Recommendations Looking for some unique novels to read!

There are 2-4 arcs in middle that are a little slow and absolutely everyone falls into belief that it becomes another generic harem, go throw shit on novel page review and leaves never to return. But there are still really good arcs afterwards. Arifureta is for me #1 book.

 

That's because if these authors don't crank out something they'll literally have no way to survive, to them writing novels is no longer a passion but just another means to put food on the table, and the easiest way to do that is to just simply copy.

 

You need to read more then. Arifureta was somewhat enjoyable, yes. But the only really good part of it was the Dungeon Arc. Everything afterwards slowly led me to dropping the novel. It was not one or two bits of it after the Dungeon Arc, it was everything after it up till 100+ chapter. It's good that you enjoyed it though. I did as well, as long as I could

That's true for some, others just don't have any ideas of their own, or just want to gather easy publicity. The reasons are not really relevant though, as they don't really change the fact that there are far too many copycats out there, making shifting through the titles all the more burdensome >.<

 

Damn straight, he be tied with li Qiye from Emperors domination for me since hes so op but besides that the protagonist from Gu Daoist Master is probably the best in not bothering to ever save anyone and always ready to throw someone of the bridge if needed.

 

Risou no Himo Seikatsu
Akuyaku Reijo Ni Koi Wo Shite

 

That is a sad thought for authors and an awesome idea for a novel. Dibs!

 

I have hundreds novel that must be read, then some of them I stop until it pass around 200 Chaps or so then I'll continue read it. If there are new novels then I'll just add it to my readinglist and read later.

 

I will reccomend novels from each country, Rakuin no Monshou JP, Zhu Xian CN, The Lazy Swordmaster KR, if you stop half away then just consider that novels not suit you.

 

You have no right to judge until you read it all. And if you tell me to read more...You have no damn idea how much stuff i already read. Not all books i read i add to my reading list. Also you have no idea how much damn stuff i read on RRL. If you don't want more basic story sure. But atleast try the silly slapstick comedy of them abusing their powers once they return to Earth in the afterstories.

 

Why can't I judge something based on what I have read?
Are you really so much of a fanboy to not admit that one can judge things that they have already read?
Are you going to deny the existence of 100+ chapters just because the remainder might or might not be better?
Arifureta does belong to the enjoyable reads, and that's it.
It's neither well-written nor does it have any decent character development, maybe aside from some bits regarding the MC and the love of his life. All the other characters are cardboardish at best.
The story is hardly original, and while the world building is decent, it doesn't make much of a difference as the author doesn't really make much use of that.
The storyline isn't even complicated in the least, it's pretty linear overall.
Aside from the MC somehow always preparing for all contignencies, there is not much planning, politics, schemes, strategizing, and whatnot.
The novel has some comedic value, I can see that, but I hardly ever enjoy comedy elements in novels, for most of them, if they don't focus on parodying other things, are extremely cliche, repeatable and not very bright.

You want to achieve what by your comment exactly? To force random people to love your favourite novel?
To feel better about yourself by trying to belittle others?
You sir are acting like a small animal that got scared and entered defensive mode.
Is that showing off that you supposedly "read a lot" supposed to scare me?
From the context I can guess that what you have been reading are mostly webnovels, or originals, written by teenagers or young adults for the most part, with their expected audience belonging also to teenagers, young adults or maybe even children.
Though the problem about webnovels, whether translated from other languages or ones written in English, is that they have no standards.
There is literally nobody checking the quality of those, with only occassional exceptions.
If that is supposed to tell me how high your standards are, then I guess you succeeded in relying that.

Please do refrain from shoving your little ideas down other people's throats next time such a chance comes, or getting offended because somebody doesn't like your fav novel. An adult thing to do would be to think, or say, "okay, you have your own standards and likes, I won't force you to like what I do" and drop the matter.
That is, If you decide to not ignore my arguements, like so many of your type do.

I'm sorry you took my little tease to read more so hard, but given the aforementioned statements about Arifureta I truly cannot place it anywhere near the best novels out there, and thus I assumed you didn't read much quality content in your life. Which you have just proven by bringing RRL and webnovels into this.
I'm even more sorry that you had to try and turn this mostly positive thread into... this.

