Hell Mode: Volume 7 - I find myself skipping entire pages whenever the book goes on and on about skill/summon composition of the cast. It has become feeling stale even though the story itself is progressing steadily. I also cannot really connect with any of the characters. In one of the last chapters, there is a side story from the POV of a side character and in those few pages, I already care more about that character than the 8 from the main cast. - 4/10

Min-Maxing My TRPG Build in Another World: Volume 8 - There are portions of beautiful prose and great world-building whenever the author isn’t beating the TTRPG schtick to death. I hope the series will develop like Overlord where the gimmick gets used less and less as the story takes more center stage. Also Margit. Extra points for Margit. The two new party members could be annoying since they are trope-y but the book and MC acknowledge that they are literal walking tropes and that makes all the difference. - Great volume 8/10

Thanks. I have put Kunon the Sorcerer Can See and The Princess of Convenient Plot Devices on my plan to read list. I have skipped both since the official synopsis read too cliche.

Glad you enjoy the series, but this community is for Japanese Light Novels only. (the term “Light Novel” comes from the type of Japanese books and isn’t meant in the sense of “light reading”).

I have to look up my cliffs notes about Death’s Daughter I posted here (btw. posting here weekly what I’ve read is great when I have to remember what I thought about a series - I highly recommend doing this wink wink) but I think I remember that I felt that the main character was very flip-floppy with her personality. If the author wanted to push in a certain direction the MC was dumb like a piece of bread and the next moment she was super attentive. Very inconsistent. Apothecary Diaries is great though, so I recommend starting with that.

The Retired Demon of the Maxed-Out Village: Volume 2 - Managed to finish this volume. I liked the first one well enough but this time it was a drag to read through. The series seems to follow an approach where it revolves around the story of a different visitor to the village in each volume. The visitor in this volume didn’t do it for me at all. I really couldn’t care less about whether she lived or died and that made it so sluggish to read. The people I wanted to read about were just set dressing with very little screen time (word time? page time?). I’m not sure if I continue this series. - 3/10

Only Kuma Kuma Bear and Isekai Peddler for ongoing series but the RV, Exiled Noble and Merciless Maiden first volumes sound interesting enough to give them a try. My move is mostly done but I’m still not finished with Like a Dragon 8 and Persona3Reload is also on deck. Who knows when I find the time to give them a read.

The community mascot says “You’re welcome” ;)

First time in a while that I haven’t finished anything for a week. I started “The Retired Demon of the Maxed-Out Village: Volume 2” but it has been a drag and then I spent the entire weekend with Kiryu and Ichiban in Hawaii so I couldn’t finish it.

Min Maxing and Hell Mode for me. And maybe I pick up Fluffy Paradise. I find the anime airing this season (mildly) entertaining enough. And I wanted to give the first volume of Jam in the Woods a try as well.

Record of Wortenia War: Volume 13 - Every now and again I pick up a series again that I dropped previously. I don’t remember much about what had happened in the first twelve volumes but this one was almost in its entirety an unmitigated information dump about the political state of the isekai continent. There was little to no story progression whatsoever to which I could latch on to jog my memory. It was honestly just an entire volume of the history of several kingdoms and empires. And it read just as boring as an actual history book. I guess this is aimed at history otaku who know every name of every soldier who ever fought in the warring state period of Japan, but to me this was boring and it took me the entire week to get through it even though I was starved for distraction due to being without internet for a good chunk of the week. There was also that strange thing where you are in the POV of a isekai world native and the exposition dump sets in again and suddenly the explanation takes comparison to Earth states/events. Sorry, I know this is an info dump, but weren’t we in the POV of a fantasy character? At least keep the exposition in the general confines of what the character would know. Really jarring to read. Can’t give this volume more than a 1/10 because literally nothing happens after the first short encounter in the beginning. It’s just plain boring to read and all the facts are forgotten two paragraphs later anyway. I’m not sure if this was why I dropped it in the first place or not, but I at least recall some story elements from the series. Maybe I give a few chapters of volume 14 a go and see if this was just a filler volume.

