Looking for Fantasy light novel recommendations

That’s a good idea, I might look into that. Thanks :blush:

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I’m primarily looking for light novels so that I can read something at length but not as long as a full novel. Different styles of writing is actually better for me because it’ll more closely mimic real life. Not everyone speaks/writes the same and having a variety of styles will broaden my understanding of Japanese as a whole. It also lets me get used to a particular writers style which will make understanding that series or book easier as I read, same as when I pick up a series from a new author in English.

Whether it’s written like those series I mentioned isn’t an issue, I was more using those examples to give an general idea of what I’m looking for within the fantasy genre. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thanks, I’ll look into that. Amazon seems to have 10 books from it in a set so might see about getting that since it has the first one :slightly_smiling_face:

Don’t worry, I know for my level it’ll be quite a struggle but it’s not for to start casual reading. It’s to help me get used to reading more native material in the long run and to help me get more practice with grammar and vocabulary without it being just from textbooks. My reading understanding is higher than my overall level of Japanese but my writing and speaking are what bring my level down. Reading level is at least N4 if not heading towards N3.

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The writing style in the Moribito series is fairly light and the selection of vocabulary broad enough to have things to talk about (like waterfalls :smiley: ) for sure.

However, for day-to-day vocabulary, news articles might be a little more useful. I know that’s not what you’re looking for in this case, of course :wink: .

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You might be aware of this already, but I thought I’d mention it anyway. There’s quite a few novels <200 pages and quite a few light novels >300 pages. The term light doesn’t have much to do with length and more really just the writing style or maybe even rather depth of content.

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Literally listed both the ones I want to get good enough at Japanese to read :grin: hehe.

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That’s true, lol. I’ve actually got a few books with news articles, most of the topics are actually about language learners who kept making mistakes and misunderstandings who wrote into a newspaper column for advice. They give great insight into cultural differences as well as certain words or phrases that native Japanese speakers may use that have a different meaning from the literal meanings. Those are bilingual and really good though they were quite expensive. They also don’t have any furigana so they are quite difficult to read without knowing the kanji.

I’ve also got several manga series to read, the 日本人の知らない日本語 series as well as a few translated novels and a few native Japanese novels not to mention a host of podcasts and audio books both native and translated. Just feel that a good variety of different styles and difficulty levels will help me get more out of my studies and so give me something to work towards while also enjoying the stuff I’m reading.

If I could get stuff like National Geographic in Japanese, I would read that rather than news stuff lol.

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It’s more the fact that I was told light novels are targeted towards a certain reading level and tend to be easier to read and lighter on difficult kanji than a standard novel. Though it being shorter than a full length novel is also another reason why I’m looking at light novels. Most of the books I read in English have 600-900+ pages and I don’t really want to start jumping into ones like those directly.

Unless I’m wrong, equivalent to light novels in English would be stuff targeted towards teens/ young adults and the reading level is easier than an adult targeted novel. When I was trying to get into reading English novels, I found those targeted towards teens/ young adults tended to be easier for me to read and stay focused on without losing interest so I’m trying to apply that to my Japanese studies.

As @Belerith said, Light Novels are just a genre and style of books and have really nothing to do with the “level”. On average (especially fantasy) I’d say it’s probably the opposite; LN’s are usually harder and more wild with their kanji usage. The setting and speaking styles can also be quite strange. Nowadays the reading demographic of LN readers stretches well over 30.

Though they tend to have 20+ volumes so that doesn’t help much :sweat_smile: There’s tons of novels with less than 200 pages but I’ve never seen a LN that thin (though they do tend to have a lot of dialogue).

Maybe Konosuba would be something up your alley with pretty simple language and a fantasy setting.

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Other users have recs covered.

I’d have to agree that light novels are kind of their own beast and don’t have much consistency between them other than relatively low page counts and a couple illustrations. That said, there’s something of incestuous creation cycle where a lot start off as essentially amateur fiction on a site like syosetu (web novel), get edited and republished as a light novel, and possibly adapted to manga/anime. Consider looking at other parts of the chain, perhaps a manga you like is an LN/WN adaptation. Like most books vs movies discussion there’s usually a lot that’s changed in the adaptations.

