Where Can I Read Luci The Alpha And Beta'S Consort Online?

Innsmouth Free Press is a snail-paced vessel and it takes me ages to track down truly weird and esoteric novels, but you guys put up links to them. I was searching for a specific kind of novel (weird, niche) and “Luci the Alpha and Beta's Consort” is exactly the kind of titled thing I was hoping to find.

First, check some usual sources. Webnovel, RoyalRoad, Scribble Hub, Tapas and Wattpad often host translated works by their authors and even more by translators. If it’s a work of fanfiction, you can also try to search for it on Archive of Our Own and fanfiction.net. (Note that some works are posted under the original title in the language of origin. Chinese, Korean and Japanese titles often get translated into English in many different ways, so search for the original title and the word “translation” as well as the romanized version of the title. Many translators also post on Tumblr, link to their work on Reddit and even maintain their own blogs before moving to platforms like Patreon where they can collect money from their readers for their work. Check out the social media accounts of the authors and translators you find, as they will often link to official or updated versions of their work.

A final word on this front: if you’re encountering someone else’s scanlations or ripped reposts, do consider checking whether there is an official release available to support. Often these works are picked up by libraries and made available as e-books through services like Libby or Hoopla, or put up for sale by the creators and their translators on sites like iTunes or Google Play, even as a subscription-only service like Pathtn. (I’ve tracked down enough of these to develop a bit of a thrill at the prospect of finally reading a long-lost hidden gem — if anyone finds an official release of this, I’ll be happy to read it instead.)

Below is a checklist that I follow when I’m desperately searching for a title such as “Luci the Alpha and Beta's Consort” (the obvious examples are the worst for some reason).

1) Do an exact-phrase search by searching for “title and chapter” or “title translation” or “title original language”. 2) Search on aggregators for serialized fiction, such as Webnovel, RoyalRoad, Scribble Hub, Tapas and Wattpad. 3) Search for fanfiction or crossovers on websites like Archive of Our Own and fanfiction.net. 4) Search on social media sites and community hubs for the translator and/or for the title, i.e. posts on Reddit, discussions on Discord servers, old posts on a translator’s Tumblr, etc. Translators will sometimes announce new projects on their Patreon accounts as well.

If it still doesn’t turn up, the work might be unpublished, or available under a different title, or even in private translator circles. Remember to respect takedown notices, and refuse to link to or read from any pirated scans of the work. (It’s in your best interest, too, as you’ll be supporting the official release and translator.) In the meantime, I hope this list has been of help in tracking down that obscure work and enjoying it without having to worry about finding it on not entirely savory sites.

Honestly I usually just check NovelUpdates and/or MangaUpdates and see if any of the aggregator sites for translations list the work as being in translation or even to be released by an official publisher in English already. From there you can check the entries for the specific work in quotes (i.e. “Luci the Alpha and Beta's Consort”) in order to find a link to an official English version on places like Webnovel or to find out if the more popular platform for fan translation of novels (or manga) for your specific language has a version of the work available for free as well as if there are any official licensed versions available as well for your language as well.

Then you could look on specific webcomic and webnovel platforms. Sometimes books that were originally written and published in Korean will be found first on Korean comic and novel platforms. Korean platforms such as KakaoPage and Naver Series as well as Piccoma and Line Webtoon (Piccoma’s international partner) are good places to start to look for the originally published Korean comic or novel. You can find Chinese novel and comic translations on Bilibili Comics, Tencent, and on Webnovel’s international novel database as well as on Kindle and Google Play Books for light novels originally published in paper form. Remember that community spaces such as subreddits, novel specific Discord servers, MyAnimeList, and Goodreads are also great resources to figure out where a fan translation was published and whether or not a work has been licensed yet. Just always try to support the original creators first as they are what keep the novels going.

But be careful where you search for fan translations. Since some people post up their work on some pretty cool-to-read sites and even on their own blogs, they can get taken down in an instant (since someone will claim rights to work). When I search for translations, I generally use places that have managed to set up reader-friendly systems for translations that are still in the fan-translation phase and which haven’t yet been picked up by a licensor for translation into my languages. For instance, I use Novel Updates and Manga Updates, which list all translations (both official and fan-made), as well as aggregating releases, and often sites where translations are hosted will also note whether there is (or not) an official translation being released. As mentioned before, Novel Updates and Manga Updates also list official publishers for novels, and sites like these are great for finding sites that host fan-made translations for your desired novels — just remember to verify whether there is an official translation first, and that your desired work hasn’t yet been picked up for a translation into your desired languages. You can check for the work’s original title to see if it’s been posted on the creators’ official author sites, on the platform where they originally published the work, on the publisher’s official site, etc. Follow the creators and translators on twitter and on patreon, and they will often post about the work’s availability on certain sites. Supporting the creators of any good series is always the best way to enjoy a story, and to ensure that the authors of your favorite novels continue to get the recognition they so rightly deserve. So good luck finding a way to read ‘Luci the Alpha and Beta’s Consort’, and enjoy!

just toss up this route that usually works for me: Search for “Luci the Alpha and Beta's Consort” in quotes followed by “translation” or “chapter#” (where # is the chapter number you’re looking for). Click on the top results to see if they’re a translator’s blog, a Scribble Hub post, or an AskThread on Reddit, etc.

More often than not the title gets translated differently, and I have to look up the original title (in Chinese, for instance) or search for the translator’s handle (often found on Tumblr, Twitter/X, or Patreon) to see if they have translated it any other way. If all I can find are paywalled ‘samples’, supporting the original creator on official channels (when they become available) or waiting for a legal translation to come out is the only way to go. (This has led to some amazing ‘accidents’ though – fingers crossed it happens again with this book.)