soon to be student. She will be transported to another world rather conventionally and will be confronted with survival in the wild.
Author: "Rhaegar"
Genre: Isekai, LitRPG
Official Site: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/16946/azarinth-healer
Length: currently 1.5 million words in 513 chapters
Status: Ongoing, with 4-5 chapters every week.

Azarinth healer is one of those Novels where you read the blurb several times while looking for a new novel to read and never feeling the spark. until you are taking the chance and try to see what it is about.
And then you can't get away from it until you have reached the end of the currently released chapters.
Our protagonist gets transported to a world of Levels and statuses, etc. But she is all alone for several months, trying to survive in a hostile environment with scary monsters. Only the lucky find of an old temple with the knowledge to unlock the Azarinth healing class helps her survive. It is a combat healer class and plays into her own kickboxing experience strength.
It is a rare/forgotten class and this makes her more of a battlejunkie with self-healing properties than the lousy, whiny healers who can't defend themselves that are predominant in this part of the world (and heavily regulated that makes it almost impossible for normal groups to have the coin to employ a healer).
This also makes our protagonist a sort of a masochist You learn skills by doing a thing, for example: getting a fire-resistance skill only unlocks if you are struck with fire, getting acid resistance if you are struck with acid, etc. And you have to level up those skills. So what does Ilea do? poke herself with poisonous arrows, set herself on fire, bath in acid. You know, basic stuff cough (the people around her think she is insane).
Apart from that, the Novel has political intrigue, dungeon delving, city sieges, wars, and of course, an insane Protagonist.

Good stuff!
 

Ascheroth

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Azarinth Healer sounds completely up my alley! Any ideas how "far along" it is? Is there an end in sight?
 
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Azarinth Healer sounds completely up my alley! Any ideas how "far along" it is? Is there an end in sight?
I only read until chapter 458 (that was where I caught up with it) and want to wait for 100 new chapters to be released to continue, but up to chapter 458, there was no end in sight. At that point, a major arc was just finished and our protagonist was R&R'ing a little.
Theoretically, you could finish it up in an arc or two, but the plot just opened up immensely. there is an overarching plot right now but that could go anywhere. Especially because with what we learned about the world, the current overarching "crisis" is of little relevance in the overall worldbuilding. (for my understanding, the protagonist may see it otherwise :> )

It's a living, breathing World and Adventure. I like it when there are shifting priorities, instances of relative slice of life, and the normal world-ending spectacle.
 
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I only read until chapter 458 (that was where I caught up with it) and want to wait for 100 new chapters to be released to continue, but up to chapter 458, there was no end in sight. At that point, a major arc was just finished and our protagonist was R&R'ing a little.
Theoretically, you could finish it up in an arc or two, but the plot just opened up immensely. there is an overarching plot right now but that could go anywhere. Especially because with what we learned about the world, the current overarching "crisis" is of little relevance in the overall worldbuilding. (for my understanding, the protagonist may see it otherwise :> )

It's a living, breathing World and Adventure. I like it when there are shifting priorities, instances of relative slice of life, and the normal world-ending spectacle.
Sounds cool. Might follow you in reading up to the end of that major arc and letting more chapters pile up. I'm definitely intrigued (I like protagonists who have a few screws loose :D )
 
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Reader discretion is advised.

[UWSL]Worth the Candle[/UWSL]



Official Blurb:
A teenager struggling after the death of his best friend finds himself in a fantasy world - one which seems to be an amalgamation of every Dungeons and Dragons campaign they ever played together. Now he's stuck trying to find the answers to why he's there and what this world is trying to say. The most terrifying answer might be that this world is an expression of the person he was back on Earth.
Author: Alexander "cthulhuraejepsen" Wales
Genre: Isekai, LitRPG, Dark, Drama
Official Site: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/25137/worth-the-candle
Length: currently 1.3 million words
Status: Ongoing, sporadic updates, he said he will dump several chapters every month, but his last chapter is from 3 months ago