Isekai Tensai, Potions and Reincarnated as a Sword for me.

I often compare Cooking With Wild Game to Bookworm. In both series the isekai MC has zero powers apart from their knowledge that they brought with them. And not knowledge in the sense of “I’ve seen a gun in TV and games and I am suddenly able to recreate them without a problem”. Just like Myne in Bookworm has to painfully R&D the creation of paper, the MC in Cooking With Wild Game has to try to recreate recipes with isekai resources.

Another similarity is how the series both start with low-stakes, small-scale problems but slowly build up to become bigger and involving the lives of more people. Both also at the very core stories about class divides.

Where they differ is who carries the series. In Bookworm it’s Myne the main character. She is clearly the MVP of the books. In Wild Game it’s the side characters around the MC that are carrying.

My top 3 are Ascendance of a Bookworm, Tearmoon Empire (even though my hype is quickly dying off since the translator change) and Cooking With Wild Game.

I agree with Making Magic lacking a through line in the form of an overarching plot. I’ve come to think of it as completely separate stories with the little bit of overarching story as just the set dressing / part of the world building instead.

I’m in the mood for some kingdom building (maybe because I’m currently building my personal little kingdom here at the moment) and I’ll put Only the Villainous Lord on my plan to read list.

A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life: Volume 8 - This time with penguins. I still feel a bit fatigued from the last copy and paste 4 times arc, but it looks like it’s getting better. - 6/10

Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 5 Avatar of a Goddess Volume 8 - Each and every volume is better than the last. I gave that incredible P5V7 an 11/10 and in all fairness, this one has to get a 12/10 now. I’m ready for a 13/10 volume next. Btw. is anyone else hyped to see Lessy animated by Studio WIT?

edit : The Diary of a Middle-Aged Sage’s Carefree Life in Another World: Volume 1 - Found the worst LN I’ve ever started to read. I’m only 2 chapters in but I can already tell that this really has no redeeming qualities. I can’t imagine how a LN could even be any worse. Maybe if it bricked your tablet. Wow, this one is really terrible on so many levels that I can’t even begin to list all the faults in the first two chapters. And right after reading Bookworm P5V8. Talk about whiplash.

Thank you. There are no problems with the move itself since I hired a firm to do this for me. So I can look forward to the new place without the stress that usually comes with a move. It’s just that until my provider deems to grace me with a new fiber line at the new address I have to go without an internet connection which turns out to be more than just a bit inconvenient when everything is somewhere in the cloud.

I’m moving beginning tomorrow and will not have internet access until it’s been set up at my new place, so I post the thread early. Feel free to ignore it until Monday.

That sounds interesting, but this is a sub for Japanese light novels only.

Lemmy.ml rolled back a day so here’s the post again.

The Magician Who Rose From Failure: Volume 6 - The series has an interesting magic system which was always a standout, but in this volume, the author appears to have lost every creativity because it this volume is the most generic and trope-filled magic academy arc I’ve read in a long time. Complete with haughty-ringlets-student-council-noble-girl looking down on MC and forcing a duel with expulsion on the line. - 5/10

Tearmoon Empire: Volume 11 - I used to love this series. It was my second favorite LN only after Bookworm, but since the translator change it lost most of its charm and wit. And in this volume, it even uses anachronisms like “meme” in a fantasy setting. And not even in narration but in dialogue. I’ll give it two more volumes until Mia becomes Picklemia sticking out her gyatt for the Pepefrog. Another example would be “… Mia and her crew …”. Before it would have been something like “… Mia and her retinue …” or something more fitting to the setting. But now it’s “crew”. Another character said “nope”. There are a lot more examples. The entire prose changed into something you would rather expect in Twitter thread. It could have been one of the all-time greats but thanks to the translator change it became mid at best. It’s really so saddening to see something you love get turned into shit. - 5/10