By Keiichi Sigsawa and Kouhaku Kuroboshi, based on the series created by Reki Kawahara. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

If you read the first volume of this series and thought “I’m here to read deep characterization and cool gun battles, and I’m all out of deep characterization”, then I’ve got some good news for you. Now, there is some attempt at character, which I’ll get into later on, but for the most part you are not here to see what makes Pitohui tick or reading about Llenn’s desire to save her. You are here to read about guns, and fights, and gunfights. And in this regard, the Second Squad Jam offers just what the first did, and does a very good job of it. There may be a few too many long descriptions of makes and models for my taste, but the concept and strategy of what’s going on here is top notch. You can tell this is the main thing Sigsawa wants to write – in fact, he wrote so much of it that this is a two-parter, with the second half due out early next year.

On the cover we see Llenn with a new partner, Fukaziroh, who is Karen’s real-life best friend Miyu. Miyu is not meant, so far, to have much depth. She is in this book to be FUN, and she succeeds admirably. She’s bubbly, extroverted, acts before thinking, and is also hellaciously strong in game, so is a good contrast to Llenn’s speed and agility. Llenn’s former partner, M, can’t pair up with her as he is pairing up with Pitohui, and this Squad Jam is – stop me if you’re surprised in a SAO title – a matter of life or death for the both of them. Why that is has a lot to do with Pitohui’s twisted personality, and also a lot to do with the original Sword Art Online, which Pitohui was not involved with – in fact, that’s the problem. This is handled pretty well, though if I hear yet another thing tying into Laughing Coffin again I may scream. M has a plan to fix things, though we don’t hear the specifics, for the sake of suspense.

These are not the only returning characters, of course. The squad of huge muscular women who turned out to be cute Japanese schoolgirls is back, and anxious to have a rematch with Llenn. That may have to wait, though, as Llenn is on a direct course to confront Pitohui, who we finally see in action, and it is both amazing and terrifying. She’s sort of broken, but the fact that this really IS just a game means that her cruelty and callousness comes off merely as cool rather than as any form of sociopathy. We also see the paramilitary unit, as well as the machine gun idiots. Now that we’ve gotten the plot out of the way, I expect the back half of this two-parter to be incredibly cool fights from beginning to end. As this is the first volume, there’s a lot of necessary setup that gets in the way.

Still, this is frothy fun. It’s never going to win awards for depth or emotion, but if you need a light novel equivalent of Pixy Stix, then by all means this SAO spinoff is absolutely the title for you.

By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

(Of necessity, this review is going to have to spoil events in this book. If you want to be surprised, read the book first.)

It has to be said, given the length and breadth of the Alicization series, and the complete absence of most of the rest of the original cast, that Kirito and Eugeo’s relationship feels like the strongest and most valid in the series. Yes, this includes Asuna, who is almost entirely absent from this book save for the cliffhanger ending. But Kirito and Eugeo are meant to be two sides of the same coin, each yearning for what the other has, with Kirito’s cynicism being set off by Eugeo’s innocent idealism. Even the fate of Alice Synthesis Thirty, who nearly sacrifices herself a couple of times for Kirito in this book, has her own Eugeo counterpart in Alice Zuberg’s state of being and eventual fate. Kirito and Eugeo is the main reason to watch the upcoming anime to see what they do with it. And it’s also what makes this volume the most heartbreaking of the books to date.

For all that Kawahara wrote a story about a death game where people die in real life, he’s been pretty good about not actually killing most of the main cast. When there is a death, it tends to have major impact on the characters going forward – see Sachi and Yuuki, for example. This volume, though, is absolutely filled with horrible deaths, both seen and unseen. The actual plot is pretty simple – it’s the end of the fight to the top of the tower. Eugeo throws off his mind control fairly quickly all things considered, but that’s not really helping any of them defeat Administrator, who is simply too damn overpowered. And so one by one characters come out of the woodwork to buy time so that the hero can figure out what to do. And no, that hero’s not Kirito this time, who spe4nds much of the book dealing with the fact that he’s getting his ass handed to him. It’s up to Eugeo to make the ultimate sacrifice, destroying Administrator for the sake of the world, even if it costs him his life.

Actually, while Administrator is the weak part of the book, being the usual ‘I have no nuance I am just eeeeeeevil’ Kawahara villain, she is impressively tough, in that she even survives Eugeo’s final attack, only to get taken out by her minion’s overpowering creepy love for her. Still, she is a piece of work. The ceiling of her tower will go up there with the depiction of the Senate in the previous book as one of the most disturbing things in SAO. As for the state of the world now that Administrator is gone, we’ll have to see. It may have to deal with life without Kirito for a bit, as things have apparently been going on in the real world in his absence, and his “fluclight” is seemingly damaged right at the very end. Will this mean an entire volume with no Kirito narration?

Kawahara says in the afterword he debated letting Eugeo survive in the LN version, but decided not to. Much as I love Eugeo, I think it was probably the right choice. In the meantime, this is a very strong volume of SAO, and I can’t wait to see where we go from here – we still have four books to go after this, let’s remember.

By Keiichi Sigsawa and Kouhaku Kuroboshi, based on the series created by Reki Kawahara. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

And so it’s finally here, the Sword Art Online novels for the fan who hates Sword Art Online. Or at least that’s how this is sometimes described. Sword Art Online is a very popular franchise, but it’s also the series that’s cool to hate, particularly its lead character. And so there’s a certain desire to play around in the universe but without all the baggage of Kirito and friends. Enter Alternative, where the author (best known here as the creator of Kino’s Journey, though he also is a specialist at playing in author author’s worlds) explicitly says that none of the main cast will ever be in these books. Nor is he really interested in the death game or its sequel. No, instead we have what is essentially Gunsmith Cats: the RPG, only Rally has been replaced by Goldie. The author loves guns, so do the characters, and you’d better be prepared to hear about guns.

For those who haven’t read the manga (which I reviewed last year) or seen the anime (which just ended this week), SAO Alternative stars Karen, a very tall girl who has few friends because she’s introverted and tall. Her friends tries to get her to do MMORPGs like ALO, but Karen’s character creation always gives her a really tall character – exactly what she doesn’t want. In desperation she tries to sci-fi apocalypse shooter Gun Gale Online, and finds, at last, she’s tiny! And cute! After playing around a bit, she runs into Pitohui, who is cool, gives good advice, and also seems to have a screw loose or two, though we don’t really get into that as much as I expected this book. She recommends that LLENN (as Karen names herself) participate in a new event called the Squad Jam, which is basically the BoB tournament but for teams. Sadly, Pitohui can’t make it, but she does provide LLENN with a partner, the hulking giant M, who also is there to give advice and backup. With a team of only two, can they possibly win this?

If you’re here for gun battles, then this is absolutely the book for you. The Squad Jam itself takes up two-thirds of the book, and is exciting, dramatic and fun. LLENN proves to be a natural at the game, and her headspace is also fun to follow. The purpose of the characters in this book seems to be “make them different from the real players” to contrast with the SAO crew. Karen has a short, tiny character, the stoic, invulnerable M proves to be, well, rather less stoic and invulnerable, and the team that LLENN ends up going against in the finals are a group of big burly Russian women who, it will not surprise the reader to know, are not big, burly and Russian in real life. It’s an escape. That said, while I enjoyed this book it’s not as ambitious as SAO – I’d say it’s better written but lacks the highs and lows of the original series. It feels like Sigsawa has no greater motivation than “I want to play in this sandbox”. It’s a fun sandbox, though, and if you hate SAO this may be for you.

Also, the Agatha Christie fan in me is annoyed that the team name is not “LLENN or M?”.