Am I retarded or is the writing terrible in this?

Am I retarded or is the writing terrible in this?
There's loads of forced exposition and forced pandering.
For example in one paragraph she is bothered that her friend is a racist and how most in her country are the same but suddenly her friend offers a chiffon cake and "a pair of cute cat ears raised in her head" and who cares about the mood that was set, let's write about how much girls love sweets.

>forced pandering

>Am I retarded or is the writing terrible in this?
It's a light novel what did you expect?

It won something like editors choice award for best LN, and in another thread people were saying how good it is so I was expecting something decent.

It's a plot point that she realizes she was just another racist and never saw them as real humans.

>forced pandering

There is one undressing scene in the entire book

LN awards don't mean shit when every LN is trash. Of course people are going to say it's good have you seen some of the shit people enjoy here?

I read a bunch of LN's and they are generally terribly written but this one was okay. It's still the first book of a newbie author so don't expect Shakespeare.

You kiddding user? This shit is on par with international prose

It starts meh, second half is great. The first big death is a turning point.

>girl living on terrible rations for 6 years is happy from having real cake
>forced pandering

It just won a beginners authors competition to get published and then ranked highly on some random poll where industry people vote to shill stuff that'll get anime soon, you shouldn't take those awards seriously

It's already selling over 20k and it started this year.

>forced exposition and forced pandering
What.

Sales are irrelevant to quality though, that's a different discussion.

I'm reading LN's for many years and 86 was easily one of the best written ones. I only hope author won't fuck up since it'll be very hard to follow vol1 quality. Vol2 not being about Lean is already worrying.

Calling it the best written light novel isn't exactly high praise.

Western novels are just as bad these days.

The translations are consistent but not that good on the English prose, though.

and thats an argument how exactly?

What else are you going to read? Same books from XIX century for 10th time?

The same way this post is

But is the original good Japanese prose in the first place though?

Japanese prose generally isn't good by default

Nope, and exactly the reason I pointed it out. Things are translated sentence-by-sentence (you can clearly see how it's written in Japanese by following that). Also this

You're monolinguals, aren't you?

>and who cares about the mood that was set,
That point was to say that Lena herself was no different after all and was just the same as the racists albeit that she feels bad about being one.

>forced exposition
Forced exposition means that when one character asks a question that the other character and the reader itself already knows from a previous exposition. It is usually used for sarcasm, reiterating a point to a character and calling him out about it, or when the author wants to further explain a certain event that needs to be remembered by the audience.

There is nothing wrong with forced exposition especially if it's first book in the series when the author needs to explain what kind of world the character live in. Any other than that and it's only MIDLY annoying.

I'm pretty sure you don't know what you are trying to say with forced exposition. You are just mad that the author is trying to build up what the world is about and you are angsty to just get on with the action.

>forced pandering
There's only one scene and it's an undressing scene in the whole volume. If you're talking about the cake like in your post, they have been living with rations for years.

Technically there is also one shower scene but it's not really fanservice since there are no retarded monologues about how incredible girl's bodies are.

>Sees thread

Well, don't mind me.


Why? Everyone ask

Without knowing that it is an insult
They are–the Eighty Sixers
Frederica Rozenfort (War Recollections) (TN: She's the loli)


"—You again, Captain Vladlena Millize."

The superior, seated behind the desk, frowned bitterly as he watched Lena enter the room.

His uniform was completely wrinkled, and he had not shaved for days; this superior of hers showed no impression of a soldier at all, and as she watched this unkempt sight of his, Lena could only lower her head coldly at him.

She had a brand new, form fitting black uniform on her, and silver, silky long hair, with a few dyed red. Half a year ago, she led Spearhead Squadron, the deathrow squad designated to exterminate the remaining Eighty-Sixers, and sent them off to the other side of the battlefield. Ever since then, she had maintained this appearance. The black uniform was for mourning, while the red represented their blood that was shed.

As she had defied orders and provided assistance, she was demoted by one rank to a Captain. It was unlikely that she would never be promoted again.

"You used the interception cannons on your own volition, provided ammunition and equipment, and commanded the other squadrons personally—how many times do I have to emphasize not to do anything unnecessary for the Eighty-Sixers (pigs). Do you know how many times the logistics and armor corps have complained to me already?"

Ah, forgot to put my name here.

Fuck off back to /lit/, westernshit is even worse than this.

I really can't wait for Republic meltdown chapters.

Lena is the best LN MC in years.

Some series on Sup Forums have one or two fans that keep vocally shilling

"They would not have if you had given the command, Lieutenant Colonel. Regarding what they have complained about, and how much efforts you put in, I have no intention to understand."

The Lieutenant Colonel narrowed an alcohol-intoxicated eye, the area beneath wrinkled.

"Watch your words, lady. As a mere Captain, you should know your place."

Lena merely sneered at it.

He was basically revealing that he was no threat to her, except for his rank, and had no guts to implement any actual punishment.

The squadron under Lena's charge had defeated the most units on the Eastern Battlefront. The performances of the subordinates would directly affect the ratings of the superiors. At the beginning of the war, a vast number of actual soldiers were sacrificed; this man before her seized the opportunity provided by the power vacuum, and climbed to the position of Lieutenant Colonel. Unsatiated, he wanted to continue climbing, and for him, Lena was a 'hen laying the golden eggs' that should never be defeated.

As long as she did not go overboard, he would shield her from anything.

"If you will excuse me, Lieutenant Colonel."

She gracefully bowed.

It's hard to not like her.