be aware, this story contains mentioning of rapes, mind-control (in-story and mentioned), depression, and suicide.
The premise of the story is great, after awakening in this world, our Protagonist finds out that the world, its inhabitants and it's history is an amalgamation of all his ideas and scenarios he created while being a GM for his local D&D group. And a little later, he finds out that one of the founders of the Empire he currently resides in, is probably his schoolfriend who died a few months earlier in real life. The problem is, his friend lived hundreds of years ago and suddenly vanished.
The world is riddled with "exclusion zones" Areas, that are either uninhabitable or have strong monsters in them. The special circumstance with those zones is, that they also exclude Magic for the whole planet. Glass Magic can't be used anymore because there is a glass exclusion zone for example. There is also a nuclear exclusion zone, etc.
Other exclusion Zones are more like containments of super-powerfull individuals, one contains a mind-controller with a thousand brides, another is called the Doris Finch Exclusion Zone because it is only inhabited by Doris Finch clones.
There is also a [REDACTED] exclusion Zone. [REDACTED] will grow more powerful the more you know about him.
There are 63 of those, that the World knows.
And then there are the monsters.
Especially the time-using, masculine, purity-loving, UNICORN! After his female friend Tiff complained about the sexism prevalent in D&D, our protagonist created those Unicorns for the next campaign. the Time powers would represent gaslighting and the overall masculinity and purity obsession translated into a monster that had time magic and was kidnapping little girls...
 
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Out of the comfort zone.

[UWSL][UWSL][UWSL]Saga of Tuck[/UWSL][/UWSL][/UWSL]



(Un)Official Blurb:
Take your average group of teenagers in any high school drama - you've got the cliques, the bratty cheerleaders, the testosterone-crazed jocks, the outsiders who are too normal to be cool, the geeks who are too far out for even the normals, the freshmen who want to fit in, the recently-transferred students who want to do the same... and then you have Tuck and his friends. He's the high-school nerd who's particularly skilled in various manners of weaponry and martial arts through necessity, whose family is equally so, who alternates between roleplaying, computers, and going out on week-long hiking trips with friends, not to mention skilled enough to take care of a number of computer jobs, but still runs up against the aforementioned cliques and jocks on a far too regular basis.

Oh, and lest it seem still rather ordinary, it turns out that his girlfriend has a few quirks, and when she decides to Mind Screw the entire campus with him on Halloween, he seems far too good at being female... and that's just the start.
Author: Ellen Hayes
Genre: Coming of Age, Drama, Transgender, 90's,
Official Site: Ellen Hayes & Tucker
Length: 1.2 Million words
Status: Hiatus/Abandoned


Saga of Tuck plays in the year 1997 (that's when the Author started the series until the last chapter in 2013) about a Nerd and his friends. On Halloween, his girlfriend, convinces him to dress up as a girl and our Protagonist finds himself on a path of exploration and self-identity. He was always feminine and he discovers, that s/he is a far better girl than a boy. Until her girl persona is the one she is more comfortable with.
Our protagonist is supported by his friends who are not to be trifled with, even if they are nerds and geeks, they will not shy away from setting a bullies car on fire.
The writing style is quite unique. It is more of a Diary style, with every chapter, every scene represented not only by the date but also the current time.
 
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Today, we are rewriting history!

[UWSL]Stupid Luck And Happenstance[/UWSL]

[no Picture]

unOfficial blurb:
Stupid Luck and Happenstance is an AlternateHistory.com story by member Peabody-Martini. It features the outcome of a very different World War I in which a slight change in the Verdun Offensive in 1916 causes a different ending to the war, and a world in which Germany becomes the dominant power in Europe, yet with much, much less of the nastiness that it entailed in our world.