 

Actually, you were the first one judging me, by saying that i must have not read many books yet if i liked Arifureta the most. That was a thing that kind of annoyed me. While i agree that Arifureta has really quite weak middle of the story, i'm beyond annoyed at people who get stuck there, and start judging the whole book as failure and shit. You can judge the book if you want but look at half the review on this site. People read up to chapter 5 and judge the whole damn book as being shit, because first 5 chapters are same as...i don't know any other damn story. What i meant is that you have no right to judge the whole book just by reading a first third of it. You can judge what you have read so far, sure, but don't make people think as if you read the whole book and found it shit...Which is what happens on novelupdates more than often.

I do not need you to love the goddamn book. All i frickin wanted was for you to give it a second damn try.

Throw on me some books on novelupdates you consider quality content then, i SURE need to broaden my horizons. Running out of books here anyway.

P.S I might sound as a big jerk. But i am srsly pissed that people are badmouthing Arifureta just because they can't get past some goddamn harem episodes. They miss all the big fights like

Spoiler

Whole world with hajimes invention vs God and his army of all destroying apostles

 

In fiction, as in life, we take in only what we need and discard the rest. That is the way of the world; it is the way of the novel. In my opinion, life is too short for bad fiction. I tried making it a haiku but it didn't work.

 

Gonna recommend the underrated ones

Kapitan Sino
23:11

 

I've honestly been debating whether or not to recommend this story for this thread or not. I have decided to do so, as I typically give an explanation to why I am recommending the story while trying to avoid spoilers. (PS, I only had one other story I felt fit for this was Forty Millennium of Cultivation, but it's already on your reading list, so no reason to recommend or explain it).

Commanding Wind and Cloud. It is, for the most part, a fairly generic Cultivation Story at it's core. A little nobody in the starting in the middle of nowhere with seemingly no reasonable chance to become the highest level of Fighter ends up becoming the strongest level of Fighter, skilled in numerous crafting fields he didn't even practice at the start of the story and with a harem, all while insulting or contradicting those with seemingly more power and authority than him at every step of the way in such a way that he is constantly besieged by enemies on all sides, while hiding the cheat he received at the beginning of the story that made that all possible. That's the broad strokes of the story, and thus you can easily see how it's a typical Cultivation Story.

The difference actually comes from the small details and world as a whole. To begin with, instead of Cultivation Power Ruling Supreme Without Competition (other Cultivator's don't count, as they're also using Cultivation Power), there's also Mages who use a different energy, as well as people who both Cultivate and use Magic in combat. And that's without getting into the Easy-Growth-Cheat known as Bloodlines, which directly give power up transformations & aid their user's growth.

Secondly, part of the reason why the MC is considered to have no possible long-term future is because there's limits on how far a person without the Bloodline Benefits known to all in the world that can direct development, and the MC doesn't have that specific Cheat. The MC's own cheat doesn't even directly counter this limit, and the Easy-Growth-Cheat is the main known method to overcome that limit, while also giving numerous other obvious advantages.

Spoiler: Third covers minor spoilers.

Third, the MC's Cheat is lessons that nobody else can get. This means that his ungodly talent in numerous crafting fields comes from having a good memory and being given lessons from people at godlike levels of said crafting fields. No "Oh, he's just a genius who gets inspiration and can shortcut and surpass a specialist just because he's the MC" here. Of course, he's also quite lucky, but it's a Story, the MC being unlikely levels of lucky is typically more likely to happen than not, particularly in a Power Fantasy Type Story like this one.

Spoiler: Fourth has more substantial spoilers

Fourth, the MC's Harem joins him not because they fell for his gallantry, his good looks or his overwhelming personality (even when he barely knows them or ever sees them), as is typical for a Cultivation Novel. No, most of them join him because it's directly beneficial to be with him. Of the two Harem Members he is currently engaged or married to in what's been translated, one relationship was made via letter as a precaution, while the other informed the MC that doing X means that they're now engaged due to a promise she made that he had no idea about. X was not sexual in any way, shape or form.

Yes, he does have other's who might, can or almost certainly will join his harem. However, I didn't include them as they aren't official members of said harem yet in what's been translated, so I didn't include them.

 

My Disciple Died Yet Again.
General synopsis from NU:

"The Revered Master, Yu Yan, known as the number one in the cultivation world, waited for sixteen thousand years, and finally took in a disciple. He taught her carefully, and took care of her diligently. He watched her as she slowly grew stronger as she comprehended the laws, and just as she was about to soar into prominence… she died!

