what would you like to read in an isekaid country novel?

marko.karl

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i am planning an isekai'd country novel like many others on here, and I wanted to ask to other readers what would you like to read to make it interesting, and a little bit original?
 

TotallyHuman

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I don't know about originalilty, but here are the things I hate about some isekai country novels I have had the dubious pleasure to read:
1) it's not country-focused (by country I suppose you mean countryside, right?)
2) cooking
3) that it's a modern-day person acting all that, when even nowadays that would probably not fly in a countryside. The people writing it need to touch some grass.
4) No horticulture or animal husbandry.

But really, think about whether either the fact that the story is isekai, or a country-based novel even matters to your story, or if its some background gimmick.
 

marko.karl

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I don't know about originalilty, but here are the things I hate about some isekai country novels I have had the dubious pleasure to read:
1) it's not country-focused (by country I suppose you mean countryside, right?)
2) cooking
3) that it's a modern-day person acting all that, when even nowadays that would probably not fly in a countryside. The people writing it need to touch some grass.
4) No horticulture or animal husbandry.

But really, think about whether either the fact that the story is isekai, or a country-based novel even matters to your story, or if its some background gimmick.
i am sorry, but country as in nation, not countryside.
Include various types of people too, please. I don't read much of these types, but usually the important people like the President or General get the spotlight.

I hope you find a way to incorporate even the homeless and weak.
i have no idea about homeless and weak, but one character Idea i had is a lower tier officer (NCO), and i am open to new ideas too, if you have any
 

Redemit

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Remember just how big the country you pick actually is for example the US is huge I remembered a story from WW2 I think where some Nazi prisoners were brought to the US were put on a train in New York and road all though the night when they woke up they asked their guards what country they were in and the guards laughed and told them they're still in the US
 

Wysillesthal

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I've never read a premise like that, maybe Wortenia Senki but even so it's not the main focus and was only a Japanese clan.

I will like the language barrier and the transported people trying to learn other language through human method (no magic and such).

A peek into the people who have gone crazy to see humans in another world (assuming there's human), and having the same natural selection as Earth, suitable gravity, mass, radius, moon, star, or just call them factors that support life in that world but that can be easily overlooked I think? Don't forget that your immune system may have a breakdown there...
 

Sabruness

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i dont think i've ever read specifically a 'whole country transported to another world' novel. closest i've come is stuff like Gate or stories where the protag & co can travel back and forth between two worlds.

cant say the concept really interests me and the potential balance issues seem like a nightmare.
 

Lorelliad

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i am sorry, but country as in nation, not countryside.

i have no idea about homeless and weak, but one character Idea i had is a lower tier officer (NCO), and i am open to new ideas too, if you have any
That works too. I just meant people that aren't of much importance as the leaders of the country.
 

Schultz_von

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I want to know how this nation coped with its sudden situation. I mean pretty sure half of the population suddenly lose their jobs so pretty sure their economy is gone, food is also a problem because not many countries have the capability to be self-sufficient in that sector, and even though they have the technological advantage they don't have the resources to use it like oils, coals, and rare metals. I want to know how the government changes its policies in this new situation. I also want to know how the people both from this nation and the new world react.

I mean the novel "Summoning Japan" has a cool concept but the fact that somehow they still maintain their passive policy is a weird thing.
 

AryaX

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I would like to see some Modern Technological Civilization vs Medieval Magical Civilization, where the technology doesn't just stomp magic, and neither does the magic stomp technology... where both sides have significant advantages and disadvantages... and both sides have difficulty dealing with the advantages of the other... and where neither side can easily or at all acquire the abilities of the other side...

...

Like...

Tech side can field much bigger armies, and can equip em with weapons and other stuff that gives em massive advantage over the average grunt on the mage side... While the Mage side only have small number of truly powerful mages, and can't just train/manufacture more when needed, but they have some serious game changer abilities... Like Teleportation, Shapeshifting, Illusions, Mind Reading/Control, etc...
 
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Dr.AssDeer

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Don't sideline magic, this is one of the reasons why I dislike "America In Another World" (that and the odd military report-like format and jumpy POV). If this is truly a classic fantasy world where magic has basically replaced technology, then I SHOULD SEE THAT. Using magic as a tool to simply move the plot along, or just all together throwing it out the window just makes the story into a "Modern Earth nation versus Medival society"... goes about as well as you think. I would also say don't make magic into a hard-counter against every modern weaponry cause that is just dumb, a fireball shouldn't cause an Abrams Tank to explode. I've read quite a few "X nation transported to another world" stories and most of the time, the way the author handles the magical parts of the story either makes or breaks the story for me... that and if the modern military is retarded for no apparent reason.