Unlike most timelines on the website, the story is told less through a sequence of events or a summation of the major movers of the world, but rather, is a character-centric narrative in which the actions of a few people (some of whom embody the "stupid luck" in the title) cause sweeping changes in the world around them.
Author: Peabody-Martini
Genre: Alternate History, Family, Coming of Age, War/Military, social commentary
Official Site: Stupid Luck and Happenstance. (need an account to view, account only gets approved with non-generic e-mail-address)
Length: currently 2 million words in 1800 chapters over 3 threads
Status: ongoing with 5 to 7 chapters a week

The scope of SLH is grand, we start in 1916 and with chapter 1800 we are currently in 1967. We are following several Soldiers in WW1. at first. until the focus switches to their children and later grandchildren. The main group of people we follow starts off as mainly man but switches later to mostly women. And the main protagonist that we follow most of the time is a woman. The story heavily plays into social commentary and issues. The role of women in society and the military, sexism, racism. gender identity, etc. The USA didn't play a big part in WW1 and wasn't participating in any wars (officially) thereafter, so the social and economical pressure of those wars didn't influence women rights and people of color in this timeline, which made the US in this timeline that much more sexist and racist, with racial tension and bombings for decades and a possible second civil war looming.
 
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Warning, there was no answer in this thread for more than 5 days :>

Digital Marine



Official blurb:

The class divide still exists in the future, and it has gotten much worse. There are many different types of worlds, from the paradise worlds where everyone is immortal, to the resource depleted, war-torn planets where every day is a struggle just to live.

Freya O'Malley grew up on Earth, the worst of the war-torn planets, and wants nothing more than to leave. With few options, Freya joins the Federation Marines. But, unlike the past, it's a struggle to earn enough enlistment points to stay in. With the prize of a citizenship on a paradise world at stake, competition is fierce. Every week is a new war. Can Freya earn enough points in the constant warring of the Marines to modify her body and mind to stay competitive? Can a girl from the wrong planet make it against those who have all the advantages?
Author: Duck no Duck
Genre: Military, litRPG, Space Opera
Official Site: Length: ~430k Words in 89 chapters currently with no end in sight
Status: ongoing

What happens when you digitize (part of) your civilization? With clones growing in 5 Minutes where your digital body can jump into? When you get back to the digital world once you die? (Unless there is no respawn ship/station on site) Especially when your military is basically immortal through digitization?
Digital Marine tries to answer that. With immortal soldiers, every soldier needs to be at his best or they won't earn enough points to reenlist (and losing their immortality, until they got enough money to settle on a paradise world). You earn your points to reenlistment through (mostly) simulated missions which are tiered and the best reward are from real-life missions. You also get Mod points, to raise your stats (like health, perception, etc.), and skill points to buy skills and licenses (like weapon handling, drone operation, piloting, silent walking, etc.
Also, you get credits and everything you need has to be bought with credits, your meals, your weapons, your vehicles, and even your respawns, when you died. The only upside is, that anything besides consumables (food, grandes, ammo) are license, so you buy a license to use a weapon, armor, or vehicle and you can print those every time you die or they get destroyed.

It's a great story but the real-life missions are very rare and most of the time Freya is in simulated missions.
 

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Cultivation Chat Group




Official Blurb:
One day, Song Shuhang was suddenly added to a chat group with many seniors that suffered from chuuni disease. The people inside the group would call each other ‘Fellow Daoist’ and had all different kinds of titles: Palace Master, Cave Lord, True Monarch, Immortal Master, etc. Even the pet of the founder of the group that had run away from home was called ‘monster dog’. They would talk all day about pill refining, exploring ancient ruins, or share their experience on techniques.
However, after lurking inside the group for a while, he discovered that not all was what it seemed...
Author: Legend of the Paladin
Official Site: Cultivation Chat Group
Genre: Cultivation, Comedy, Slice-of-Life, Action, Tractor-Racing, etc
Length: 3165 chapters (around 1600 translated at the time of writing)
Status: Completed, Translation ongoing

Basically a regular student gets involved with a bunch of cultivators that have integrated themselves into the modern world. Hilarious hijinks ensue.
This is a very light read. Action and conflict aren't the focus and generally resolved in comedic ways, as are the cultivation technicques, treasures and "cheats" the main character acquires along the way.
This is primarily a slice-of-life comedy with a huge cast of colorful personalities where you have arcs about tractor racing competitions, movie shootings alongside things like travelling to different worlds and it's just a barrel of fun.
There is a main story as well, which is gradually being developed and is actually quite interesting.