Hence, he once again took in another disciple, carefully taught her, diligently took care of her, and then… she died again!

Thus, he took in another disciple, and not long after… she still died!

Yu Yan: …

Disciple: …

(Why do I always get picked up by the same person every time I reincarnate? Haaaa…)"

Note: It hasn't updated in a while but at least you'll be able to catch up. And yes, it is transmigration and parodies other transmigration theme novels.

 

Thank you for recommendations!

Will check them out, thanks!

As I explained in my previous message, it was just a tease, that emoticon at the end of my tease was a good hint for that.
Plus, I did tell you that it's an enjoyable read and I wasn't hating on it in particular, I just stopped reading and don't plan on continuing.
And regardless of what you believe, a part of a book is generally a really good insight into the entirety of it. It's rare for authors to suddenly start improving in the middle of writing. The opposite is actually often true. Hyaku ma no Omo is one such example, with great prologue but terrible continuation.
I very much suggest you reading the prologue and maybe chapter 1, but reading further than that is just not worth it as the quality pretty much drops to the lowest of lows, with barely budding elementary school psychology, poor character introductions, and chuuni-driven fantasy development.
Basing on your idea of what makes a story good, a few good things about a novel are enough to offset the much more worse reminder. What it proves is that there are good moments in a book, but it doesn't make the book itself good. Consistency is often the reason behind the novels being "good", or at least the main force behind keeping the quality the same.

As for suggestions? I don't have any to give out without some criteria.
My main criteria for rating how good books are:
1. Plot, it's depth, originality, presentation and development;
2. Character Presentation & Development;
3. Action Flow and everything related to it
4. Logical Consistency of the whole thing
5. World Building, as it's important how well-made and well-perceived the world in the novel is by the reader.

A novel being well-written is an additional bonus, but not a requirement for it. Parts of that are included in the aforementioned criteria anyhow, as the better written something is, the better presented are the various distinct parts of the novel.
For me personally, while I care about those criteria a lot, the main one for me remains uniqueness and originality. And I mean uniqueness of the plot, systems, politics, tactics, everything aside from the general setting. It doesn't really matter to me how much different the setting is, unless it's so different and so fascinating so as to offset the other factors in the novel.

You asked for NU recommendations too, that narrows things down quite a bit, but let's try.
For example, a novel with decent world building is Knight and Magic, a novel with great World Building is Overlord.
Logical Consistency of World of Cultivation is great, whilst that of Praise the Orc, not so much (especially visible in middle chapters)
Plot of Ouroboros Record is fairly well laid out, and given how well-written it is, it places among the best on NU from that regard.
Action flow of Praise the Orc is quite smooth, while in many cultivation novels it's jumbled up, with probably only ISSTH and World of Cultivation having it almost undisrupted.
As for Character Presentation, I can't recall any NU novel right now that would be worth mentioning. Maybe aside from IET novels, where the MCs do get character development, but other characters still don't get much of it.
P.S. You do sound like a big jerk <3

Too bad about the haiku, but the topic made me curious as to what criteria do you use for deciding which novels are worth reading and which are not?

I will see myself whether they're underrated for a reason or not, thankyu~!

Woah, that's quite an in-depth explanation, thank you for taking your time to type this out!

Lol, I have seen this one but couldn't decide whether it's worth reading. It doesn't sound very serious from the premise after all, and it's hard to guess where the focus of the story is from the synopsis xD Thanks for the recommendation though~

 

Wow, that's an interesting question. The answer can be ridiculously long if I really get into it because reading for me is both a pleasure and a career.

When it comes to reading for pleasure I do exactly that...test for enjoyment as I go along I guess. If I intuitively enjoy it, then I'll continue to read. A simple if then statement kinda encompasses it. If the author can make me come back for more, then they have done their job and I'm hooked.

That doesn't mean that everything I read is fluffy romcoms. (in fact, until recently I used to avoid these like the plague, I still don't do romcom movies). I like challenging reads because you gain insight. IMHO the world would be a better place if we endeavoured to understand others better, reading is a way to achieve this goal.

I might have to walk away from a book for a bit before returning, especially if the topics are hard to swallow, but if it's a good read, I will inevitably come back for more. I do have taboos and thresholds, but I generally try to keep my reading for pleasure enjoyable.

