/lit/ - Literature

>>8477418
Yes. Emanon series by Kajio Shinji is absolutely fantastic and honestly masterpiece of mono-no-aware style. Each book is a collection of short stories. The story follows titular "Emanon", a woman who is in essence more like "an existence" than "human". She holds memories of all life from the point when life first came to be on Earth. Once this woman borne a baby, the entire memory of all life moves into the body and mind of the infant and the "original" Emanon becomes a vessel to simply take care of the child until its able to live on its own. The process repeats. It's really good. More atmospheric than plot-oriented but that's only plus, in the end. Every Emanon is a bit different and each story (most of the time each story features different Emanon throughout different eras) is doing something different. It's absolutely magnificent and one of the best Japanese fiction I've read. Sadly, I think that save for the very first short story, nothing has been published in English.

If OP means specifically light novels, then I've read R.O.D. which was very fun. Then, Haruhi, Ookami to koushinryou, Durarara!! and Baccano!. Each does something a tad bit different and they entertaining in their own ways. Haruhi kind of made true use of light novel format, Ookami to koushinrou was entertaining for first five books and then got incredibly boring, I've no idea how the author managed to kill it so efficently. Baccano! and Durarara!! feature big cast of funny characters. The thing with light novel brand of Japanese fiction is that they are written very poorly. I definitely understand why your average Western reader wouldn't want to read it since despite interesting settings, decent plotlines and fun characters, these books are written rather atrociously. R.O.D. is actually decently written for a light novel brand but still… Yet these books are fun to read. You just have to know what you're getting into.