I have been reading novels for a year now and have read a lot of novels. I recently noticed almost nobody recommends old light novels and only the ones in trend right now.Like i did not read Hakomari for a long time till a single person told me how good it is.So i want everyone to tell me about some old epic light novels that should be read..
Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu... Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu will be published in English as Legend of the Galactic Heroes by VIZ Media under the Haikasoru imprint starting from March 8, 2016.
baccano, campione. the reason most people recommend new ones is b/c we all assume you've read the old ones or are not interested in japanese light novels which is mostly found on baka tsuki
A Slight Smile is Very Charming (completed) Sansheng death exist not at the river of oblivion (completed)
What count as old? None of the titles mentioned felt old(except what Lyrdyd mentioned cuz I don't read it). Anyway, recommending something that is in the trend is more because of what the asker ask for is something in line with what is in the trend. And also because there used to be extremely limited choice in what ln you could read, it felt like everyone already read it. Something to chip in the to the thread, maybe bungaku shoujo or suzumiya haruhi. Again, it doesn't really felt old. Not when you could still look for it in amazon.
I Know what you mean but i think there should be many people that just started reading novels not long ago and just went straight for chinese while there are some classics which must be read from old times. I don't know how many there are but if you know any praytell.( try to only tell about must read's so that i do not miss a single one of them.
Well, a lot of the older light novel translations will either be found at Baka-Tsuki (for Japanese ones) or the SPCNET forums (for Chinese ones). Unfortunately, some of the best older translation projects got licensed and thus removed from Baka-Tsuki archives, which is why they aren't mentioned anymore in recommendations (like Suzumiya Haruhi, Full Metal Panic, Slayers, etc.). And, of course, completed series don't get any more updates, so they don't appear on novel-updates' front page. Besides the ones listed above by others, you could also try: - Zero no Tsukaima - Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou - A Step Into the Past - Kill no More
LOGH as mentioned by tocos is really, really good space opera. Not sure if it counts as "light" novel though. There's also Banner of the Stars, Scrapped Princess, A Thousand Winter Clover (not sure if this was japanese though, this one is ancient), Mulin Jiangwu Gi (it had a weird english name, pretty much Kung Fu action porn from the 80s), I'm just a regular salaryman (or something like that), Record of Lodoss War, Mahurabo, Feng Sun Bong Chu Quay (90's adaptation of a Tang dynasty work). There were also a lot of great amateur stuff from back in the days (this is long before syosetu came along) that likely disappeared unless you find someone with an archive. The problem with recommending "older" stuff is accessibility, a lot of these really amazing stuff you simply can't find anymore (let alone online). Chances are, you'd have to special order it from a bookstore that knows their shit and hopefully one of the printers in Taiwan (funnily enough, A LOT of japanese and chinese works are printed there) has it (I was able to get the complete set of City Hunter from one of those printers to give as a present for someone).
ASITP +1, MUST READ for wuxia/xianxia fans. So true, recommending older novels are complicated; without links, the recommendations can merely be teasers. But sometimes I think, older novels are made with a lot more originality that the cliches that authors now throw to their readers. It goes for manga too.