Notices by Strange Attractor (strangeattractor@refactorcamp.org), page 8

@nindokag

Some of my favourites:
The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon (starts with Sheepfarmer's Daughter)
The Sharing Knife series by Lois McMaster Bujold (starts with Beguilement)
Pretty much anything by Terry Pratchett.

Some other ones I've enjoyed:
Wood Sprites by Wen Spencer (which is also science fiction)
The Raven Ring by Patricia C. Wrede
Broken Blade by Kelly McCullough
Resenting the Hero by Moira J Moore
Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce

@machado

Do you have any recommendations for light novels where the main character at least partially succeeds at staying average?

One of the things I like about "I've been killing slimes for 300 years and maxed out my level" is that she does partially succeed. She knows some important people. She's acquired a family. She has to deal with shenaningans now and then, but most of the time her life is still domestic-scale and she still gets to stick to killing slimes.

"I've been killing slimes for 300 years and maxed out my level" reminded me of a character in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan universe: Ivan Vorpatril in Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. Ivan in that book attempts to seem middling and mediocre even when he isn't. (As an aside, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance has my favourite heist in a novel, though it is not a Heist Novel.)
https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781451638455/9781451638455.htm

Both characters remind me a bit of ribbonfarm mediocrity-themed blog posts.

Then I found "I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level" by Kisetsu Morita
https://englishlightnovels.com/2018/04/21/ive-been-killing-slimes-for-300-years-and-maxed-out-my-level/

It's about a laid-back main character who highly prizes slack and downtime. She only kills slimes (the feeblest and most abundant monsters in the world) on her walk down to the village to eat every day, and deliberately does not do more. Her approach to most problems is "how can we make this more relaxing and avoid overwork".

"Saving 80 000 Gold In Another World For My Retirement" only has one volume out, so I looked for another series of light novels.

I found what has become my favourite series of light novels so far: "In Another World with My Smartphone" by Patora Fuyuhara. It was written on a smartphone.

More volumes are out, so I could read a longer story.

I think part of the "light" in "light novel" means light-hearted.

Next, I started reading "Saving 80 000 Gold In Another World For My Retirement" by FUNA
https://englishlightnovels.com/2019/04/25/saving-80000-gold-in-another-world-for-my-retirement/

That one had a different feel to it. It reminded me a bit of L. Sprague de Camp's time travel novel Lest Darkness Fall, in which a 1930s classics professor ends up in the Roman empire in 535 AD, and starts out making brandy, and gets sucked into politics.

Unlike de Camp's novel, the main character of Saving 80 000 Gold can travel between worlds.

What I didn't realize when I started reading it is that this book is part of an entire genre. Once I read more books in the genre, "Do you love your mom and her two-hit multi-target attacks?" started to make more sense to me.

It was fun to have the feeling of "I think there are tropes here, but I don't know enough to recognize which ones!"

"Do you love your mom and her two-hit multi-target attacks?" is a Japanese light novel about a teenage boy who goes into a government-sponsored video game world with his mother.

He has some pretty good powers and equipment, but his mother's powers and equipment are much better. The game is rigged in favour of mothers, but I get the impression the author is presenting a plausible dynamic between mother and son, reserving judgement.

I've been reading some Japanese light novels, translated into English.

They cheer me up! It's been a while since I found fiction that does that.

The first one I read was "Do you love your mom and her two-hit multi-target attacks? Volume 1" by Dachima Inaka
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/do-you-love-your-mom/9781975328009-item.html

@rixx

Technically it is, but it is the first of a trilogy. The trilogy has a different feel to it, and different main characters, than the books that came before. I enjoyed The Element of Fire and The Death of the Necromancer, but I don't think they need to be read before the trilogy in order to enjoy it. It's ok to read the trilogy first, then read the others as prequels to see what the world was like before.

I have opinions about this, but my taste may be different from yours.

@rixx

I think I did read City of Bones years ago, but it didn't make much of an impression on me.

Of the standalones, the one I liked most was Wheel of the Infinite. I'd recommend that one if you want to start with a standalone.

@rixx

I'd go with The Wizard Hunters. I enjoyed the Ile-Rien books the most. I liked the audiobook version too, though your mileage may vary on the narrator's style.
https://www.downpour.com/the-wizard-hunters?sp=106686