[Antonio Black]

I own at least six Fullmetal Alchemist "light novels" and I've seen many others based on Code Geass, Trinity Blood, Blood +, and others.
If anyone has ever read books like these or even seen them at a Barnes & Noble, what is your opinion on them?
Or even the original books that some mangas/animes are alternatively based ON. (Ex. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Baccano!)

[Kaiju]

Fate/Zero and Spice & Wolf was originally a light novel, therefore my opinion must be in favor.

Although seriously, light novels in Japan are practically like how comic books are to certain cartoon shows in the US. Manga has a more heavy role and serves as more of a basis for anime to be made from and to the source material in most cases as cartoons based off of comic books usually don't follow the plotlnes of said comic books as western animation just uses the character dynamics and setting of the comic book in question ignoring most comic plot points outside origin stories. Instead, Wester Comic Books of Avatar and MLP and Transformers, etc. helping to tell additional stories within the universe of the story, same as certain Light Novels, which I'm all for. While its not the universal law, it is the norm I see.
Plus Light Novels offer another medium for aspiring creators to get their work out if they can't afford to contract with an animation company or can't draw giving them another method of establishing themselves to the eager public.

[Backmask]

Light novels are alright, I guess. The thing is that a good lot of them have hardly any literary merit (less so than the literature found in The Land of the Free), and Japan's light novel market is one of the most disgustingly bloated markets around, beating out everything the west has to offer. Due to how their publication system usually works (snippets are hosted in a magazine, then compiled into the volume format later on), writers, more or less, have little control over their novel. Date A Live and Infinite Stratos both featured heavy changes made on the request (command being a better term) of the publishers - with the latter leaving and publishing Infinite Stratos in a different magazine.
As for anime, manga,and games adapted into the light novel format, well, I haven't read many adapted into light novels, but I don't really see anything wrong with them. And if they aren't adaptions, they usually take place in universe and add more backstory and information (Good Loser Kumagawa novel, Assault of the War God Demonbane, Fate/ Zero: Heart of Freaks), which is pretty cool.


Although seriously, light novels in Japan are practically like how comic books are to certain cartoon shows in the US. Manga has a more heavy role and serves as more of a basis for anime to be made from and to the source material in most cases as cartoons based off of comic books usually don't follow the plotlnes of said comic books as western animation just uses the character dynamics and setting of the comic book in question ignoring most comic plot points outside origin stories.

Not really. LNs are adapted the same way that manga are, and, as of the past few years, are generally adapted at the same rate that manga is.