I binged around 1500 chapters without taking a break and didn't grow tired of it. Currently waiting for a couple more hundred chapters to be translated before continuing the binge.
 
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Overgeared



Official Blurb:
Shin Youngwoo has had an unfortunate life and is now stuck carrying bricks on construction sites. He even had to do labor in the VR game, Satisfy!
However, luck would soon enter his hapless life. His character, ‘Grid’, would discover the Northern End Cave for a quest, and in that place, he would find ‘Pagma’s Rare Book’ and become a legendary class player…
Overview from the translator:
Brief overview that I translated from a Korean site:

The basis of this novel is a virtual reality game called Satisfy, developed by the world’s top genius scientist Lim Cheolho and world-class scientists.

The main character is timid, flaky, selfish, cares about money and easily feels jealous of others. Because the author set up the character in this way, the story was difficult for the readers to read.

But as the main character encounters various people and geniuses, he internally matures and his personality changes. If the main character is described as cancerous early on, at present he can be called a mature adult. However, those who don’t read beyond the early parts of the 5th volume (~ chapter 90) find it hard to believe.

The basic settings and story line are similar to other VR novels, but the praiseworthy thing is the content development. The early parts aren’t much different from rival novels, but the novel rating has exceeded the market average in recent years due to the writer’s growth.

Like other novels, it contains a munchkin element, but it is different from typical munchkins. In the early stages, the game progresses with the main character using his class of a legendary blacksmith. The main character expands the game content and the level of the existing users dramatically increase. Hidden talents, new players in the official rankings, classes that could break the balance, all of this makes the main character’s one-man show impossible. The main character grows internally and externally while competing with others.

In fact, if you compare the simple and ignorant battle method in the beginning to his abilities in the present time, it is possible to feel such a sense of distance that he doesn’t seem like the same character.

As for the evaluation of the work, the criticism was severe in the beginning, but the popularity increased rapidly after that. As described above, the improvement in the author’s writing and the growth of the main character led to rapid changes in the comments. However, the main character’s selfish and frustrating behaviour caused many readers to stop reading in the beginning. For the readers who have gone beyond the beginning, it is a tragedy that seems really pitiful.
(This reads a bit wooden, I would like to clarify that the actual translation of the story is better :D I assume "munchkin element" refers to an underdog-type story)

Author: Park Saenal
Official Site: Overgeared
Genre: VRMMORPG, E-Sports, Kingdom Building, Comedy, Romance (a bit Harem-y), Action, Adventure
Length: 1450 chapters at the time of writing (I've read up to around 1000)
Status: Ongoing

The above overview pretty much tells the most important things aready.
Beginning isn't that great because Grid, the main character is just plain unlikeable. Things dramatically increase when he starts trying to become a better person and the story focuses a lot on his character development.
This is one of the crafting-type stories, where the main character becomes a Legendary Blacksmith and his path to success is making overpowered equipment for him and his allies.
The growth is satisfying to read and while he's definitely sort of overpowered there are plenty other overpowered players in the game, as well as monsters and NPCs, which keeps things exciting. In general there's lots of interesting classes and skills and equipments and game functions. A thousand chapters in things have not gotten stale.
It is also one of those VR stories where the NPCs in the game might as well be real people in a real world and it functionally could be an Isekai - if there weren't regular real world parts. These are of not of the fantastical type, but more about how Grid's personal growth effects his real-world self, meet-ups with other players, e-sports competitions and the like.

A very entertaining read if you can get past the initial hurdle.
 
OP
Kyougar

Kyougar

No reviews, no Buy
Nov 2, 2018
3,127
11,243
113
The Perfect Run


Official blurb:
Ryan "Quicksave" Romano is an eccentric adventurer with a strange power: he can create a save-point in time and redo his life whenever he dies. Arriving in New Rome, the glitzy capital of sin of a rebuilding Europe, he finds the city torn between mega-corporations, sponsored heroes, superpowered criminals, and true monsters. It's a time of chaos, where potions can grant the power to rule the world and dangers lurk everywhere.

