What are you reading?

[Yuthirin]

So what do you guys think of my Fanfic? I know it's just getting started, but I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

Are you looking for public feedback or private? In-depth or just an overview?

[Dracos]

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/centipede-worm-tokyo-ghoul.431353/

3ish new good chapters to read.

[Dracos]

Some more good centipede, life in the super illuminati.

[thepanda]

Read through Burn Up by the same author as Glass Maker. An earlier work, I think?

I still like the quirky narrative style, but over all I didn't enjoy this one as much. I'd have to see another of the author's works to confirm but I'm starting to get uncomfortable with the whole 'powers gut Taylor's personality' thing.

[Dracos]

Yeah it was.  I never finished it actually, because it felt rail-roady with Armsmaster on top of basically being weird from the get-go with Taylor's personality.  Many have said it turns around and ends awesomely, enough for me to think about another go.

[Dracos]

re: Burn Up
Looks like the author seriously rewrote the middle of it pretty heavily.  The original had her killing folks during Armsmaster's attempt to take her in, and then basically throwing that at her from the PRT side.

The rewritten version is 'better' but has the same issue glassmaker does:
The world doesn't really react like worm.  Coil just up and vanishes?  what?  In both, she's basically physically unstoppable by absolutely everyone.  But more than that, almost nobody tries?  And pushing her against real threats doesn't really come up?  They're neat, enjoyable, but also kind of feel like they aren't quite trying to exist in the setting.

[Anastasia]

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/jailbreak-worm-fanfic.450063/

In the middle of the Warlord Taylor arc, a new inmate to the Birdcage has precisely the right skill to pull of a mass breakout. Shenanigans ensue as all the Birdcage comes out to play. Fun story so far but it's still early.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/nightingale-worm-dnd-bard-taylor.381918/page-118#post-28059310

I've been following Nightingale recently. It's a fun fic that has Taylor finally live up to her character class (bard) this chapter.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/el-ahrairah-worm.372987/page-70#post-28063321

El-Ahrairah updated. Still the best Worm fic for my money and each update's a joy to read. The author really gets things and writes well.

[Merc]

Drac asked for a link to a web/light novel I was reading that I mentioned earlier today, providing link as requested!

I Shall Seal The Heavens is a wuxia/xianxia story about a mortal scholar, Meng Hao, who got dragged into the world of immortals/cultivators, and as he finds himself getting more powerful, finding out that his background was actually more complex than he imagined (his parents vanished when he was very young... I'm sure you can easily imagine things about them. The story's not subtle nor does it try to do anything special/new there).

One of the reasons it came up in discussion earlier was that I was mentioning that the translation quality was fairly solid when compared to other web/light novels, and that the main character wasn't one of the traditional harem heroes and in fact ends up with just one girl and being faithful to her.

That said, the hero does suffer from the hypocrite/dick factor that other wuxia heroes seem to suffer from, and it gets worse as he gets stronger. He's generally most likeable when he's the underdog or showing his more scholarly traits as opposed to when he's trying to con someone for money. His obsession with money is pretty much his fatal flaw, and the worst aspects about the character arise when something involving money/treasures is occuring. Unfortunately, as the story progresses, those aspects and obsession become more and more prominent.

Another flaw is that a lot of the stories' antagonists are caricatures in that it's very clear that Meng Hao is in the right to kill them. There's very few antagonists where they could have been the heroes of a separate story and just happened to cross paths against Meng Hao and lose out. There's only two exceptions that I can recall, and both characters were pretty prideful assholes as well, but it wasn't outright clear that Meng Hao was in the right to destroy them, and in at least one of those cases, the main character notes that his opponent is actually a better person than himself, they just happen to be on opposite sides. I do wish there were more antagonists that felt like real characters rather than props for the main character to defeat and grow more powerful after beating them.

