I'm looking for stories with a purpose. Where the things they do in chapter five mean something in say chapter fifty and beyond. With side characters that are actually people, and a romance that's not them getting together being over exasperated complications. Lastly with a main character that is reasonable in their actions and not just caricatures of the authors wet dreams. What I'm not looking for is things like the main character spending a lot of time and energy to get something powerful only to use it for a time before replacing it with something else. Something almost every cultivation novel seems to be written with in mind. The pursuit of shiny objects that outgrown their usefulness is boring to me. I'm also not looking for stories about a loner main character who only interacts with people if they can be used to further the pursuit of showing how awesome the main character is. That includes villains who are given the illusion of being a threat but aren't. Bonus points if the villain isn't a villain for the simple aspect of being laughably evil. Not every villain needs to be power hungry rapists. Romance in most stories seems to be written by those who have no idea how to make it work. There is either ridiculous obstacles preventing them from getting together or stupidly dense plot devices that prevent anything from happening. Humans kiss and have sex and the older they are the faster it happens, it shouldn't be as difficult as the authors make it out to be. Lastly I actually have to care about the main character and find them believable. Killing because someone has the gull to look at them or who don't learn from their past actions is a plague on a lot of stories here. The less they are like actual people the harder it is to get into the story for me. For a genre I like to avoid is comedy. Its fine for a bit, but after I get use to it I get bored. A breakdown of some of what I've read. Original Atros Imperium - The story is the basic set-up of a man dying and being sent to a new world with god powers. For the first dozen or so chapter it has nearly everything I dislike in a story, but once the first 'arc' is complete the author seemed to have learned and grew with the writing. Their is a clear goal of building a town to prevent an invasion and everything in the story is done so with that in mind. While I see lacking aspects it still works overall. The side characters aside from the major problem at the beginning of the story actually seem like people. Its not perfect but its been getting better. The best part though is the relationship of the main character and his love interest actually develops. They get together, have sex and it just is, since that's what two adult do. Best of all they work as a team to complete goals and deal with things like people do in a relationship. Its a partnership. Amazing how fresh of an idea that was to read. Overall I would say 7.5/10. With a decent rewrite of early chapters and better plot management could be 9/10. Dan's Shoppe of Oddities - The story is simply the most basic premise of if a Japanese harem main character wasn't dense. Outside the fact the main character has sex its unremarkable and forgettable in every way. Which isn't to say its bad, it just isn't great either. 5/10 Average story. The Gam3 - Cross world/race MMORPG that has stakes for the real world. Interesting idea, but the plot if you can call it one is a mess. The main character is a socially awkward dumb ass who succeeds because he's gifted an AI that stops him from being useless to the story. The side characters are never developed. While the only understanding of the world your given is a series of poorly handled exposition. Lastly since the main character moves from event to event with no meaningful transition in between. At no point did I find myself caring about anything happening. 4/10 Mother of Learning - Its been awhile since I've read this but I would say the reason I didn't keep up to date was I felt the progression of the days repeating was getting stale and the aspect of the main character who kept running from danger to get old after a bit. Since it was the same threat. 6/10 NU http://www.novelupdates.com/readlist/?uid=567 God of Cooking - The competition lasted way longer than I thought it would. Outside of that it is a fun read, but I feel it can get bogged down a bit with going too detail oriented at times. With the mico level of detail pulling me out of their story. God’s Song - The big downside of the story is the way its written I can't find myself invested in any of the characters. The story is snapshotting the main characters life displaying only the highlights so all the character development and progression happen off stage. Still I enjoy seeing different aspect to the music industry the main character goes through. I am the Monarch - I enjoy how everything is leading up to how he goes from no one to King. I just wish is was written better. Lot of filler words and stating things just to restate them in the next line a different way. Top Management - I enjoy just about everything in this story. The main character is hard working and seems like a reasonable workaholic type person. His cheat doesn't seem to make everything he does trivial and the romance if there is one so far is fun. Its not to the point of causing the story to suffer. Overall a well rounded story for me. World of Cultivation - One of two cultivation novels I haven't gotten bored of. For that its because things he learned early on still get brought up hundred of chapters later. He has loyalty to the people he's with and that he actually uses his brain. By no means a perfect story but probably the only cultivation story I will stick with to the end. Zhanxian - Haven't really made up my mind on this story. Its been enjoyable so far but I always read it feeling like it lacks something. Yet not sure what that is. Some stories I grew bored of I’m a NEET but When I Went to Hello Work I G... - Main character was extremely bland and uninteresting Legend - Another uninteresting main character Other World’s Monster Breeder - Lazy pokemon ripoff In a Different World with a Smartphone - All combat is made trivial and the cast is too big to service anyone adequately Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu - Couldn't get invested in any character. Each chapter felt like a chore to read Shinka no Mi - Everything is a set-up to a joke or a gag. Not really something I'm interested in These Dangerous Girls Placed Me Into Jeopardy - Shows potential and then backtracks. Also repeats a lot of the same things. I have hope it gets better, but for now I moved on to other things. Stories I disliked 10 nen goshi no HikiNiito o Yamete Gaishutsushitar... Main character is useless and nothing happens in the story. Absolute Duo - Very bland attempt at the typical battle harem school Japanese story Against the Gods - Women are treated as useless and does a horrible job of building tension Heavenly Jewel Change - Love interest just disappears from the story for stupid reasons and the general seemingly hatred of women shown from the author it felt like. I Shall Seal the Heavens - To much time devoted to getting things that are forgotten or never used once gathered. Just lost complete interest in everything since nothing seemed to matter. Modern Weapons Cheat in Another World - Way too much exposition and too little story. My Wife is a Beautiful CEO - Would have enjoyed this so much more with any other main character. The wife of the main character pointed out in one chapter about how he should grow up and be an adult and his response was nah don't want to. So I dropped it Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria - A frustrating read about a main character I really hated.
lol, I'm about to suggest a few stories but after reading your description of stories you "like" well, I don't think you'll be satisfied with anything made with an "amateur" tag anymore. How about buying books made by a professional writer. I suggest the book called "Sufficiently Advance Magic: Arcane Ascencion, Book 1 by Andrew Rowe. the best fantasy book of the year!
I'm fine with actually legit books as well. I just enjoy reading stories and I went with amateur ones lately to see what off the wall ideas people have. Yet I keep running into stories with forced status quo aspects or stories that feel like someone telling you a story rather then you reading a story. Rarely is the romance a partnership, the villains remember-able, the characters logical, or the world remarkable. If I could find more job focused stories like Top Management, romance/partnership like Atros Imperium, or world building in Madan no Ou to Vanadis I'd be happy regardless of where they are.
How about this? I won't go into details here since you strike me as a pretty careful reader who makes up your own mind.