*LOLS* This is the short answer version. *LOLS*

 

Umu, sorry for answering so late, I was caught up in RL stuff.
Your answer was really short, though even in that short answer you only explained one and forgot to say anything about what criteria do you use for your "career" reads? As for my own criteria... I believe I have explained them quite in-depth just a bit above xD
You have also mentioned that quite a few times in this thread, and it made me interested
So just let me ask bluntly, what career are you talking about? Have you written something you could share, or are you aspiring towards some writing goal? Or maybe your job requires you to write a lot? I would very much like to hear about that

Personally, I mostly write for myself, though I still do share the more wild thoughts I have in public, and write reviews whenever I am in the mood to do so. You can find them here:
http://www.rebirth.online/novel/zhaernon-review-corner
http://www.rebirth.online/novel/dwelling-of-wild-thoughts

While the wild thoughts are mostly just some examples of my silly in-spur-of-the-moment creations that I have bothered writing down (oh god only knows how many times I came up with some short poems or lyrics during your everyday tasks, but couldn't take the time to write them down), I certainly put in as much effort as possible into my reviews, to provide as thorough and objective insight into novels, games, and other creations I took notice of.

 

Career reads is whatever the boss assigns me. I don't like to talk too much about my personal life online, if we get to know each other better then perhaps we can discuss sometime..Lets communicate.

I will say for myself that I have degrees in literature and IT, among other things and I like challenging jobs. I know languages and I've travelled around a bit...I live overseas for the longest time. I follow my bliss mostly and work so I can do this, not the other way around. I'm fortunate that my current circumstance allow me to wallow in my creative juices at the moment. XD

IMHO experience and continuing to experience life makes a good writer. Reading and writing lots about all sorts of things is important. Athletes train their body by exercising, a writer exercises their muscles by writing lots in different settings. Reports, lists, emails, forums, reviews, dissertations....how long is a piece of string? I am published, but nothing fictional. Stories and such is something I have only done for friends and myself....hehe, and when I play or DM for roleplaying games (Haven't DM'd for AGES though).

Currently, I want to attempt writing something fictional and perhaps make a buck. But that means sharing what I write with strangers!!! I'm actually a really shy violet. So I'm trying to figure out a way to do this....do I try doing it the old fashioned way and send a manuscript to a publisher or should I try writing a light novel or web novel (non-traditional way)? For me this is the hardest hurdle of all as I've never attempted this before.

I've written more about myself in a couple of other posts(here and here)..maybe they will give you more of an insight into my wacky ways? PM me if you like and we can chat more...I'm just conscious of the fact that once I get into a topic I like, I'll write (and talk) til the conversation is over and that's not exactly how things work in a forum.

Thanks for posting back, I love talking about this stuff as much as I like doing it.

 

That's quite a lot to digest actually, and since I am a fairly busy person, I couldn't really get myself to reply the past few days, sorry about that.
All in all, I did not mean to be too privy, I just asked since you have mentioned your writing career a few times. If it's not something you want to talk about, I have no reason to push the matter through. We all have the right to our own privacy after all

I also agree with your honest opinion that writing well requires one to amass both knowledge and experience, in life and writing alike.
It's not really rocket science either once one thinks about it, though many people tend to not take that little fact into account.
I don't have much more to add to this, as I believe you have exhausted the topic quite nicely <3

The road to writing a great fiction is a strenous and rocky one. I know that well myself, as I have been writing down and continously scrapping bits and pieces of various fictions since I was a little kid, with my first writing attempt done at the age of 8 or so
For me, the underlying reason for constant scrapping is my inherent perfectionism, coupled with not wanting to disappoint my readers by my own ineptitude.
For that very reason I also wish you luck in this endeavour, first time is the charm!
My advice for you is to first find yourself a few people you like, respect, or otherwise feel them worthy of sharing your attempts at writing with. Write a bit, discuss with them the more problematic bits, let them read and share their opinions, and once you have written 5-10 chapters and feel that you're doing a good job, you can decide whether to go viral online first, or whether to go the traditional publishing way.
That is also what I have attempted to do some time ago, but due to time constraints and RL problems I couldn't write too often. The people I have asked for help didn't help me all that much either, and after a few chapters I felt that they only wanted me to write more, but not really discuss what I wrote with me. Since then I have been stalling, for nearly half a year by now and debating whether to return to writing or not.

Currently a lack of motivation is bugging me too, unfortunately

Feel free to reply either here or via PM, as you have quite accurately noticed, forums aren't really meant for such conversations

Have some faith in yourself!