I think at least the first three books are worth reading (300 or so chapters). After that, it's kind of a toss-up. There's a lot of interesting stuff in the later books, it's just that there's also a lot of NOT interesting stuff too. Books 4-5 were so-so/alright (through chapter 800), and I just haven't been very into the last two books, so my reading pace has slowed significantly on the series (I'm at around chapter 1000). Part of the problem with later chapters is that Meng Hao's motivations change during books 4-5 as he finds stuff about his parents and reaches certain plateaus in power levels. By book 6+, a lot of the story is about establishing that Meng Hao is the star of his generation and easily able to brutally destroy cultivators of much higher ranks than him, so it's hard to see challenges being meaningful too.

It does update frequently with translated chapters (Generally 1-2 chapters a day, on some ocassions can even see 4-5 chapters in a day), so it has that going for it. Out of 1600+ chapters (completed series), it's currently sitting at 1111 translated chapters.

[Anastasia]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12252300/1/The-Senshi-Files-Silver-Warden

The Senshi Files: Silver Warden was revised and reposted. There's no new material yet, but everything so far got a nice polish. Note that old links go to the old version rather than the new one, so update bookmarks accordingly.

Also the copy over on Spacebattles was locked and won't be further updated due to drama. So switch to following this one on Fanfiction.net if you like it.

[Yuthirin]

Also the copy over on Spacebattles was locked and won't be further updated due to drama. So switch to following this one on Fanfiction.net if you like it.

I'd ask what happened, but it's Spacebattles.

[Rukatin]

Also the copy over on Spacebattles was locked and won't be further updated due to drama. So switch to following this one on Fanfiction.net if you like it.

I'd ask what happened, but it's Spacebattles.

True. Though while I do consider myself a Spacebattler, I've never partaken in the... heated discussions they sometimes get into.

[Anastasia]

It was a thing, yeah.

[Dracos]

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/thoughts-as-light-as-a-feather-worm-au-altpower.425272/ the trolling continues.

Haven't caught up on the rewrite of senshi files.

[Jason_Miao]

Drac asked for a link to a web/light novel I was reading that I mentioned earlier today, providing link as requested!

I Shall Seal The Heavens is a wuxia/xianxia story about a mortal scholar, Meng Hao, who got dragged into the world of immortals/cultivators, and as he finds himself getting more powerful, finding out that his background was actually more complex than he imagined (his parents vanished when he was very young... I'm sure you can easily imagine things about them. The story's not subtle nor does it try to do anything special/new there).

Haven't checked back in here recently, since I've been binging on Elona+ ... you've been following I Shall Seal the Heavens too?  I hadn't thought anyone here was interested.

I personally thought that the "con artist" bits to be generally interesting since they can get creative, although I think the most recent incarnation ("I owe money?!") is disappointing in that regard.  In terms of the "Hero is a dick" I've found that there tends to be a pretty high prevalence of that in translated xianxia for whatever reason, and even if the main character starts off as a normally adjusted person, that tends to get thrown out by some railroaded justification around chapter 3.

The writer's newer work is being translated here if you haven't been following it already. 

[Merc]

I'm on break on it right now, but yeah, I follow ISStH. Going to let it pile up and binge on hopefully more interesting stuff than the recent arcs. The 'villain from beyond' and the sea monsters were a pretty big let down, so I paused before the arc in that new dimension gets started and letting it pile up some chapters.

And yes, 'Hero is a dick' is very popular in xianxia (and really, anything from Asia really). I assume it has to do with some cultural thing that leads to characters like Sasuke from Naruto and other assholes being popular. Or just the wish fullfilment part of some authors on their MC being on a power trip ala Perfect Lionheart/Skysaber.

I've been following ATTE as well. Bai Xiaochun is a lovable scamp... that you want to punch in the face if you actually live with him. There's a lot of similarities between him and Meng Hao, though I think Bai is slightly better fleshed out (which makes sense if ATTE is a newer work). Not sure if that will last, as I think the whole 'stronger than he looks/acts' schtick is starting to get old there. Hopefully more development and/or supporting cast shows up.

In particular, I hope for more than the 'wacky eccentric magical kung fu animal mascot' thing the writer likes to add. Didn't much care for the antics of Lord Third/Fifth in ISStH, don't much care for panty-stealing wolf thing or the mouthy bunny from ATTE.