List of Light Novels Released in English

Two novel series from Takarajimasha, a publishing company that had previously not had any titles licensed for English language release at all. Good to see. And two things I am definitely looking forward to buying.
 
This week's releases:
My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World Vol. 1: The World's Strongest Little Brother?! (E-Book ONLY)
Occultic;Nine Vol. 1 (E-Book ONLY)
Brave Chronicle: The Ruinmaker (E-Book ONLY)

Order in these posts for ebook only releases will be done by Paid in Kindle Store ranking on amazon.com. They will always be placed below releases with physical releases.
 
kuuderes_shadow said:
Order in these posts for ebook only releases will be done by Paid in Kindle Store ranking on amazon.com. They will always be placed below releases with physical releases.
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I know it's incredibly selfish, but I personally prefer ebook only to physical only.

Those heavy, clunky bastards can do one. (Sorry Vertical, but get your **** together, I actually want to read Monogatari at some point.)
 
Yeah I have to admit it's a pain Vertical don't release Monogatari digitally - especially as the e-book is available there! I tried out audible just to listen to the e-book there, and it was a pretty great version of it, I have to admit.
 
Yen Press has some surprise new Kingdom Hearts related announcements...
First up...KINGDOM HEARTS II: The Novel, Volumes 1 & 2. Omnibuses that collect four novels!

Next an omnibus that collects three novels! KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days: The Novel

The last one for today...another omnibus! And another Kingdom Hearts title! KINGDOM HEARTS: BIRTH BY SLEEP: The Novel
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All three are written by Tomoko Kanemaki, and adapted from the relevant games in the KH franchise. II is scheduled for June 20th next year in the US, I don't believe the others are scheduled yet.
 
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This week's releases:
Spice and Wolf 1 (e-book version - physical release came out in December 2009)
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash 1 (e-book ONLY)
My Little Sister Can Read Kanji: Volume 1 (e-book ONLY)
 
Yen Press has licensed:
*The Empty Box and the Zeroth Maria/Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria
- Complete in Japan at 7 volumes
- Published under Dengeki Bunko
- As an aside, this is the rank 1 light novel on myanimelist.net, both in terms of score and popularity
- Volume 1 due for release next autumn.
 
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Just in case anybody has received a warning from Amazon UK that your Kindle pre-order of either Baccano! Vol. 3 or Durarara!! Vol. 6 has been cancelled, don't worry. It hasn't been pulled completely, they (Hachette UK) pulled the old listing and cancelled all pre-orders to increase the price, by £2.89 and 31p respectively. So you can still get a Kindle version, you just have to pay more for it.

It's not a huge deal, but it just seems like a dick move to cancel everybody's pre-order over less than 50p...
 
This week's releases:
Bakemonogatari part 1
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? 7
No Game No Life 5
Sword Art Online 9: Alicization Beginning
Goblin Slayer 1
The Devil is a Part-Timer 6
The Irregular at Magic High School 3: Nine School Competition Arc 1
Accel World 08: The Binary Stars of Destiny
Baccano! 3: 1931 the Grand Punk Railroad: Express
Black Bullet 5: Rentaro Satomi, Fugitive
The Asterisk War 02: Awakening of Silver Beauty


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End of year bonus:
Ongoing light novel series ordered by the ranks of the most recent volume on bookdepository at the time I made the post relating to their release: (ordered from best to worst rank)
My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong as I Expected 1
Bakemonogatari part 1
Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- 2
Sword Art Online Progressive 004
Overlord 2: The Dark Warrior
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? 7
No Game No Life 5
Sword Art Online 9: Alicization Beginning
Tokyo Ghoul : Days
The Rising of the Shield Hero 6
Goblin Slayer 1
The Devil is a Part-Timer 6
The Irregular at Magic High School 3: Nine School Competition Arc 1
Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose: Catastrope at Sixteen 3
Psycome 2 : Murder Princess and the Summer Death Camp
Durarara! 5
Log Horizon 6: Lost Child of the Dawn
The Isolator 3: The Trancer
Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria Vol. 1
Legend of the Galactic Heroes : Endurance
Accel World 08: The Binary Stars of Destiny
Strike the Blood 4: Labyrinth of the Blue Witch
Naruto: Itachi's Story 2
A Certain Magical Index 9
Baccano! 3: 1931 the Grand Punk Railroad: Express
Kagerou Daze V: The Deceiving
Black Bullet 5: Rentaro Satomi, Fugitive
The Asterisk War 02: Awakening of Silver Beauty
Vampire Hunter D : Throng of Heretics (volume 24)

