Discussion What kind of novel would you read to the end?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by AardwarkThe2nd, Apr 18, 2019.

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What kind of novel would you read to the end?

  1. Great battles and power progression/ Mc with -10 IQ

    4 vote(s)
    5.1%
  2. Great romance and harem/ Chapters focused on Soap-opera drama

    10 vote(s)
    12.8%
  3. Great world building and innovative battles/ romance bad enough to claw your eyes

    48 vote(s)
    61.5%
  4. Great ending/ Consistently mediocre until ending

    10 vote(s)
    12.8%
  5. Great MC/ Absolutely everyone else retarded

    6 vote(s)
    7.7%
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  1. Innieminnie

    Innieminnie Secret Parrot, Hidden Dodo

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    Slice of life, interesting power/skill throughly explored, BL, Zombies/Mecha/Ancient China/Xanxia/ABO = perfect novel
     
  2. An Anime Addict

    An Anime Addict (≧▽≦)/̵͇/'̿'̿ ̿ ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿ ̿̿ ̿̿ (▀̿̿Ĺ̯̿▀̿ ̿)

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    Ah i never got to understand but anyways why do females love BL. Is it something like their fantasies like for guys seeing two females together is a type of fantasy sometimes (ok who am i kidding. It is a fantasy all the time).
     
  3. Hamza

    Hamza Well-Known Member

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    The only novel worth reading to the end if it is engaging enough. If it bores you out in the middle, what is the point to finish? Most likely, I'll skip to the last few chapters
     
  4. Hasr11

    Hasr11 [Cat] [Fujoshi] [JP TL in Hiding]

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    Where is the BL option?
     
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  5. SupahHamster

    SupahHamster 『The One Who Lurks』

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    I feel that the one with the great world building and battles but terrible romance is half of what I already read.
     
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  6. Innieminnie

    Innieminnie Secret Parrot, Hidden Dodo

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    Hmm, I don't know about other females, but I started to like BL not from anime or manga, but from fanfiction. There weren't any pretty pictures to drool over, and I probably could not accurately imagine any type of 'exciting' scenes. Haha, before this I actually never imagined myself becoming a BL fangirl.

    No, the main reason I like BL is for their strong protagonists. It's also why I like CN novels. I don't like blushy blushy people, and I don't like shojou for that reason as well. Nor do I like josie all that much due to its focus on romance. I, in fact, dislike most relationship drama in general.

    I don't particularly like reading from a male's perspective if there is any sort of romance involved simply because any romance I do read I want to be with a male from a woman's perspective. Hmm, maybe it would be better understood if I were to say I'd probably like any shouen if it had a straight female protagonist? Or any novel really.

    Well, suffice to say I refuse to read any BL that has a weak uke who acts like a woman because it's too similar to shojou.

    I miss out on a lot of good novels because I don't like to read about straight male protags...not that I haven't before, but I have a distaste for it. I've also read some yuri, but other than a select few, I don't care for it. Hmm...well, as long as I don't begrudge other people their likes and dislikes when reading, I figure I'm okay.

    The strange thing is, I prefer little to no romance with my female protagonists, and lota of romance for my BL...yeah, actually maybe I don't understand it either.. Shrugs.
     
  7. otaku31

    otaku31 Well-Known Member

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    Mediocre sounds unflattering when used to describe a novel, but when it's a CN one's talking about, "consistently mediocre until end" doesn't seem half bad. For one, it actually alludes to an ending, i.e., the author is not going to drop/discontinue it halfway.

    Too many authors drop the ball in the later chs leading to the end; consistent throughout at least ensures avg. quality till the end. After all, I'm more likely to drop a CN bcuz of an abominably bad arc than a lack of exciting ones.

    A "great ending" (for me that would mean a HE, so I'm going with the assumption it will be a HE) would mean it wasn't a half-hearted/perverse one. A poor ending leaves me frustrated and wondering what was the point of reading it at all: a wasted journey. A great ending, on the other hand, elevates; it leaves me gratified, fulfilled.

    So, 4th one 4 me.
     
    Last edited: Apr 18, 2019
  8. Night Ghost

    Night Ghost Well-Known Ghost Member

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    Great world building, great character development, great plot, great fight scenes, intriguing storyline, good romance.

    The options in the poll are crap btw
     
  9. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    The things that make a novel worth reading are (in order):

    1. Good characterization. If a novel has good characterization, then it makes up for just about everything else that may be lacking in the story.
    2. Quality writing. This is a very wide category that is primarily about the quality of the prose, but also covers things like how the writer builds tension or other storytelling decisions.
    3. World building.
    4. An engaging storyline.

