Trash of the Count's Family ( with the official English title being "Lout of Count's Family") is a Korean webnovel written by Yoo Ryeo Han, published on Munpia from April 9th of 2018.
So far, the novel is still ongoing, with three chapters being posted a week. There are currently 7 volumes, nearly 700 chapters, and a manhwa adaptation began serializing as of September 1st of 2020, illustrated by the artist PAN4 who was also responsible for making the novel's second cover. The current and third cover is illustrated by the artist 안즈, and features both Cale Henituse and Kim Rok Soo.
Although the novel was formerly being translated officially by Miraclerifle on Wuxiaworld, due to miscommunications between Wuxiaworld and the publisher, the author ultimately made the final decision to end licensing discussions with Wuxiaworld for now. As of May 11th of 2020, Wuxiaworld decided to stop translating the novel in order to respect the author's wishes, ending their translation at Chapter 627. Further information regarding this situation can be found on Wuxiaworld's official announcement post.
Beginning with the awakening of our main character, Kim Rok Soo, in a different world, he finds himself possessing the body of a minor villain inside of the novel The Birth of a Hero: Cale Henituse. As he tried to avoid being beaten up as in the original novel, his actions directly lead to the original plot derailing and he finds himself dragged into the center of many conflicts happening in the world.
Set in a fantastical world with elements such as magic and dragons, Cale utilizes the knowledge that he has from having read The Birth of a Hero by using those knowledges and taking in future elements while uncovering a devious plot that connects everything.
Trash of the Count's Family is one of my favourite webnovels. In fact, it is perhaps one of my favourite novels.
What is a web novel?
Web fiction is written works of literature available primarily or solely on the Internet. A common type of web fiction is the web serial. The term comes from old serial stories that were once published regularly in newspapers and magazines.
Unlike most modern books, a work of web fiction is often not published as a whole. Instead, it is released on the Internet in installments or chapters as they are finished, although published compilations and anthologies are not unknown. The web serial form dominates in the category of fan fiction, as writing a serial takes less specialized software and often less time than an ebook.
Web-based fiction dates to the earliest days of the World Wide Web, including the extremely popular The Spot (1995–1997), a tale told through characters' journal entries and interactivity with its audience.[1] The Spot spawned many similar sites, including Ferndale and East Village, though these were not as successful and did not last long.[2] Most of these early ventures are no longer in existence.
Since 2008, web fiction has proliferated in popularity. Possibly as a result of this, more fans of web serials have decided to create their own, propagating the form further, leading to the number of serious, original works growing quickly. Some serials utilize the formats of the media to include things not possible in ordinary books, such as clickable maps, pop-up character bios, sorting posts by tag, and video.
The genres of web novels are complex and fast, but the representative genres can be divided into romance, fantasy, martial arts, and modernity. In web novels, romance genres are produced and consumed the most. In the case of Naver, a total of 25,542 web novels were posted on the N store as of August 2015, of which romance topped the list with 13,164. SF and Fantasy came in second with 3,540 pieces, martial arts ranked third with 2,420 pieces, mystery fifth with 865 pieces, and Light Novel with 238 pieces. Recently, Romance Fantasy has been in the spotlight. Romance Fantasy is a new genre novel that has been available on Naver since April 2017, meaning romance-based fantasy. While fantasy mainly uses hero adventure stories as its main story line, Romance Fantasy mainly uses romance as its main story line. Game web novels are also gaining popularity. Game web novels typically use game elements such as quests, items, and NPCs as narrative materials. Game web novels are intermingling with fantasy novels, expanding their reach with young readers who are familiar with the game.
The term 'Web novel' was used in South Korea after Naver, a portal site, launched 'Naver Web novel' in 2013. Before that, it was called various words such as Internet novels and online novels. Currently, the term 'web novel' is used in both industrial and academic fields.
A web novel or web novel is a novel published online. Web novels exist in both free-to-read and pay-to-read formats.
Web novels in South Korea have been growing in popularity in the 21st century. Among the e-publishing fields, web novels are the core contents that are leading the e-book market. Just as webtoons (online comics) grew in the early 2000s in South Korea, web novels have been growing rapidly since 2010.
The usual definition of a web novel is 'the first novel to be released on the web'. This definition is based on the nature of distinguishing web novels from other content, first of all, the basis for mediating novels with readers, second of which the web releases them for the first time, and lastly has a narrative form. In particular, the Web novel market has begun to receive great attention because the possibility of web novel content expansion like dramas have been confirmed.
Why this novel?
Truthfully speaking, web novels are not considered proper fiction. Considering the ease of ability and the low barrier to entry, anyone can publish a web novel. However, some of the best novels I have read have been web fiction.
Trash of the Count's Family is a novel close to my heart, and I truly love reading it. I have read and re-read the 700+ chapters of the novel multiple times. Like I said before, it is a fantasy adventure novel, with a central theme of a character who enters a book they have read previously. This troupe is usually a recurring theme in romance and romantic fantasy novels, however, TCF (Trash of the Count's Family) is not a romance novel. There is no love interest for the main character Cale yet, rather there is a strong focus on found family, heroes and life.
This part will include spoilers, however, Cale's life and this story is about how Cale becomes a hero against his wishes. He is someone who was left behind after the death of the people he considered his family. People who died saving the world, heroes to everyone who left him alone. He never resents them, but he doesn't want to become a hero. This story is about how he learns to accept people again, how he builds a family once more, recognises that he had somehow gotten close to people again, and starts on the path to becoming a hero himself.
TCF's first part is now called Birth of a Hero, and the second part has just started serializing and is called Laws of Hunting. The story mixes the adventures and magic and comedy central to the genre with the deeper character arcs and growth of the characters that we see, learn and love through the chapters. You can also see the development of the author's skills as well. Starting in 2018, now in 2022 her ability to show her readers the story, leaving clues and hints for the revelations to come.
I could go on and on, and I want to share my love for this book with others. I started this project last semester when I began to read up on book design, trying to design the first 50 chapters of the book into a physical copy. After the feedback from the last session, I felt that perhaps I should take a step back and stop working on multiple projects and focus on the one most important to me. This was the most important project to me. From the moment I thought about making my own books, this was my goal. To share this book with other people, to show them how much I love it and to express why.
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