Sturgeon's law: 99% of everything is terrible.... more>>

I know many people say that there are no good novels on this site, and it oftens feels like the top lists are filled with overpowered MC's, undeveloped harems, 2D characters, and lacking plots.

There are some novels that stand out, however, whether that be for their plots, characters, or translations.

This is a list for my personal 1%. It is ranked in order. <<less

A list of all the things I’ve read since I made a NU account. Most of them ended up being mid. If you want my recommendations, see my other list “The stuff you binge read all night”... more>>

What I tend to like: Strong Characterizations, Character relationships, good world building, excellent writing, great dialogue, realistic romancing (basically mature, not in hs anymore romance)

What I tend to dislike: Shounen (too formulaic and limiting on the stories they’ll tell), Harem (if not for realistic/fit into the story reasons), Romance where the reasons the characters like each other are unrealistic/wish fulfillment/s*upid (I’m looking at you, popular/hot/charismatic girl dates the wet mop of a child cause the plot needs to happen)

Current tropes I have beef with:

1. Girl was protected/saved/impressed once by wet noodle mc in early elementary school, so she’s obsessed with him in high school. Such a lazy plot device and it feels like every damn KOREAN/JP novel has some variation of this. These authors need to talk to real women instead of writing this elementary crap. <<less

This is it, yal already know... more>>

Webnovels: f*ck WEBNOVEL, sh*t ASS SITE, PIRACY W

Shadow s*ave: "I can't believe I am still finding good novels to read. This is one of the best novels I've ever read and is incredibly well written. Deep plot, good apocalypse setting, characters are incredibly lifelike, real emotion. Solo leveling but done so much better in a sense. Enough said." #1.5

Paragon of Sin: "Very very very very good. MC is cool, not very generic, a different feeling all together while still being a cultivation ln. Enough said." #0.5

Birth of the Demonic Sword: "Falls off at the end but rly cool, dark, and powerful mc. Enough said." #10.5

Divine Emperor of Death: "Man has cheats but somehow it doesn't take away from the overall story. Harem as well. Enough said."   #18.5

Blood Warlock: Succubus Partner in the Apocalypse: "Very similar to God and Devil in the beginning but then changes for the worst, it feels like a self-insert type thing. Also the mc is brainless and s*upidly op. Enough Said." #26.5

Chao's Heir: "From the same author of BotDS and it greatly dissapoints. There's so much things wrong with this one that it would take me a day to get into the details. Do not read. Only s*upid ass webnovel ppl would read this, the reviews were probably botted too. I can't believe its the same author, dude must've been going threw something idk. Enough said." #40.5 <<less

I thought how about list all novel without harem that is good for reading in the free time, then here I was, make it. Basically I put ALL GENRES in one list, BUT they don't have harem tag. Ah, ofc the mc is male. And unlike the other lists, I don't arrange the novels based on its stars. But at least, I put them according their origin (kr-cn-jp) ... more>>

If anyhow you guys found a title with harem inside and I put it here, please tell me. Thank you! <<less

A list of memorable stories I read on novelupdates that covers mostly survival stories, reincarnation in non-human beings, second chances in other worlds and novels that felt unique in some way.... more>>

More often than not, stories I included had some grim parts to them. Where I find it necessary, I'll put a warning. 

Some stories are simply positive. Not everything needs to be dark. <<less

This list contains novels where the Main Character starts out normal or seemingly normal to a deranged or twisted or distorted person in terms of personality, ideals, morality, actions. ... more>>

Some where the MC's normal desires such as "protecting family" is distorted and warped in to the extremes.

Some where the MC starts out already as a bit outside a normal person and gets more and more distorted through the progress of the novel.

Some where the MC starts out as a normal person and ends up completely twisted and warped.

MC's can end up as either righteous, evil, antihero, etc but the character distortion is where this list focuses on.

If there is no english translation, I'll add a link in the comments. Btw this list is made from the novels I have read and I have not read everything, so if you have a novel that I have not read please comment it.

NOTE: Please note that the order has no meaning and is simply the order in which I added them to the list. <<less

A hundred and three novels starred by male protagonists that you might like with NO HAREM.... more>>

·····

《 Good 'Male-Protagonist-no-harem' novels but unlisted in NU 》

↠The Beginning After The End

↠The Author's POV

↠ Mother of Learning

 

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THIS IS NOT ARRANGED BY RANK

·····

p.s.

