What are you reading?

[Merc]

I'm sort of following that one, it's an interesting examination of the potential train wreck that can result, and just how badly Amy can slide there while still -trying- to be a good person or present herself as one/remorseful for what she did, rather than going full down to the dark side.

I've been reading a few My Hero Academia fics recently:

Juxtapose is a story where Midoriya does have a quirk, though he's always been told it's a useless one (it isn't), and All Might is a bit healthier than he was at the start of canon. Their first meeting pans out slightly different as a result, and eventually diverges with All Might still taking Midoriya under his wing...but he's in the General Education department, not Heroics. Some interesting things with the story is that it follows somewhat along with canon, but doesn't just repeat the stations of canon trap that a lot of divergence fics fall prey to. Instead, it shows aspects of the story that we don't see in canon and the repercussions of changing those aspects. It's really pretty neat.

Hero Class Civil Warfare reminds me of a RWBY fanfic with a similar concept, but it's a bit less cracky and more heist film style focused. In it, the Heroics department gets split into two sides, with two captains: Bakugou is the captain of the heroes, Midoriya the captain of the villains. All other students can join either side and the two captains can try to do whatever they want to recruit them. In all the years the school has done this, the villains side has always been woefully outmatched, with pretty much everyone usually going to the hero side (it's a school for heroes, what do you expect?). The villains have only ever won once, and it was the most basic/smallest form of victory. Midoriya has decided if he's going to be a villain? He's going to win with style and full points. And so far? His side is wrecking through the heroes.

Erased Potential takes the same canon formula...except Midoriya did some research on Eraserhead early on, and decided that for a quirkless kid to get into UA? That's definitely the guy to teach him the ropes. So this is Midoriya on a full on Batman mode. No powers, just his wits, his human body, and whatever trinkets he can get approved and made by interested parties that find him interesting.

We don't live in Fairytales is an SI story. Except the main character is NOT the self insert. It's her sister. And she has to watch her sister befriend this weird but nice quirkless kid, and try to keep them out of trouble.

Lamarkian is an SI story. The main character is the daughter of a very minor hero (Native) and ends up with a variation of his power which is animal shapeshifting. It's quite a while before they even meet up with the original series' main cast, and mostly focuses on more minor characters with the exception of Bakugou who somehow ends up in a relationship with the SI. And they bicker pretty much like Ranma/Akane and other 80's-90's tsundere couples used to. Kinda nostalgic.

On light/web novels side of things, I've been binging a bit on: Overgeared, a korean VRMMO story. As with a lot of the stories of that genre involving adventure/growth and an AI that controls the narrative of the world, players have access to basic classes and can also find hidden classes that have different ranks. The main character is a total loser who has nothing but the game and stumbles onto the very first Legendary class of the game, and starts to grow not just in power, but developing as a human being. At the start of the story, he's actually not a very likeable character, and the nice things he does do, often he does by accident or just because something happened to snag on one of his weakpoints as a former loser. He does sympathize a lot with people, particularly NPCs, and that's kind of where he starts finding his niche in the game and the world at large. Some of it is guilty pleasure, some of it is the world building, some of it has just been watching this guy grow as a human being and not just as a player, but I do find myself liking this story. It does suffer from a LOT of the weak points of other stories in the genre though in that a lot of the villains don't really have much motivation beyond "FOR THE EVULZ!!!" and lucky shit always seems to happen for the MC so even shitty things turn good. It doesn't overdo it quite like the reincarnation VRMMO stories tend to do at least, so there's that. I tend to like Legendary Moonlight Sculptor more for the genre, but that story tends to have disgustingly bad translation quality. This one's a rather decent translation (or at least has decent grammar. I can't actually speak for translation accuracy).

[Dracos]

I've been reading https://wanderinginn.com

I am almost up to present...which is some 5000+ pages.

It is an isekai, with many folks drawn in, by different causes (most not knowing the cause at all).  It does have leveling systems and rules and such, but it definitely is delivered that it isn't necessarily a good thing (Perhaps one should question why such a system of gaining Skills and power exists), both from the explained 'perhaps there is a puppetmaster' and the subtle 'world is boring, entertainment is rare'.

It primarily follows Erin Solstice, a girl who got pulled in, burned, chased by goblins, and then hid in an inn, slowly making her way there.  She is an [innkeeper].  Also good at killing and making cake.

It also primarily follows Ryoka Griffin.  Who has way too good a memory.  And refuses to level.  Also has serious rage problems and is an Mixed-martial arts type.  She runs a lot.  She is not a good killer.  Likes listening to her iphone.

[Jason_Miao]

https://myoniyonitranslations.com/

Several Korean LNs of varying quality.

On light/web novels side of things, I've been binging a bit on: Overgeared, a korean VRMMO story.

I tried reading that when RainbowTurtle started translating it, but the main character couldn't retain my interest so I dropped it early on.  If you've been finding it interesting enough to read through, maybe I'll give it another shot.

[Merc]

When it started, I mostly read it to pass the time because it was fairly reliable with updates and I liked the world building. But the MC really was terrible early on.

He doesn't start being remotely likeable until he starts interacting with NPCs and forms a friendship with a blacksmith who lost his son, and I think that's 40-60 chapters or so before that first arc resolves?

