List of Light Novels Released in English

Speaking of Light Novels - I've been reading quite a few recently, and the more I read, the more I get a feel for the varying quality of the prose - the trouble is, it's hard to know whether this is down to the translation or the original novel itself.

If we take something like Kizumonogatari or Legend of the Galactic Heroes as the absolute pinnacle of quality...

I comment mainly because the Asterisk War Light Novel, the anime of which was trashed pretty badly, ended up being one of the best LN reads I've had recently. Whereas in comparison, stuff like Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon and No Game No Life can descend into almost unreadable levels of 'meh' in parts. And then there's stuff like Durarara and Re Zero that have sort have occupied a kind of middle level.

So I'm curious in terms of what else is out there in terms of what people reckon is really 'good quality' when it comes to officially released Light Novels.
 
As indicated in the news discussion thread:

J-Novel Club have licensed for digital release ONLY:

*Occultic;Nine
- Ongoing series
- 2 volumes at present in Japan
- Published under Overlap Bunko
- has an ongoing anime adaptation.
- First part available to read now. An e-book will be released at a later date.

*Brave Chronicle: The Ruinmaker (Kimi kara Uketsugu Brave Chronicle)
- Presumed finished in Japan at 1 volume.
- Published under Overlap Bunko
- First part available to read now. An e-book will be released at a later date.

*My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World (Nee-san wa Chuunibyou)
- Ongoing series
- 6 volumes plus 1 side story out at present in Japan.
- Published under HJ Bunko
- First part available to read now. An e-book will be released at a later date.

*My Little Sister Can Read Kanji (Boku no Imouto wa Kanji wo Yomeru)
- Finished in Japan at 5 volumes.
- Published under HJ Bunko
- First part available to read now. An e-book will be released at a later date.

They do intend to release the volumes as ebooks so it's worth mentioning here. As for physical books, their FAQ states:
J-Novel Club is just an internet startup, and we don't have any distribution or printing capabilities currently. In order to bring you the greatest variety of content at a reasonably fast pace, it would be very difficult to handle print editions with our current business model. However for series which are successful, we will definitely look in the future to options for collectors to get their hands on a physical book, like crowdfunding or sub-licensing the physical rights.
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All their licenses so far are from either OVERLAP or Hobby Japan, which are two of the smaller companies with significant footings in the light novel market. If this is a partnership as the ANN article suggests then it could make it more difficult for titles from these companies to get licensed by other publishers. Then again none of them have ever been picked up before, and it does make it more likely for them to be picked up by this new player on the market.
Some of the more well known series from these publishers include Hai to Gensou no Grimgar, Infinite Stratos and Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou from OVERLAP, and Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride, Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? and Hagure Yuusha no Estetica from Hobby Japan.
 
I'd be very keen on seeing the Grimgar novels being brought over, so I hope that they already have that series in mind (I imagine the anime adaptation will help it there as they seem to like novels that have been adapted.)
 
...or sub-licensing the physical rights.
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So this would imply they do already have the physical rights then? Which is good and bad I suppose.

Good as at least it wouldn't cost them more fees to do a physical release in terms of the license anyway.

Bad as I guess it also means other companies can't judge the success of the J-Novel clubs digital release and judge for themselves if they could then do a physical release as the rights are already tied up.
 
I'm probably being really thick, but J-Novel Club. You can buy a subscription to read chapters as they're released or you buy the ebook once it's done? And if you buy an enhanced membership you get a credit to download an ebook a month anyway? This seems weird.

I want to support it, but $10 a month seems expensive for four titles, only one of which I actually want to read?

For reference, I'm intending not to list J-Novel Club releases as ebooks until the ebook is downloadable. Instead they will be listed as J-Novel Club under the release type.
 
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Buzz201 said:
I'm probably being really thick, but J-Novel Club. You can buy a subscription to read chapters as they're released or you buy the ebook once it's done? And if you buy an enhanced membership you get a credit to download an ebook a month anyway? This seems weird.

I want to support it, but $10 a month seems expensive for four titles, only one of which I actually want to read?
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Yeah the basic subscription allows you to read the chapters as they're released, but once the volume is released as an ebook then the chapters are removed. It's basically for people who aren't going to buy the ebook but want to read the series as they're translating it. I don't think $5 is a bad price for it either, especially as the current conversion drops it at about £4~

The more expensive sub gives you credit toward buying one ebook a month but will also include some other stuff:

  1. Premium Ebooks primary purpose is to provide higher quality/resolution images than an Ebook you can buy on Amazon or other stores. This is because those stores require us to limit things like image sizes.
    By giving people a chance to buy directly from us we can control the format.