Ryan only sees different routes; and from Hero to Villain, he has to try them all. Only then will he achieve his perfect ending... no matter how many loops it takes.
Author: Maxime J. Durand (Void Herald)
Genre: Superheroes, TimeLoop, Comedy
Official Site: The Perfect Run | Royal Road
Length: ~460k words
Status: finished

I must confess that I wasn't immediately hooked when I started reading, I even read two other stories in between reading chapters 1 to 10. But after Chapter 15 to 20 I was hooked and finished reading the story exclusively.


The humor is excellent, the characters did grow on me (that was what I had problems with in the first few chapters) and later I loved them, the world is interesting, and the TimeLoop/Superhero mechanics were a good fit, although I am not that interested in superhero stories except for Worm. Although, I find TimeLoops in mundane settings more interesting without any overpowered adversaries except for society and life itself. Because life itself is difficult enough.
 
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Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,119
11,978
113
Divine Throne of Primordial Blood


Official Blurb:
Su Chen lost his sight in an unfortunate, unanticipated encounter. He was unwilling to give up despite suffering one of the most tragic fates possible in the human realm and fought on. Su Chen wants to use his own efforts to create a completely new destiny, both for himself and for mankind!
Author: Zero Fate [缘分0]
Official Site: Divine Throne of Primordial Blood
Genre: Xuanhuan
Length: 1158 chapters
Status: Completed (and completely translated)

I already read this a while ago but think it's good enough to recommend. It's essentially a cultivation story with a "mad scientist" type as the main character. In a world where bloodlines limit your potential, Su Chen wants to create an entirely new path for mankind.
He is smart, driven and of dubious morality (he likes to say he has a bottom line he doesn't want to cross, but that bottom line is very low :grimacing-face: ).
The world building is pretty good and the way the power system is explored and bult upon based on research and in-universe cohesive "magic-science" is quite fascinating.
Different arcs can also have wildly different feels to them. Going from a tournament arc (the main character doesn't participate in cause it's a bother, lol) to a crime thriller to a spy story and much more keeps things fresh.
Good cast of side characters and smart antagonists as well.
Solid ending as well.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
5,119
11,978
113
The Legendary Mechanic



Official Blurb:
What do you do when you wake up and find yourself inside the very game that you love?
What do you do when you realize you that you have not only become an NPC - you have even been thrown back in time to before the game even launched!
What will happen when our protagonist's two realities coincide?
Han Xiao was a professional power leveler before his transmigration. Using his past life's knowledge, Han Xiao sweeps through the universe as he prepares for the arrival of the players. This is definitely not your typical transmigration novel.
Author: Qi Peijia
Official Site: The Legendary Mechanic
Genre: Isekai, Video Game, Sci-Fi
Length: 1463 chapters
Status: Completed (and completely translated)

Another one I read a while ago.
Consistently entertaining from beginning to end. The premise is a bit of a "let's throw everything and the kitchen sink into this" hodge-podge but it comes together seamlessly.
Han Xiao finds himself as an NPC in the VRMMORPG he played - and not only that, he appears to have travelled back in time to 1 year before the game officially starts as well. As the name might imply, "Galaxy" is a sci-fi setting with a massive universe full of planets, races, organisations, powerful beings and all that stuff. The book does a good job at actually making this world feel sprawling and alive and you follow the main character move up in the world with time and make a name for himself.
The main character is fun and as a mechanic his powerset is pretty novel I would say. Solid side-cast as well. In particular the way he uses his status as an "NPC" and knowledge of the game to interact with the "players" is pretty unique.
And surprisingly enough all the isekai/video game/time travel aspects actually get a satisfying and coherent in-universe explanation by the end.

If there's one small gripe I have with this book it's that some side-plots kind of fizzle out, but it's not many and considering the length of the story some missteps are understandable - the overall plotting is remarkably consitent all things considered though.