Allure of the unknown
Allure of the unknown
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 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.
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.
95 Followers
Created: Jun 5th, 2020, Updated: Nov 28th, 2022
Created Jun 5th, 2020
Updated Nov 28th, 2022
25 Chapters Every 603.6 Day(s) 12670 Readers 331 Reviews 09-19-2002
@Fiend and @Tallrice persuaded me to give it a shot. Well, it definitely was unique ... more>>
0 Chapters Every 8846 Day(s) 1870 Readers 5 Reviews N/A
I guess most of people who have read oriental novels for some time have already heard about this one. Basically it’s transition to another world... more>>
2 Chapters Every 3303.5 Day(s) 2582 Readers 42 Reviews 04-25-2016
Novel with a strong aftertaste. For me this novel is one of the most memorable in the entire list. A very peculiar atmosphere of hopelessness. Of inevitable doom encroaching slowly but surely. Protagonist got a hold onto texts that presage of world’s apocalypse and thus readied himself for calamity with help of said texts. He’s stronger than your ordinary everyman however anything he does is but a pebble thrown into raging waters. Betrayals, death of anyone but protagonist become but a normal occurrence in this story. First few arcs are very interesting to read however as cloning was introduced(so any underdog could die few times) I caught up with new releases and dropped it.
... more>>
... more>>
42 Chapters Every 140.2 Day(s) 333 Readers 3 Reviews 08-09-2018
Collection of slightly dark short stories. Most of them beside being rather twisted by themselves will have an unexpected ending. Overall it left a good impression on me. If you still waver and doubt whether you should spend your time reading it, just finish the first chapter. I think it greatly represents the overall concept of how stories will be relayed. Author has a distinct writing style and translating team did a good job bringing this out to readers.... more>>
0 Chapters Every 78.6 Day(s) 4043 Readers 48 Reviews N/A
Second chance aside of that no magic, modern world. Extremely strong willed FL and ML. Female lead was smart and nice girl but her foster... more>>
49 Chapters Every 155.5 Day(s) 3715 Readers 24 Reviews 04-01-2018
Surrounded by traitors and cowards she lost her faith in others. She had an ability to summon people from our planet. And so she summons mc with purpose of tormenting him and then killing him when she will grow bored. Most characters are perverse psychos. Similar to dungeon defense. But I liked former more. This one doesn't have aftertaste nearly as strong. Still, the premise was what hooked me and as such I included it on the list.... more>>
37 Chapters Every 87.5 Day(s) 1418 Readers 49 Reviews 03-09-2020
Worldhopping. Spoiler. One of arcs is about reincarnating as a lego minifigure. That’s a bizarre idea. A few years ago i saw a “lego steampunk... more>>
355 Chapters Every 34.1 Day(s) 13991 Readers 217 Reviews 04-14-2024
Usually I prefer more forceful protagonists but this novel was pretty interesting to read nonetheless. Feel free to drop once protagonist or storytelling starts to annoy you.... more>>
156 Chapters Every 7.7 Day(s) 7835 Readers 42 Reviews 04-26-2024
Not that great of a plot but you saw the title. Novel’s title is the most redeeming quality in this particular case. It’s still a... more>>
35 Chapters Every 171.6 Day(s) 2902 Readers 15 Reviews 05-01-2020
After protagonist encounters su*cide of a young girl on a busy city’s avenue he is visited by hooded entity which offers him to save the girl with a prize of his lifespan being cut in half... more>>
49 Chapters Every 130.5 Day(s) 2553 Readers 10 Reviews 09-27-2020
Spoiler... more>>
113 Chapters Every 304.9 Day(s) 8016 Readers 84 Reviews 02-13-2018
Delusional fellow with groundhog day system with checkpoints and choices. Good pacing. However most characters have similarity to already existing characters, meaning you might notice... more>>
34 Chapters Every 116.1 Day(s) 2132 Readers 30 Reviews 10-16-2020
Protagonist got scammed by sentient system. After his death remnant of his soul born out of grudge is trying to continue its existence.
12 Chapters Every 196.7 Day(s) 713 Readers 2 Reviews 11-23-2017
Thanks to @Ruriva for recommending it! ... more>>
44 Chapters Every 108.2 Day(s) 1826 Readers 57 Reviews 11-27-2019
post-apocalyptic. Lighthearted with a tragic undertone. Trouble comes all the time in everchanging world where lately people started to evolve.... more>>
1 Chapters Every 2487 Day(s) 732 Readers 5 Reviews 07-08-2017
On royalroad there’s a good short novel with a similar premise but it’s way deeper. It’s called “epilogue”... more>>
102 Chapters Every 255.9 Day(s) 851 Readers 13 Reviews 10-22-2018
He woke up to a realization that he no longer had control of his body, as a System had taken it over. Will he eventually... more>>
39 Chapters Every 186 Day(s) 1778 Readers 62 Reviews 12-21-2020
Same author as Lord of the mysteries. Post-apocalyptic setting. Nice world building, lots of action. Unlike many novels of same genre it doesn’t leave a... more>>
19 Chapters Every 90.6 Day(s) 662 Readers 38 Reviews 02-05-2021
World hopping. New. First 110 chapters are executed pretty good. Smart, scheming protagonist. Original worlds, no plagiarism. Worlds are treated more as dreams, protagonist is... more>>
203 Chapters Every 40.3 Day(s) 6829 Readers 83 Reviews 12-25-2022
I realized why I don’t really enjoy most kingdom building novels. I like when protagonist is on the edge, his survival chances slowly draining. I prefer when numbers go down, as well as protagonist’s hopes. Compared to massive wars and countries engaged in some political scuffles, I’m more inclined to see a lone tightrope dancer under which calamitous waters are raging.... more>>
35 Chapters Every 72.1 Day(s) 883 Readers 4 Reviews 05-31-2021
Life of a human hero as a s*ave in a demon camp. It’s rather good actually. Beginning seemed mediocre but it toppled my initial expectations as the story progressed... more>>
0 Chapters Every 1465 Day(s) 7229 Readers 52 Reviews N/A
A story, centered on events that occur in many years after the protagonist’s reincarnation. An entertaining one. Seem to drop in quality about 100th chapter.