This next point is more opinion-based, but I feel it needs to be addressed. when a MODERN nation gets transported to a fantasy world, the economy doesn't suddenly stop existing. I would suspect markets to crash, and all-around chaos as people try to understand what the hell happened. Simply brushing it off as an "Oh no! we aren't on Earth anymore... eh, oh well." just feels like lazy writing to me. Saying this though, I might just be the odd one out who likes a bit of realism in their stories.
 

Ilikewaterkusa

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I don't know about originalilty, but here are the things I hate about some isekai country novels I have had the dubious pleasure to read:
1) it's not country-focused (by country I suppose you mean countryside, right?)
2) cooking
3) that it's a modern-day person acting all that, when even nowadays that would probably not fly in a countryside. The people writing it need to touch some grass.
4) No horticulture or animal husbandry.

But really, think about whether either the fact that the story is isekai, or a country-based novel even matters to your story, or if its some background gimmick.
He means country like nation, not country side
i am planning an isekai'd country novel like many others on here, and I wanted to ask to other readers what would you like to read to make it interesting, and a little bit original?
Glorification of racism and extremist politics
 

Ymadthepirate

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A story that does have the sort of

this is the good nation
and this is the bad nation try to ya know add more depth to it cause its always the good king has the most innocent and gullible mind ever while the evil king is just backstabbing the same group of people five times
 

Southdog

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i am planning an isekai'd country novel like many others on here, and I wanted to ask to other readers what would you like to read to make it interesting, and a little bit original?
I honestly do not want to see any interaction between an isekai'd person and the isekai destination. America suddenly gets dropped into Geneirc Fantasy Land? Have it be set in Montana or something, super far from the action.
 

ConansWitchBaby

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Religious collapse especially from new-age kinds.

Full-on invasive species panic on both sides.

Hard reset on communication means. This would split a medium to large country apart within months if nothing robust like old age radio was re-established.

Mass starvations as supply lines grind to a crawl.

Full wars on accidental takeover of established borders.

Also, what likewater said.
 

ARedFox

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TLDR; Countries and their populous work in our world because they are designed to and have adapted to it. When you take that away, what do you think will happen? Potentially, pandemonium.

I have never and probably will never read one. That said, realism would be appreciate.

What happens to the economy is a great start. Our economy depends a lot on trade and manufacturing overseas, so when you lose all that what happens? What about electricity and the internet? What happens if the country loses internet and electricity for at least a bit? How long would it take to set trade up with the new neighbors? Would the resources in this new world actually sustain whatever country?

Then theres the people. Wouldn't people panic? What kinds of things would they do when in this panic? Buy out stores? Rob everywhere? Hide in their homes? What about diseases and stuff? Would they get affected by any local diseases? Would they spread the ones from our world? Is the water drinkable? What about the day-night cycle?

Add in other things like invasive species, religion, communication issues, magic and if they can use it, new and potentially usable/unusable resources, displacement of whatever is where the country was put, new sources of food including potentially deadly kinds, and there are a whole lot of factors.

This isn't even the tip of the iceberg, yet all of it should be addressed if you are writing about a whole country and the whole story. A lot of this could be simple. Heres an example. The new world doesn't have any plagues that are significantly harmful to humans at the time and the inhabitants of that world have magically enhanced bodies so they are resistant to ours.

However, not all of it is the most important to address depending on the perspective. The average person in the country isn't going to be doing the research to see what can and can't be used. They might not even consider it. Same with new diseases and stuff. Unless it directly affects them they might not think about it till after things have settled a bit. They will most likely be thinking about food, water, health, work, potential riots, electricity, internet, etc.

Edit: You could have the story start years after the country got sent there.
 
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marko.karl

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I honestly do not want to see any interaction between an isekai'd person and the isekai destination. America suddenly gets dropped into Geneirc Fantasy Land? Have it be set in Montana or something, super far from the action.
while it sounds like an intresting concept, running a whole story like this could get boring, but you did give me an idea:
having some chapters sprinkled in about common folk, and how, with the passage of time, they get gradually involved in the new world matters.
TLDR; Countries and their populous work in our world because they are designed to and have adapted to it. When you take that away, what do you think will happen? Potentially, pandemonium.

