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

One of the problems with a series that’s narrated in first person, which Sword Art Online is (yes, sorry, Asuna fans, this is again all Kirito), is that it can be harder to see the flaws inherent in the protagonist, since you have to remove yourself from the narrative voice to see what’s really going on. Last time we saw Asuna starting out in Aincrad trying to find a noble way to die, and Kirito had to show her that there are better things to try for than that. But he has issues of his own – he’s bad at dealing with people, as he both admits himself and we see time and time again, making bad jokes in order to try to get past the fact that he finds it hard to gauge what others are thinking. And while I think he’s right that Asuna could grow to be a great inspiration to others trapped in the game, I worry he may be putting her on a bit of a pedestal, particularly as he tries to ensure the other players don’t see her as a villain.

Kirito is also having to have genuine interaction more than he expected, as the elf that they meet up with, Kizmel, not only doesn’t die – as she did in the beta Kirito played – but proves to be far more well-rounded and realistic than any NPCs he’s come across before. Both he and Asuna over the course of the book are amazed at how Kizmel grieves for the sister she lost, has mysterious, prophetic dreams, and seems to be having flashbacks to the beta test that Kirito participated in. This helps to show how SAO is not just another game, but it also lends a bit of intrigue to the series going forward, as this isn’t really explained much beyond “wow, Kayaba was a better programmer than we thought”. Luckily, without spoiling much, I will note that Kizmel survives, and I expect we’ll see her again in Book 3.

The other big focus of the book is the reveal of Morte, and what kind of player he is. Fans of the SAO anime and Japanese fans who read the books in order may be a bit ahead of those coming at the novels in NA-publishing order, as they are aware of the guild called ‘Laughing Coffin’. I’m pretty sure that’s what we’re seeing the genesis of here, as Kirito chillingly runs into a player who simply has the desire to kill, because he realizes that he can do it here and get away with it. The duel itself is the high point of the novel, menacing, action packed, and a bit terrifying. After that, we get a fight that doesn’t arise, as Kirito (and Asuna, who thankfully tails after him when he’s being a loner idiot) talks down two nascent guilds from fighting against each other and helps them realize the goal is for everyone to work to escape the game.

As for my review, those who read me regularly know the less I talk about the actual qualities of the book and the more I theorize, the better I like it. Sword Art Online Progressive’s prose is more mature than the original works, its steady pace (we only get one floor this time around) allows it to grow more naturally, and Kirito and Asuna are clearly destined for each other but are both in denial, which is cute. (For a killer drinking game, try drinking every time Asuna elbows Kirito in the gut. Actually, don’t do this.) Honestly, I’d recommend this series to an SAO newbie first, even if it does have a lot of callbacks. Probably my favorite SAO novel to date.

By Reki Kawahara and abec. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press.

So yeah, I know a lot of people were taking bets to see when I would stop being a raving fanboy about this series. This is not to say that there weren’t parts of this novel I greatly enjoyed, but there’s simply a lot of things wrong with the climax of the book, and they take away from a suspension of disbelief that has already been in danger of snapping since SAO began. I am rather happy that things are resolved, everyone’s back in the real world, and if this weren’t a franchise I’d be mostly satisfied with the ending here, but… your villains need work, Kawahara-san.

Let’s start with what I liked. The first 60 pages or so were completely skipped in the manga adaptation I read, and are a terrific look at Kirito and Leafa’s similarities and differences, where choosing to save a monster from being attacked by another monster, and later on defending it from a party trying to kill it, even if it means losing all forward progress, is greatly rewarded. It’s just a nice sequence that shows why people still want to play these games even after the deathtrap that was SAO, and really shows off Leafa’s compassion. She’s only human, though, and still a teenager – her relationship with Recon is not one of equals, and I think she needs to sit the boy down and tell him she’s not going to be returning his feelings.

The whole Suguha falls for Kazuto/Kirito plotline was handled better than I thought given that its existence is enough to provoke a groan these days – I remind myself it was originally written as a web story around 2004-2005, when “pseudo-incest” was not overwhelming the market like it is now. Her anguish on discovering Kirito’s true identity is very well written, as is the duel that eventually follows. I also liked the epilogue set in the “SAO survivors” school, which not only gets to see our lead couple be extremely cute, but also gives us cameos of the rest of the cast, particularly Lisbeth adn Silica, who it was great to see.

