Web novels are an accessible, exciting, free, and fun way to enjoy stories. Wondering where to read web novels is one thing, and these websites definitely point you where they can be found. But what about choosing individual works? Which web novels should you read now? If you don’t have time to browse all the options, here are the 17 Best Web Novels for Your Serial Fiction Fix. Web novels are mostly works published online, usually on a website. In traditional publishing, we might regard them as self-published works, sans the tangible format. You can think of them as ebooks, but that they’re not available in epubs or whatnot. Web novels can be in other languages aside from English. Many stories in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean are also sought-after works. Manga, on the other hand, are comics originating from Japan. You can read more about manga in our beginner’s guide to the format. Accessing Royal Road is free, but if you want to support the platform, you can pay a monthly subscription fee to access more features. The downsides of this website are that the design looks outdated and that Royal Road doesn’t have an app. When you browse a web novel, the experience feels a lot like Goodreads: there are reviews and the star rating system on a web novel page. Like Royal Road, you can browse curated lists here. The site also has a dedicated forum wherein you can discuss almost anything. There are lots and lots of sci-fi and fantasy works on Wuxiaworld. Not only that, there’s also wuxia and xianxia, which are uniquely Chinese genres. In the website, web novels are mostly organized by series name, so it’s easy to find works that are already completed. The authors are also consistent in giving updates on their ongoing series. For those interested, Wuxiaworld also offers ebooks, but those are not free and can be expensive. If readers like a web novel, they can “boost” it to increase its ranking among the popular stories of the week. Top Web Fiction is a useful site if you’re following many web novel sites and can’t keep up with the plethora of web addresses. It’s also a valuable resource to find hidden gems from non-mainstream sites. You don’t need external sites to read web novels, as you can just browse them on the site itself. You may be wondering how can you keep up with the updates of a web novel. Well, Reddit has a “save” feature for when you want to go back to a story. Also, most authors on this subreddit post links to previous chapters, first chapters, and next chapters of their works. In Wattpad, you get to read more web novels originally published in English. If you’re looking for Chinese or Japanese web novels translated into English, you can try the options above. The obvious advantage here is that you get the familiar look and feel of Wattpad’s interface. The only downside is that since Wattpad is not a dedicated web novel site, there are just a few web novels here and there. You don’t get lists and other recommendations. When you visit the subsite, you can only sort by “Hot” and “New,” nothing else. The site also has subscription options for when you want some extra perks. Still, it’s not necessary as you can still read many web novels for free. If you’re into merch, you can buy some at its online shop. What’s great here is that Tapread has an app, too. My only gripe is that there appears to be fewer titles on the website, and I think there’s only around a hundred available. You can check out all of them at their website. If you like comics, Tapread also has a few. In Flying Lines, there are more Japanese and Chinese web novels in English. There are also romance, fantasy, and comics. The biggest downside is that it doesn’t have an app. Also, it seems like there are few choices as there aren’t enough titles. You can see that there are only a handful of titles that are regularly updated. Nonetheless, Volare Novels has an active community at their Discord channel for when you want to discuss your favorite works.