    The quality of things like fights, romance, or even ending are way down in terms of priority. As such, most of the options in the poll aren't particularly noteworthy. I mean, what's supposed to be wrong with a protagonist with -10 IQ if the characterization is good? Why would a bad romance matter if the rest of the story is good? Why would having a good ending matter when the quality of the ending is almost irrelevant?

    I agree with quite a bit of this. While one should never aspire to mediocrity, it's not really all that bad for a book all things considered. Being mediocre is not the same thing as being bad, and there can be plenty of fun found in mediocre books. However, it's generally Japanese webnovels that I find to be poor enough that I wish that more of them are good enough to be considered mediocre. I don't know if it's just the quality of the translations, or that the writers are just that bad, but I find they can be really awful; even books that a lot of people recommend. In contrast, I find that even Chinese novels that are supposed to be trash can still have half decent writing and interesting writing.
     
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  10. Sininenblue

    Sininenblue Active Member

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    An enjoyable one
     
  11. EnuoFH

    EnuoFH Well-Known Member

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    i'm honestly the kind that its easy to keep reading, but i think a novel that would like have a Smart and OP MC with personality, good battles, interesting powers system with even abstract concepts attached to them, harem with a lot of spicy stuff but relationship with mc and they not being only about sex, actual supporting male characters that aren't useless, good world building, a lot of variations beetwen enemies, good villains and a nice storytelling, thats more like a type of novel that i would really find my type tho not that i wouldnt finish other novels afterall i not even read one that its like what i just said

    I want to believe the problem its more the translations, from my experience with translated webnovels and even some LN i see a lot of confusing things and some grammatical errors i actually see sometimes a lot of translators that actually even change a character from male to female or vice versa but most of the time i have no clue why and i they usually don't say anythign about it either, so i want to think that we don't really read most of time what the author actually wrote, still i supossed those translators as long they can get better with time
     
  12. SummerMascot

    SummerMascot Well-Known Member

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    @Innieminnie
    This seems to be what you're looking for: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/repugnant-gateway/
    • Has Slice of Life (bore...)
    • interesting power/skill thoroughly explored (when you stare into the abyss, the abyss becomes you)
    • BL (goosebumps at the dialogue between the "enemy turned frenemy turned buddy turned ????" with MC)
    • BL (I don't want to mention about the weird masochistic relationship between the "Stone Monkey" and the "Buddhist Monk")
    • Zombies (You get them alot)
    • Mecha (Yes)
    • Ancient China (Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, Spring Autumn Warring States, Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shan Hai Jing))
    • Xianxia (Xianxia and Mecha don't mix well)
    • ABO (!!!)
    • Add Cultivation via Smartphone.
    @An Anime Addict
    Google fujoshi
     
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2019
  13. Innieminnie

    Innieminnie Secret Parrot, Hidden Dodo

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    That sounds...terrible to be honest. I'm a bit interested in the supposed BLish relationships but not enough to force myself to read through multiple genres. When I listed them, I put / to indicate that they should be seperate but it doesn't matter which genre it is replaced by :blobsweat:

    Thanks for the reccomendation though!
     
  14. SummerMascot

    SummerMascot Well-Known Member

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    @Innieminnie
    You are correct. https://www.novelupdates.com/series/repugnant-gateway/ is a terrible novel. If only the Rating system allowed me to give a negative numerical rating... :rolleyes:
    Read my negative review here: https://www.novelupdates.com/fdrev/?comid=97494&sid=11036
     
  15. AardwarkThe2nd

    AardwarkThe2nd (R-18 writer) Aardwark, the king of aardvarks!

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  16. Beyonder94

    Beyonder94 New Member

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    Doesn't matter the subgenre I guess xd
     
  17. HNCKrstl

    HNCKrstl 《The Đevîl's Cøñsørt》『♡Hayyan's Female Version』

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    I guess
    great world building
    good character development

    matter the most.

    I would read to the end if the story is suspense, mystery or thriller type. If the reason behind everything in the story is explained at the moment it happens itself, I get bored.

    And also if the use of words is beautiful, like Haruki Murakami, and if the characters are lovable, like Akatsuki no Yona, where you fall in love with almost every character. I also enjoy novels with playful mischievous MCs. ^^
     
  18. Lemonfairy

    Lemonfairy 〖Retired Cat Boss〗〖Feeling the Effects of Aging〗

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    anything that can keep me entertained
     
  19. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    Between those, probably #2, though Harem is by no means a requirement... And well, I love drama~

    As a rule of thumb though, I read good stuff until the end, bad stuff I either don't start or drop midway.
     
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