  2. The extra content in the premium Ebooks is really going to be extra. Everything in the print edition of the original Japanese book will be in the normal Ebooks. The extra content would be things like extra store specific bonus illustrations or original content we create like a compilation of the translator's notes/posts in the premium members forum. There are some short stories which we have that were special giveaways at events, for example.
    So you aren't missing out on any content compared to the original Japanese release if you buy the normal Ebooks.
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Source for the above. So it really does just depend what you're interested in. I went for a basic sub because I don't think I'll be interested in owning any of the current series as ebooks later and I'm not too fussed for the extras I'll be missing out otherwise, so I'd rather just follow it along as it's being translated. I might move my sub up if they get more stuff I'm interested in though because the extras would be of more interest then. :)
 
Demelza said:
Source for the above. So it really does just depend what you're interested in. I went for a basic sub because I don't think I'll be interested in owning any of the current series as ebooks later and I'm not too fussed for the extras I'll be missing out otherwise, so I'd rather just follow it along as it's being translated. I might move my sub up if they get more stuff I'm interested in though because the extras would be of more interest then. :)
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That sounds cool I guess. I'd only want Occultic;Nine though, it might have been better for them to coordinate their title choices so you aren't just buying the subscription for one novel. I hope it succeeds though, as it's actually a really cool idea to try and replicate the "fan translation" experience, and breaking it down into chunks probably makes it easier to find time to read.

The one thing I'm not sure about is the deleting the novels from the "streaming" portion once the ebook is available. I think maybe having a period of overlap (or indeed just doing both) might work better. Just seems like non-premium members are kind of screwed that way.
 
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Buzz201 said:
The one thing I'm not sure about is the deleting the novels from the "streaming" portion once the ebook is available. I think maybe having a period of overlap (or indeed just doing both) might work better. Just seems like non-premium members are kind of screwed that way.
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They have confirmed there will be a period of overlap where once an ebook is released the volume will still be on the site, but from what I've seen so far they haven't put an actual time on that so it could be a week, two weeks, maybe even a month but right now we have no idea. That's the only element they haven't been clear on so it could be they don't know right now or maybe it's going to differ book to book or series to series.

I agree that breaking it down into chunks is a good idea. From what I've read so far it has encouraged me to read a lot more than I otherwise would have. I've already caught up to their releases for all but one series, but with another Occultic;Nine chapter today and then 6 more series being added before the end of the year there should be enough content to keep me going. Enough where I can say it was worth supporting them from day-1 anyway. :p
 
Demelza said:
They have confirmed there will be a period of overlap where once an ebook is released the volume will still be on the site, but from what I've seen so far they haven't put an actual time on that so it could be a week, two weeks, maybe even a month but right now we have no idea. That's the only element they haven't been clear on so it could be they don't know right now or maybe it's going to differ book to book or series to series.

I agree that breaking it down into chunks is a good idea. From what I've read so far it has encouraged me to read a lot more than I otherwise would have. I've already caught up to their releases for all but one series, but with another Occultic;Nine chapter today and then 6 more series being added before the end of the year there should be enough content to keep me going. Enough where I can say it was worth supporting them from day-1 anyway. :p
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I'd probably give it a try now, but my broadband is down at the moment, so I'll wait and just accuse you of hipsterdom for liking it before it was cool. :p
 
kuuderes_shadow said:
Yen Press has licensed:

*Spice and Wolf sequel novels (Shinsetsu Ookami to Koushinryou: Ookami to Youhishi)
- Sequel series to Spice and Wolf/Ookami to Koushinryou
- Ongoing in Japan at 1 volume.
- Published under Dengeki Bunko (owned by Kadokawa)
- Due out at some point in 2017.
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English title is Spice and Wolf New Theory: Parchment and Wolf

Official announcement (warning: ending spoilers for Spice and Wolf): YEN PRESS, LLC ANNOUNCES NEW ACQUISITIONS AT NEW YORK COMIC CON 2016 | Yen Press

The series will also be released in ebook format.
 
Fantastic news about Spice and Wolf being released in ebook format, if there was one series that reallg needed to be released in that format it was Spicy Wolf!

When it comes to J-Novel Club, I'm definitely interested in seeing how it fares when volumes of series start turning up on ebook vendors.
 
Still keen on seeing something on Kyōran Kazoku Nikki. It was a show I enjoyed more then I should have, for I'd very much like to see how it would continue. Though I feel that its past the point of bothering, which is a shame. I'd only expect someone to take notice once they release this was done by the same writer of Sasami-san, or if he does a joint venture with Haruhi Suzumiya (wishing and praying)
 
Buzz201 said:
Just a quick note that whilst it's digital release is tomorrow, it won't hit paperback until 3rd November.
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That's the European release date. Viz Media, unlike other publishers in the manga and light novel market, has separate release dates in NA and Europe. For some reason the ebooks are all released on the American release date, though.
The American release date is today for both physical and ebook, and any retailers that ship from America will be shipping based on a release date that is today, so I think today is the right day to count as the release date.
 
This week's releases:
Sword Art Online Progressive 004
Psycome 2 : Murder Princess and the Summer Death Camp
Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria Vol. 1 New Series
 
It still annoys me none of the SAO novels are available digitally - but hopefully now Yen press is putting Spice & Wolf out as ebooks, they'll do likewise with SAO.
 
Lutga said:
It still annoys me none of the SAO novels are available digitally - but hopefully now Yen press is putting Spice & Wolf out as ebooks, they'll do likewise with SAO.
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Kadokawa have said they're aiming to get all of Yen Press' catalogue out digitally, so hopefully it will happen.

To be honest, the fact they're even trying (and suceeding) is enough for me to give them the benefit of the doubt here. :)
 
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