I have never and probably will never read one. That said, realism would be appreciate.

What happens to the economy is a great start. Our economy depends a lot on trade and manufacturing overseas, so when you lose all that what happens? What about electricity and the internet? What happens if the country loses internet and electricity for at least a bit? How long would it take to set trade up with the new neighbors? Would the resources in this new world actually sustain whatever country?

Then theres the people. Wouldn't people panic? What kinds of things would they do when in this panic? Buy out stores? Rob everywhere? Hide in their homes? What about diseases and stuff? Would they get affected by any local diseases? Would they spread the ones from our world? Is the water drinkable? What about the day-night cycle?

Add in other things like invasive species, religion, communication issues, magic and if they can use it, new and potentially usable/unusable resources, displacement of whatever is where the country was put, new sources of food including potentially deadly kinds, and there are a whole lot of factors.

This isn't even the tip of the iceberg, yet all of it should be addressed if you are writing about a whole country and the whole story. A lot of this could be simple. Heres an example. The new world doesn't have any plagues that are significantly harmful to humans at the time and the inhabitants of that world have magically enhanced bodies so they are resistant to ours.

However, not all of it is the most important to address depending on the perspective. The average person in the country isn't going to be doing the research to see what can and can't be used. They might not even consider it. Same with new diseases and stuff. Unless it directly affects them they might not think about it till after things have settled a bit. They will most likely be thinking about food, water, health, work, potential riots, electricity, internet, etc.

Edit: You could have the story start years after the country got sent there.
one thing i did not mention in the post, as I was searching for very generic advice, is that the country in question is NOT a modern country, but instead a country from the '30s (late) so, slightly more economically self-sufficient than today, and less reliant on outsourced industry, but the lack of resources will be a crucial thing in the first chapters.

about people panicking, yes it will happen, not instantly, but as the message spreads, and, as pretty common for the era, it's probably gonna be dealt with martial law often times. about diseases, while there will be new types transmitting both ways, it's not gonna be a large scale, devastating epidemic, more of a sideline problem to deal with, as most common ones are the same.
day-night cicle is either gonna be the same or very similar, and it's not gonna be a problem for the common people. and yes, the weather is exactly the same, and usually drinkable, after purification obviously.
for simplicity sake, i am gonna have one of the major power speak french, and by their influence haveing french being sort of a lingua franca, so while other languages might have to be learned, at least SOME means of communications are there.
religion in my country is gonna be a problem, as, while in decline, many areas are still deeply religious.
and the story, while not starting after years, might have some time skips. maybe some large ones too.
 
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Piisfun

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I honestly do not want to see any interaction between an isekai'd person and the isekai destination. America suddenly gets dropped into Geneirc Fantasy Land? Have it be set in Montana or something, super far from the action.
Rather than moving Montana to a fantasy world... move the fantasy world to Montana and see how long it takes for people to notice.

Just don't forget to make sure the major roads are intact (excluding on-ramps and off-ramps)... that would give it away immediately.
 

sereminar

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1930's? 1830's?
It depends massively on which country tbh. Like the differences between Germany or China or Nigeria or Chile or whatever is so utterly enourmous i don't think it is possible to give generic advice?

Honestly doing a solid amount of research on the country during that time period would be your best bet in making it mean anything at all that the whole country got isekaid. Otherwise just stick to a town/city. Something still significant but not overwhelming for the setup/research

-Knowing what major cultural/social/religious divisions there are
-Whether or not it's trade is massively supported by colonialism or any outside trade
-Knowing how much of the countries own agriculture was feeding its population
-Determine how deep you are going to dig out the country (will they still have their topsoil, mountain chains, rivers, lakes, mines, water tables and water wells, oil wells, coal, etc.)
-Weather patterns will obliterate the ecosystem within a year probably leading to massive drought/flooding/fires/etc think climate change cuz unless it's magically the exact same climate there will be enormous and immideate climate change
-literally most everyone will know that shit went sideways by the very first night because none of the moon(s) sun stars/constilations will be correct (unless this is just an alternate earth situation?). Yes I'm exagerating but not by much, light polution was pretty minimal back then depending on location and many many more people knew their stars
-im sure I'm missing a ton but if you want to make this work maybe try looking into alternate history fiction?
 
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