I haven't read all of these books and only a few of them. I wanted male pov books that didn't have a dozen of females flocking hence after tons of reading genres and tags and a h*ck amount of reviews making sure there ain't no imposter in here I've finally formed a hundred (and two) "MALE PROTAGONIST WITH NO HAREM" READING LIST!!!! TADA ~ ~~

You're welcome ;D

Oh, and If you guys wanna recommend books and found out there's an imposter among us (diz books) please tell me- tell us! and even more so if you wanna recommend a good book ANY GENRE you know about please please please..? *with sparkling eyes* 

·····

⤜ Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! ⇻ <<less

These are the novels that I personally enjoyed, though some of them might not be my favorites, they still had enough influence stay in my heart as a decent novel at the very least... well, most of them. (Also I'm actually back now 2022, got burnt out after reading too much reincarnation paradise)[2023 here, uhhh, oops]... more>>

*Rest of description is for when you enter the list*
{I'm back and ready to fix my younger self's s*upid tastes, some are pretty good though}

(My reviews will not be consistent with the list because I go into the read deeper rather than just a overview, make sure to check my oldest comment, it is also the most liked one, it has the unpublished reads)

[S tier is a 5 star read, A is a 4.5 star read, B tier is a 4 star read, C tier is a 3.5 star read, D tier is a 3 star read, E tier is a 2 star read, F tier is a 1 star read] 

[SS and X tier are special. SS is consistency and intrigue, and X is the top 3 with the SS tier also being applied] 

(exaggerated tier which is a new special tier has been added, this is when I give reads that just started a good tier even when there isn't enough chapters to properly review it, the tier of the read will most probably change someday)

(The special tiers will now be accompanied by a regular tier, Exagg. tier will be accompanied with a Z)  <<less

These are the novels that make me excited to see what the mc will do next.... more>>

Growth~mythical beings~solo mcs etc. <<less

Here is some novel list that hit my taste. ... more>>

Please tell me if you have another recommendation.

*The order in the list doen't mean anything. I just put them in based on my memory. <<less

LIST 1 - 10 ARE THE TOP 10 NOVELS I’VE READ. FYI, my standards are exquisite, meticulous and flawless. You can trust my list. ... more>>

SO FAR, I HAVEN’T READ THE REST AFTER #11 BUT THIS LIST GENERALLY HAS GOOD REVIEWS AND ABOVE 4 STAR RATINGS. 

#ANTI BRAINDEAD MCs ALLIANCE. 
#SOME ARE BL

#HANDSOME MALE PROTAGONISTS <<less

Just a humble compilation of KR novels that I read this year. Disclaimer: My thoughts might contradict yours and thus I apologize in advance. Order... more>> is not important.  <<less

Sharing several years of my reading experience.... more>>

I was slowly creating this list for about a year. When I've got nothing else to do I was gradually expanding it and that's the result.

***

To make it more descriptive and clarify some things I've put what I consider the main focus of the story under the 'Main Tags' line.

I've also added some comments to express what I thought about most novels that I've read.
As a bonus I've thrown out here some things that people look for or try to avoid like romance and mentioned similar titles that I've read myself.

***

Tags' explanation:

Mature:
FL - foul language, G - gore, E - ero elements.

Romance:

'No Romance' - nothing worth mentioning/mc is a loner, No Romance(?) - I haven't seen any, 'Romance' - only 1 heroine, Yanderes - self-explanatory, Harem - if MC is in CONFIRMED relationships with
several love interests, not a japanese useless one.

***

'My reading progress' line is a show of my 'sincerity'. At least I know what I'm talking about cause I've read it till cXXX.

***

Rating:

10/10 - Perfection (for me).

9/10 - Not 10/10 but pretty close.

8/10 - Something good/worth reading

7/10 - Readable

6/10 - Read with caution / Only 'Readable' under specific circumstances

***

P.s I've read a lot of novels (more than 200), so I've chosen more popular titles, or at least novels that I've liked more than others. So very few novels here can be considered questionable or 'hidden gems'. <<less

this is mostly just male mc without female leads like "love interests" or harems :)... more>>

Korean Novels #1 - #25
Chinese Novels #26 - #53
Japanese Novels #54 - #70

* There might be some s*xual tensions towards side characters but mostly it views the improvement of the main characters
* Novels like this just focus on the plot and battle towards mc's main goal and shenanigans but most of the novels here are my male protagonist 'to be read' and I hope you guys find something that suits your tastes <3 so yeah happy reading ^^)/ <<less