Excluded:
Spice and Wolf - too long since the last volume
Haruhi - series on long term hiatus rather than ongoing and English releases are caught up, too long since last volume.
Naruto Hiden - too long since the last volume, unclear if the latter half are going to be released.
Everything with no physical release.

Bear in mind:
These are ordered by RANKING, not sales. The same rank will be inevitably be a different sales figure at different times of year. In particular I would expect series released this week to get a lower rank than they would usually at a given sales level. Then again the timing may lead to them getting more sales as well.
The rankings are those of the latest volumes. New series will always do better than ones that have been going for a long time, which is why I included the volume number/name in the list.
A couple of the series that haven't seen releases in a while were done from memory but I can guarantee that nothing is out by more than one rank on the list above.
This being done from bookdepository's rankings mean that no other retailer's sales are relevant. This is thus a relatively small sample size.
 
Newer releases seem to have higher rankings.

That said, I'm surprised to see Rising of the Shield Hero so high. I thought it was a cult affair, but I have a copy of volume 1, as it was recommended to me. I have yet to read it though.
 
Buzz201 said:
That said, I'm surprised to see Rising of the Shield Hero so high. I thought it was a cult affair, but I have a copy of volume 1, as it was recommended to me. I have yet to read it though.
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The Rising of the Shield Hero has been on my 'Plan to Read' list for a long time now but I've been skeptical with the release due to reports of translation issues with One Peace Books. I heard that later volumes did improve though.
 
NormanicGrav said:
The Rising of the Shield Hero has been on my 'Plan to Read' list for a long time now but I've been skeptical with the release due to reports of translation issues with One Peace Books. I heard that later volumes did improve though.
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Are these copyediting issues or translation issues? If it's the former then yeah that's an issue. If it's the latter, I don't see how it's an issue, its not like you can see the original Japanese in line with it.

Also worth bearing in mind, even what seem like copyediting errors might not be. In Durarara!!, Shizuo's name is occasionally 'misspelt' as Shizu. When I first saw it, I thought it was a mistake. It wasn't until I watched Ketsu that I realised, Izaya calls him Shizu to wind him up.

Kadokawa are big enough and powerful enough to say no to translations thery don't like. I'm not sure there's any point getting offended on their behalf.
 
There are quite a few definite copyediting issues with the first volume of the series. I don't know if these were fixed in later print runs. Most of them don't actively disrupt the story (things like missing or extra spaces in the text etc.) and the rest generally are minor things like one line not flowing on well to the next - although there's one that basically screws up an entire scene.

They get far less frequent in the second volume, though, and from the third onwards are pretty much down to the level you would expect from a professional release. The translator's style gets better too.

It's a good story, so definitely worth reading.
 
I really wish the Overlord Light Novels could be published faster in English. I just finished reading the translated version of Vol 11, and just had a thought that it will prob be late 2018/early 2019 before that volume gets an English release...

Great volume though, and I can't wait to see my shelf with a full collection of Overlord (Vol 3 out soon yay)
 
J-Novel Club has licensed for e-book release ONLY:

Paying to Win in a VRMMO/VRMMO wo Kane no Chikara de Musou Suru
- Originally a web novel
- Published under HJ Bunko
- Series complete in Japan at 6 volumes.
- Parts 1 to 4 of volume 1 are available to read now.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom/Genjitsushugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki
- I believe this is the first light novel to get released in English that was originally serialised on Pixiv.
- Light novel ongoing at 2 volumes
- Published under Overlap Bunko
- Parts 1 to 4 of volume 1 are available to read now.
 
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