If I may Im going to give you a recommendation of a novel Sword Art Online: Progressivethe Novel NOT THE MANGA the manga screwed some crucial stuff of the story didnt even think of making Asuna development something important and for some reason added some silly cliches that arent in the novel. Yeah I know its fricking SAO EXCEPT that this one has removed every bad element of the mainseries I can think ofI even dropped the mainseries at this pointV21 the eternal loop of a love triangle stuff really tired me off and it seems like its going nowhere I will give you a list of things that are different and potential upgrades: The balance between the ladies and the guys is really tighter basically for each woman introduced theres also a lad with equal importance in the story being introduced as well this makes the story feel really more natural unlike the mainseries where we have like 5 girls per guy this is unfortunately also a problem with most LNs currently.... The care for the details the story even has a tone of mysteryMostly on V4 and V5 basically every detail introduced in the story will be used SPECIALLY in the quests this fifth volume was the pinnacle of that. The development of the characters it seems like every charactersimportant to the arc develops a little even KibaouYeah that annoying guy with the spiky hair that was only seen once in the Anime the Asuna from the 1st volume is completely different to the Asuna we have now she even goes through 2 phases of personality with really interesting dilemmas I specially hate the movie and the manga on this point. The RPG mechanics if you are a fan of RPGs you will love this work every work which I read that tries to talk about those mechanics make it so boringAnd most of the time they dont even remember about those mechanics later in the work... The author makes an interesting theorycrafting with those RPG mechanics Im sure that he loses a good time thinking about on how to use it mainly cuz every single mechanic that was introduced was also usedNot necessarily on the same volume so not really an asspull literary device and most of them I would dream to have on an actual RPG/MMO. The Worldbuilding of Aincrad makes you really interested in the lore of that world we have so much conflicts in the NPCs that it even represents the players I cant say much more about the Worldbuilding besides the fact that each floor is a whole new experience you would need to read to understand really but it will be fun mainly and especially with the Quests being so wellmade and interesting. The Story is so well paced that I even lost my stop at the bus and skipped some classes to read itMistakenly I even went to another city lmao but I loved that experience and regret nothing. The Bosses fights if theres one thing that I really like in the novel are these Ive played A LOT of RPGs and can say they are truly unique the boss of the 4th Volume has to be one of the most creative bosses ever there are surprises in each of them and oh boy its always something really unexpected and terrifying for the viewer. Bonus point: The novel shows you the many sides of the characters in SAO and even their motivesIm not talking about the harem which doesnt even exists in Progressive and seems like it will stay that way.. Well you might say The ending is already decided you could be right but the story has heavily diverged from the mainseries at this point therefore you know very little on whats gonna actually happen I even consider it a parallel world of the franchise. The only cons that I can find is that theres not Major plotline besides the Kayaba Akihiko stuffIMO I dont think Kawahara is good at dealing with that major plotlines Progressive suits his style perfectly and thats why its so good and that theres a bit of fan service the absolute majority of it is Kirito/Asuna and thus justified. If you have any question about the novel give me a heads up I will happily answer I know that a most people have reasons to not read it cuz its SAO one of the only popular animes in MAL/AN with a low rating but I can guarantee you that you are wrong and probably got wrong info about it just ask me anything about it. You are also welcome to send me your reasons on why you disagree with any of my points I encourage the discussion. Editions: 04/01/2022: Corrected some grammatical errors that annoyed me and added some nice details old version1st Edition is herehttps://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX1vTX09XqqK44kUKA0gS7QIYFCwToDkDqUTNBoMchjpycPVJU5Mgf80V0TvcfDMaZqHgqXmvge/pub. 22/04/2022: Removed some excessive parentheses for commas old version2nd Edition is herehttps://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX1vSaPSagRs1DTMSpHyY6AR71jKaeG9omLG15CfTvONDUDw6vdTaInlnJPvRbZFcM4CqKBDZUcgp4WWsh/pub. 26/12/2023: Christmas for some reason always reminds of SAO and SAO:P rewatching Aincrad at this time is pretty nostalgic I recommend it 3rd Edition is herehttps://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX1vRlIZthT7V54QqpZqHr7V8Qs3DiMMePCi7qHorfLF9HJKnewJEAutEW1xKqnFwSTkcga4Da6cZj24Y/pub.