It's actually from that friendship that he starts developing as a human being, but even it takes another 200 or so chapters before he stabilizes as a character and stops really changing too much. I think around the time that they start raiding vampires and he realizes he's cherishing the bonds he's made with his guild, the NPCs of his lands, etc, he stabilizes as a person and starts focusing more on growing in power and maintaining his bonds. It's a gradual growth up to that, so he -should- get more tolerable and halfway likeable as you read through, but if he really doesn't and you make it to vampire raids and still find him a douche, well, he's not gonna get much better after that.

[Dracos]

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/thaumaturgic-awakening-worm-fsn.378247/ - More action, Bullet keeps flying.

https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/tangled-fate-ranma-1-2-exalted.39183/ - Kind of a weak 'oh yes, we are running the city now...' chapter.

[Arakawa]

Some harmless lulz:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10578266/1/Silly-but-Killy

There be Warhammer 40k Orks. Apparently Warboss Hakkit taught Orks to coexist in close proximity with other races, thereby unleashing a new age of previously unimagined torments upon the galaxy. There is Kommando Sheppurt. 'E be green and dead killy. He stomps his way through the plot of Mass Effect.

[Jason_Miao]

https://kakuyomu.jp/works/1177354054886532612

Lv 99999 Villager

[Dracos]

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/i-woke-up-as-a-dungeon-now-what-dungeon-worm.620521/

In a dungeon, Atlas beats up everybody.  Kids are bullied, children cry, bows are broken.

Taylor goes easy on 'em.

[Jason_Miao]

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/i-woke-up-as-a-dungeon-now-what-dungeon-worm.620521/

In a dungeon, Atlas beats up everybody.  Kids are bullied, children cry, bows are broken.

Taylor goes easy on 'em.

The story itself seems like a fantasy LN starred by a Taylor Shaped Entity.  I don't get why the writer thought the TSE was necessary; the writer could have taken out the three or four Worm references in the text and replaced "Taylor" with a Afghani entomologist; the story would work just as well.

But the story is just the first few chapters, so maybe I'm jumping the gun.

[Arakawa]

Juxtapose is a story where Midoriya does have a quirk, though he's always been told it's a useless one (it isn't), and All Might is a bit healthier than he was at the start of canon. Their first meeting pans out slightly different as a result, and eventually diverges with All Might still taking Midoriya under his wing...but he's in the General Education department, not Heroics. Some interesting things with the story is that it follows somewhat along with canon, but doesn't just repeat the stations of canon trap that a lot of divergence fics fall prey to. Instead, it shows aspects of the story that we don't see in canon and the repercussions of changing those aspects. It's really pretty neat.

Reading right now... some interesting logic is implied as to why the Hero Class entrance exam is so focused on blowing up robots. Effectively, it seems like Nedzu made up an exam  that's extremely hard to pass without a violent Quirk because he considers the supporting roles to be more important in the grand scheme of things and he's pushing any unconventionally talented students away from the Hero route and in the support direction.

[Dracos]

https://wanderinginn.com/ continues to update a few times a week.  Just finished off a challenge of words and posturing with the summer fae and the emperor of the unseen.  Next chapter (up from patreon) returns to Erin post the liscor war.  Place be wrecked, but people be alive.  Life moves on.

[Merc]

Well, to anyone that read any sort of novel in webnovel.com, they finally seem to have gone to a fully paywall mode on chapters, no longer releasing chapters for free after a time. You can have a subscription and "earn spirit stones" to unlock chapters free, but on average you can unlock about .9 chapters per day. So if you really want to keep up, let alone read multiple novels, you gotta fork over money.

So I think I can safely say I am done with any novels on that site.

Regretably, people SAID as much this would happen when it first came online. They started off taking back ownership of scanlations from groups or absorbing them (as site is owned by the same chinese media group where they are inutially released to my understanding), and webnovel said they wouldn't do the whole blocked off paywall thing and they'd unlock chapters after a time. Think its been about two weeks now since I've seen a free chapter release so shows how much the naysayers from early on knew as chapters still get translated but nothing is coming off the paywall anymore. Alas.

Apparently this started a while back but they didn't say anything and I only realized because something I read got that and I was checking out the forums. No announcement or anything has been made and despite all forum outcry, no response is given there either.

[Anastasia]

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/dcau-a-little-less-conversation-a-little-more-action-please-dcau-plus.672631/

A JLU/DCAU story set around Batman. I'll be honest, I don't think it's quite right. It feels more like bad stereotype comic book Batman than the DCAU version. It doesn't nail the mood of it to me at all and the voices are usually off. Too bad.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11978790/1/Rabbit-of-the-Moon

I'll say this much: For all I dislike this story and disagree with most of it, it's not badly written. I merely find it completely against my own tastes and interests. Short version: SI is thrown into Usagi's body and basically wants no part of any of Usagi's life. Shenanigans ensue. It's fairly dark as well, don't go in expecting a comedy around it.

[Jason_Miao]

> Regretably, people SAID as much this would happen when it first came online.

Well, yeah.  The Wuxiaworld thing kind of made it clear that they were going to promise anything, and keep those promises until they'd gotten what they wanted.


https://volarenovels.com/divine-throne-primordial-blood/

Starts off like a generic wuxia novel, and somehow goes off the rails into The Adventures of a Mad Scientist.

[Jason_Miao]

https://shalvationtranslations.wordpress.com/dungeon-defense-toc/

A Korean man takes on the life of the weakest of 72 demon lords.  Setting is a video game world but does not throw stats or appraisal screens at the reader.  Political and psychological.  If you liked Taylor's character in Worm, you'll probably like this.  If you hated Taylor's character, I recommend skipping this one.

Also, it's 5 volumes in, and there is no dungeon.