Has anyone read the recently released translations? Are they better than the anime?
LoGH has been unavailable in English for decades, but given the poor quality of this new translation, it's hard to say whether that was truly a bad thing. Huddleston's prose is so slavishly devoted to Tanaka's original Japanese text that the path towards the meat of the book quickly becomes a slog. It's easy to lose interest long before the action picks up (no thanks to the unnecessary, lengthy prologue, absent in the anime), and it doesn't help that Tanaka's nearly 35-year-old plot has aged rather poorly; with its overwhelmingly male-dominated story and shallow female characters. It's really hard to find a place for this series amongst the west's more nuanced SF.
>>14274114
Every time.
Expect these voices in LOGH.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SECKRN73ZJY
>>14274114
>male-dominated story and shallow female characters
As it should be,
>>14273863
Is that a Star Wars Trade Federation droid control battleship?
>>14274114
MUH SOGGY KNEE
>>14274185
It's the thor hammer and some imperial ships.
Have we reached our meme quota for the this thread yet?
>>14273863
I read the translation, it's very good IMO. I wouldn't say it's better than the anime, rather I would say both are good in their own ways. The anime has some really nice visuals and scenes, like Iserlohn's liquid metal and Thor's Hammer (it just has a lot of guns in the book). On the other hand, the books have a ton of very cool background information, like on the development of technology and society and so on. I recommend both.
>>14274423
The order of events is a lot different in the book than in the show.
>>14274434
Yeah, for instance the books start off with the historical background, while in the show we don't get to those parts until like midway through the series.
>>14274441
Of course, had they done that in show, it would have come across as lazy. In the books, it's amazingly detailed and interesting.
Are Tanaka's other books as good as LOGH?
>>14274447
I dunno, it's something I ought to see for myself. I know his other famous series is "The Heroic Legend of Arslan," which is a fantasy one but based off Persian history. They made an anime of it in the 80s and again more recently, but I haven't really watched those.
>>14274455
Me neither, but I've heard good about it.
>>14274114
>Le no stronk wymyns arguement
>>14274447
I've read some of Yakushiji Ryoko's Strange Case Files and quite enjoyed it, despite not being a fan of detective/mystery stories.
>>14274455
I've seen the more recent Arslan and it's not great. It's basically a poor man's Rotk with some One Piece mixed in. I recommend skipping it and just watching the 2010 Three Kingdoms live action instead.
Bought it off of Wordery, haven't read it yet as I've been busy.
Going to get the second one out of loyalty tothe series. I hope all volumes get published.
Only on episode 69 of the anime but I love this so much.
>>14274114
>overwhelmingly male-dominated
>Reinhard studies superior Japanese swordsmanship and catches a sword in his (admittedly lightly armored) hands
This is bullshit.
>>14276367
Are those chain mail?
>>14276367
>>14276379
I'm pretty sure they mention afterwards that the gloves were made out of the same material as the spacesuits or power armor or something--i.e it was very strong.
>>14276379
>>14276418
Yes the gloves are made of super-material.
Being able to catch the sword is still bullshit. As is the SUPER NIPPON SWORDSMANSHIP interlude.
Kircheis is perfect.
I do like that the book explains some things that I think the anime glossed over.
Like those sleep pods they use on ships. The anime makes them seem like they're this ultra advanced sleep-inducing machine to rest you up, like the Enertron in Chrono Trigger. But no, it's just a sensory deprivation chamber which causes you to go into REM sleep really easily.
>>14273863
As someone with a pretty low tolerance for bad writing I can at least assure you that Dawn is a good book. I legitimately forgot it was an LN. I mention this because in ordering LotGH I accidentally ordered another LN, and either it's a bad book or the translation is really sloppy.
So Dawn is a good book. Read it if you like the series, and definitely read it if you're new
>>14278178
>I legitimately forgot it was an LN
Because it's not, it's a novel. It's the first in a series yes, but these were always written as proper novels. LNs were barely a thing in 1982.
Plus there's no illustration.
How do you pronounce Kircheis's name correctly?
>>14278626
Closest in english would Key-erk-ice, and even that's technically wrong. I don't really know how to write out german pronunciation in english. The thing is you have to say the first 2 parts really quick in succession, there's more space between that and the third part.
>>14278626
Kir-hhe-ice.
>>14278624
If factually is, sorry to tell you.
>>14278178
>I accidentally ordered another LN
How?
>>14278624
>LNs were barely a thing in 1982
Technically they weren't a thing at all because the term hadn't been coined yet, but that raises an interesting semantic argument about what really qualifies as a light novel. Nowadays the term has much more defined boundaries, as specific labels/imprints explicitly define themselves as light novel publishers. However, at the time the term was coined, it by logical necessity could only refer books that had already been published before the existence of the term "light novel."
Claiming that LoGH isn't an LN because of when it was published or the intention of the author or publisher is fallacious, because originally, NONE of the books that the term referred to had been written or published with the intent of being light novels.
And for what it's worth, there was one edition of the series that was published with illustrations (and larger text and with each volume split up into two volumes, for younger readers).
>>14278156
It's still pretty soft as a sci-fi work, IMO.
Look at the exposition - it reads like a sociology or history textbook. Serfs literally carve a generation ship out of dry ice and escape their slave planet, and this massive feat is pretty much yada yada'd away with the faintest of explanations.
>>14278676
>>14278770
It's a pulp novel
>>14278770
>there was one edition of the series that was published with illustrations
Does anyone have scans of those illustrations?
>>14278994
This guy has the right idea.
No disrespect to Tanaka, though. Being quality sci-fi places him in the same category as Asimov or Heinlein - Indispensable to fans of the genre, but firmly outside the gates of the high literature club.
>>14279025
I didn't mean it for an argument, I mean when they came out, Japan called them pulp novels.
Genre fictions stories for the people that, even if they have something intelligent to say and make you think, are primarily for the purpose of entertainment. That's pretty much what pulp is. That and being printed on cheap paper.
>>14278676
>How?
I dunno, ask Amazon. I decided not to cancel the order because fuck it. Wish I had, becauseBaccanoended up being pretty bad.
>>14276367
No more bullshit than the entire series not recognizing Bittenfeld as the most valuable Imperial admiral when he was directly involved in every single FPA big shot going down other than Yang Wenli, and no Imperial was involved in Yang's downfall unless you count female Kircheis.
And Poplan just not aiming for the ships and using them as cover when getting chased by entire squadrons.
>>14276742
Nah he died. Fucked everyone over in the long run. Shoulda kept his gun on him.
>>14274114
Quit posting that hack reviewer's comment. The 1st book was great.
>>14278624
Actually the form and structure, while predating the term, helped to codify the light novel model.
At least up until whenever in the 2000s the LN got coopted by dime a dozen harem books, but then again I'm sure the pulpy romance lit genre probably has a foot in the door of young adult lit here in the Anglosphere.
So yeah, LoGH is actually a LN series in all but a historical technicality.