For more comfortable EN browsing consider using a site like https://www.novelupdates.com/series-finder/ They usually list multiple titles and publishers on the pages of each series, but they don’t have direct links for some reason which is kind of a pita.

If you’re more interested in certain faces of difficulty (unique kanji, frequency 1 words, ect) rather than the story/setting itself it might be easier to start with something like Novel difficulty list – jpdb and scroll until something catches your eye.

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Thanks for the advice. Multiple volumes aren’t an issue, because at least if I don’t like it after reading one, I don’t need to feel like I should continue reading the rest in the series. Though multiple volumes will allow me to practice reading that authors style for that series and become more used to the kanji and vocabulary for that particular set if I do like it.

I have a variety of other types of reading material including manga, translated novels, native Japanese novels, short stories (both language learner versions and native written short stories), folk tales, children’s books, newspaper articles, novellas and essays. I was just looking for recommendations on light novels or teen/young adult type books in the fantasy genre since I don’t currently have any of those to practice reading with and fantasy genre tend to be the ones I go for most in my native language.

Of the one’s people have recommended on here, most I would never have found otherwise and the ones I’ve already got audiobooks for, I haven’t been able to find previously as a novel or physical series but have now that I have the links.

My Japanese learning journey isn’t a short term thing, so even if those books are far too difficult for me just now, there’s nothing to say that will still be the case when I come back to tackle them again further down the line. And most of the book series that I really enjoy, I tend to come back to at a later date to re-read anyway.

I’ll have a look into Konosuba as well once I’m able to get a copy of the first one, thanks :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thanks, I had seen the link for difficulty posted in one of the linked pages above and found a few of the ones on there that I either have or have been mentioned on here so I’ll definitely check that out going forward.

Changes and adaptations are fine, I usually take things at face value when it comes to adaptations/ re-writes and just think of them as an alt or another take on the same story.

I prefer physical books to e-books and Web based books only because e-readers and devices cause me issues with my eyes if reading on them for long hours (my work is monitor based as well so physical books and audiobooks give my eyes a rest from screens). I’ll have a look at some of the web based ones though for times where my eyes aren’t strained from screen use :slightly_smiling_face:

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Aye, one thing I noticed from reading Harry Potter is that western style prose is quite different from Japanese. If anything, LitRPG seems to be a closer equivalent.

One good thing about web novels is that you can use something like Yomichan in your browser. It’s far and away better than any of the lookup systems in the Kindle or Bookwalker eReader clients.

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What are you using to look up vocabulary? Looks useful!

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Not sure if it was me you were asking or not, but I use an app called Kanji look up. You need to be able to draw the kanji but it also works for compound kanji and vocabulary and gives reading as well as meaning and similar words.

I primarily use my phone or iPad while reading physical books hence why I use the app instead of web browser plug-ins.

I did reply to alo’s comment, but that’s okay! I’ll look into that app, though I was more interested in knowing what app they’re using that can look up vocabulary used in a specific written work, like mushoku tensei in this case :slight_smile:

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Shirabe Jisho on IOS.

I think it’s either a front end to Jisho or it uses the same backend and just mimics the style. But it also lets you create Bookmark folders and then turn those into flash cards.

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Maybe the recommendations here also fit what you are looking for: Give me your fantasy novel/LN recommendations! - Reading - Natively Forums

Especially 金の月のマヤ 1 黒のエルマニオ | L25 might be close-ish to the level you are looking for?

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Thanks, those books look interesting. Set of three of them and I’ve played the game they’re based on, just didn’t know there were books based on it.

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Well, I started reading [青の王], and since starting WaniKani Kani, it’s the first book, I am going to try and finish, and the first book I am really enjoying. It is hard for me as I have to look up words in every other sentence, and is the first book where there is no furigana.
Thanks for recommending :slight_smile:

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