I think I basically made this thread before because I just got way too confused whether or not novels are related. (Apparently series are related to each other by being "Chinese Novel") But now I got a perfect example, technically I guess they could actually be related by universe since Zhan Long is fucking weird after all, but anyway here it is: Spoiler: Screen Shot of novel page See that "Related Series"? Apparently this transported to another world fantasy novel share the same universe as a modern world VRMMORPG. Yes I know the MC was playing an mmo before he got summoned into another world or whatever, but seriously is that supposed to mean it's a "shared universe"? In that case isn't basically EVERY novel that stats with a person from earth "Shared Universe" since earth is in the same universe after all... Ok, so is there an actual relation between this novel and Zhan Long? And I guess that could potentially be a spoiler so do put it in a spoiler tag if you make an explanation.
Well it was a mmo repeatedly mentioned in Zhan Long and I think some characters from Zhan Long was briefly mentioned in the first chapter of TAG. Aside for that I fully agree with you, I love when authors reuse their setting for more than one story, but not when they randomly connect two separate settings that have nothing in common aside for some tiny arbitrary details.
Agreed. I like shared universes especially the ones where characters from the pervious story have clearly left some lasting impact on the current story.
Yeah that's cool you get a little extra "i know that reference" type of thing which do add some life to a novel, however it's not as cool when I have to worry about whether I'm missing out on some important details that I'll only know by reading the Author's previous works.