Comments (17)
So i found a list made by user @Tallrice https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/10686/ about reincarnations into different creatures
It mentioned a notable novel on Royal Road site called “threadbare” about magician giving sentience to a plush bear
"Nothing became something, awareness flooded in, and suddenly, everything was.
Button eyes wiggled, as they looked around at a cluttered room. A furry neck moved as a cloth-and-fur head twisted, using its newfound ability to look at things. It didn’t enjoy it, not precisely. If you asked it, and somehow gave it the ability to reply, then it could have told you that it didn’t know what joy was. It didn’t know much of anything."
Author is very capable at describing. However, as story progressed, It lost its initial flavor of being extraordinary
There are also notable novels Fork this life, everybody loves big chests, tree of aeons, chrysalis
Chrysalis is best perceived among them
It has many positive reviews on royalroad, some people do find it quite good. Reincarnation in tree is a relatively novel idea. At some point of time it becomes kingdom building genre. Most of kingdom building genre are prone to become boring as new chapters are released as kingdom becomes big and plot stale. Tree of aeons however never gives a breather.
Concept of world is not bad either. World where after 10 years since demise of late demon king new king with unique deadly ability emerges. If last batch of heroes is yet to die, they will have to battle otherwise new batch will appear until demon king is dead.
So no matter how strong being is it will eventually crumble. In such a situation our tree finds itself, trying to steer away from conflict which can resolve even without its intervention
Unique? Yeah. Dark? Pretty much. And in my case it left a rather pleasant aftertaste
@M.A.T.R.
bruh ur tastes are dog shit
There’s a good novel on Royal Road called "Mother of learning". Basically it’s magician caught up in Groundhog Day. There are also some notable novels on Webnovel site but alas they cannot be posted on novelupdates list
@shirlulu007
They cannot be added to nu as nu only accepts translated oriental novels. English originals can’t have a pass here
On the other hand even if I copypaste name link and will write commentary here it won’t give you same impression as if it was posted with picture, genres, rating etc
The best one I encountered lately is “psychic parasite” on webnovel. Basically protagonist becomes parasitic soul in dark world full of foreshadowing and struggle.
After thinking a bit, I’ll be adding new stories from other sites down here in description - that’s what I tried but it told me that the description limit -1500 - is reached :/
So I’ll be adding them here i suppose
5) The gilded hero, royalroad, https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/29286/the-gilded-hero It turns out, people summoned from another world are easily charmed with the title of "Hero." And they really shouldn't be.
6) Mister B. Gone
You get to read a sentient book, that has a specific request for you.
7) The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Time loop story where protagonist interacts with other versions of himself in order to stop a mu*der of a girl.
8) Returning to No Applause, Only More of the Same
Kreig was summoned to the other world 130 years ago, the last 30 of which were spent in a constant, vengeful war against any army that would attempt to subjugate him. Once he returned, he found out that only 10 years had passed.Kreig was summoned to the other world 130 years ago, the last 30 of which were spent in a constant, vengeful war against any army that would attempt to subjugate him. Once he returned, he found out that only 10 years had passed.
9) A fine octet of legs
Waking up in unfamiliar surroundings after a wild night of drinking is not exactly a novel experience, even for Rita, but when it appears her whole city has gone to hell while she was out cold, well, that has to be a first. And if she wasn't careful, possibly a last.
Now, somehow equipped with four times the number of legs she’s used to, Rita has to get to the bottom of what happened, figure out how to get back to her normal life and somehow survive in a ruined and post-apocalyptic hellscape that she was almost one hundred percent certain wasn't there yesterday.Waking up in unfamiliar surroundings after a wild night of drinking is not exactly a novel experience, even for Rita, but when it appears her whole city has gone to hell while she was out cold, well, that has to be a first. And if she wasn't careful, possibly a last.
Now, somehow equipped with four times the number of legs she’s used to, Rita has to get to the bottom of what happened, figure out how to get back to her normal life and somehow survive in a ruined and post-apocalyptic hellscape that she was almost one hundred percent certain wasn't there yesterday.
10) Big Panda and Tiny Dragon
11) The Game at Carousel: A Horror Movie LitRPGThe Game at Carousel: A Horror Movie LitRPGThe Game at Carousel: A Horror Movie LitRPG
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/65629/the-game-at-carousel-a-horror-movie-litrpg
A fine horror survival novel.
Psychic parasite is a unique novel and that’s exactly what is appealing in it. I suppose you are looking for something that have same aspect?
If you are talking about reincarnation in nonhuman beings, you can look in list made by @Tallrice
He updates it time from time. Maybe something will catch your eye?
If you mean unique premise, I remember stacking those in this list XP
If you mean something outside of nu site, you may try Henry Kuttner’s “Vintage Season”
"I like when protagonist is on the edge, his survival chances slowly draining. I prefer when numbers go down, as well as protagonist’s hopes. "
Read Kingdom's Bloodline