I hate harem. Why? Because most of the time it leads the story to a direction that's not pleasing. And most of all I don't... more>> fantasize about having thousands of girl on my lap.  Hell I'm not even interested in romance . Anyway this list contains novels that have zero harem and maybe it will have novels that have romance, but almost all of them are not focused on romance
So enjoy (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧ <<less

2nd List -
https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/50277/... more>>

3rd List -
https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/61691/

I am doing this list for people like me who enjoy family and friendships or gets entrained by MC building there organizations directly or indirectly—
(Unedited) They are all in alphabetic orders, # or A-Z

There will also master-follower relationship or master-disciple relationship being recovered or building up between them…

And some overstate themselves even though they are OP or haven’t released their power-

There are no romance nor harem but there might be people around them having favorable impressions on them or bad reputation trying to be fixed or just leaving it…

I will try to put on novels that I’m sure there isn’t any romance nor harem and have already read them so to be double sure and some are recommended to me and had told me there isn’t :>

Any that are involve with the tag romance is explained in the bottom ^^*

Loving family for the beginning, knowing, and get transmigrated in a novel or another world ✌️

MC - Main Character
OP - Over Powered
OG FL - Original Female Lead
FL - Female Lead
OG ML - Original Male Lead
ML - Male Lead
BL - Boy’s Love
GL - Girl’s Love
GB - Genderbend <<less

Shounen Novels but its not on order some are harem but what can i do mostly korean novels like harem no shoujo on this one all of them are Male Protag.... more>>

I made this list if you really like those op korean novels this list is the only one worth reading on my opinion on shounen or Male mc novels.

i put some new good kor novels hope u guys like it <<less

After 5 years of reading, wanted to make a list of my favorites novels so far. Not a ranking list but the first ones are the novels that impressed me the most so you can consider that a sort of ranking. Updating as i keep reading.... more>>

edit: years are now 8, adding novels in the next days <<less

Action, Adventure and Advance. The triple AAA that the following novels have in my opinion^^.... more>>

Irregular updates but you are welcome to recomend. Continuation in PART 2 & 3 which will link down.

Korean Action Novels Part 2: https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/25364/

Korean Action Novels Part 3https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/25368/?ft=yes <<less

A type of lightnovels I really like is world hopping. However, I really dislike those silly quick transmigration novels with lots of romance. Hence, most novels in this list will have little to no romance.... more>>

The specific type of novels that will be in this list are ones where the MC originates from Earth and goes back and forth between Earth and other worlds. There will be some exceptions. Although most novels here have a game system, it is just a coincidence and not actually what this list is about.

The novels here will be ranked from the ones I like the most to the ones I like less. Any novel I haven't read yet will be ranked according to its number of stars.

If you know any others novels of this type, please tell me in the comments so I can add them to this list. <<less

GENRES: either Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Historical, Horror, Martial Arts, Mystery, Psychological, Sci-Fi, Slice of Life, Supernatural... more>>

A compilation of my favorites (CN, JP, KR) in alphabetical order.
*read the comments for additional recommendations (original novels)
*will update when I find and read new interesting ones <<less

if your bored read this list, it will entertain you trust... more>>

PS: Mount Tai

if you guys have anything to say, feel free to say it in the comments. This list is more inclined toward romance but it does have some books that are Action only or MC only and have no romance.

There is no order, almost all if not all books are pretty good to most people

this list does include BL but it's only like once or twice! <<less

No description.

This is a list of things I have read which I think are great from the perspective of 'quality of craft' & 'quality of story'. In general those will be great reads for everyone as well, but will less include 'because I like this' focused listings of other 'great so long as you like this' stories.... more>>

That said, there are only so many 'objectively great' stories, so farther down the list I will put caveats (etc.) with less 'full measure' stories- either 'just good', or 'great if you like this', etc. I moved all the anri-social protags to another list.

If you know of something I should add to this list, feel free to comment a suggestion or PM.

I have written quite a few reviews for most of these and other works- feel free to check them out, and vote them up if you find them helpful. Thanks! <<less

I really like ✓unique (world building/game rule/setting), ✓logical development, ✓solid plot, ✓all character in the novel have a life of their own that not serve for the purpose of the plot and finally a ✓logical MC. If there are at least two of these qualities, LINNIL APPROVE!!... more>>

I like to read various genre I don't care if it's ✮shoujou, ✮shounen, ✮yaoi or ✮harem, if only there is my require qualities~

This list order by my like, it not depend on the novel quality though. >wOb <<less