All right, let’s talk Sugou, and by extension his conspirators, who we see in the form of slavering tentacle insects. First off, there was no reason to include those guys in that form for any reason other than to titillate a certain segment of fandom which is not remotely me. I’ve hated it in the manga, and hate it here, though thankfully there aren’t explicit illustrations. Secondly, Sugou is insane, and thus dull – you’re just waiting for him to get his just desserts, and the fact that he’s so over the top means there’s no real suspense that he’ll achieve anything. But probably the thing that irritated me most was the “return” of Kayaba as a ghost in the machine, who gives Kirito magical GM powers to finally be the godlike cheat character everyone accuses him of being. It’s a deus ex machina of the worst kind, and comes out of nowhere. I also think that the writing was a bit too sympathetic towards a man who murdered thousands of people for a thought experiment. Kazuto thinking he was similar to both Kayaba AND Sugou also didn’t help.

So not as good as the first couple of books, but hey, it’s finished, and I’m still invested in the franchise. Next time we’ll meet a new heroine, a new gameworld, and Kirito will get in touch with his feminine side.

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

I’ve already discussed some of the ideas behind this concept in my review of the first manga, so I’ll try to skim over that and discuss what I enjoyed about SAO:P as a novel. Again, I don’t think it’s a sort of ‘reboot’ where you can read it in place of the original – I think knowing the characters already adds to the depth. But the main reason to read this is to see how Kawahara develops Aincrad, a world he introduced and essentially abandoned in the first book, sequels and side stories aside. And we also get the addition of Asuna’s POV narration, though sadly only for part of the first arc, after which it’s back to all Kirito all the time.

Despite this, Asuna benefits enormously from the added face time. We see her at the start, having essentially decided that she wants to attempt to die with dignity, or at least on her own terms, something that Kirito is able to talk her out of. As the book goes on (and it is a BIG book – at 360 pages, almost as big as Fairy Dance put together) and Asuna starts to actually pay attention to the rules of the game and how to succeed, she becomes just as good if not better than Kirito – the skills she’s used her entire life as a girl who has to be in the top of the class for everything now benefit her in the RPG environment, and she also has more socialization than Kirito, meaning she can see people in a way that he’s unable to – this really becomes apparent in the second half of the book, where Kirito has pegged himself as an evil person, and Asuna has to side-eye him several times and go “really?”. Kirito, meanwhile sees potential in Asuna, and wants her to be the role model for the game world that he feels unworthy of being himself. They’re not a couple here, but you definitely see why they’re perfect for each other – they’re both quite similar, and their differences complement each other.

There’s no Klein, Lisbeth or Silica here, and Agil is mostly just support. The new addition is Argo, though she’ll be familiar to fans of the anime. She doesn’t vanish after the first few pages, however, and actually gets to show off some character depth and an awesome ‘to the rescue’ bit. In addition, the “Interlude” focusing on her and Kirito is hilarious, the second funniest part of the book. (The funniest part of the book involves Asuna’s inventory and Kirito’s complete ignorance of a maiden’s true heart, as well as measuring rage in gravitational units – I’ll leave it at that.)

The most interesting part of the book takes place right at the end, where a scheme is uncovered that led indirectly to the death of a player (or so they hear), and the concept of PKing comes up for the first time, this time as capital punishment. When does justice become vigilante justice? Kirito has definite views on the subject, but he’s already burned so many bridges (or at least he thinks he has) that he doesn’t want to make any rallying speeches. Luckily, things defuse before we can go there, but everyone is now thinking about it. We’re not at Laughing Coffin just yet, but the seed has been planted.

This book covers the first two floors of Aincrad, and the afterword says there should be 2 floors per novel, so things will likely continue to move quite slowly. This is the main goal of this series, of course, and I’m greatly enjoying what it’s trying to do. And of course there’s also an additional bonus – this is 8 years after the author first wrote SAO, and his prose has improved a great deal. Sword Art Online fans will love this. (Also, I appreciate that ‘Kuroko’ was likely impossible to translate without a footnote, but ‘Blackie’? Geh.)