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Book Review: Sword Art Online: Progressive 1

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Sword Art Online: Progressive, written by Reki Kawahara, is the first book in a series by the same name. SAO: Progressive is a spin-off from the author’s main series, Sword Art Online, and exists to show the floor-by-floor progression throughout the floating castle of Aincrad. The novel primarily follows Kirito, a normal if somewhat awkward boy, who happened to be one of the beta testers for SAO. Progressive does a lot of things well and I genuinely believe it to be one of the best-written stories to come out of the Sword Art Online franchise. Also fair warning but while SAO Progressive can be read without foreknowledge of the series, this review can not.

One thing Progressive does very well in comparison to other works from the same series is the characterization of the protagonist. Kirito, in the other SAO stories, is characterized poorly at best. In the original novels, the author tries to make him seem like an awkward but relatable guy something which is happened by all the cool and awesome powers and people constantly throwing themselves at him while on the other hand, the anime decides he doesn’t need a personality if he’s a badass. Meanwhile, Progressive actually lets the boy have a personality that is honestly pretty endearing. With Progressive’s Kirito it seems like he has a variety of reactions around various people and situations. In situations where he gets to talk about the game, he tends to be pretty well-spoken while he tends to flounder in any social context. Also, he did mental math to determine exactly how big a cake was and then how much he would get if he got half the cake which I find more hilarious than I probably should.

Another thing that I know I and many others enjoy about Progressive is actually getting to see more of the game Sword Art Online. In the original series, the author had a tendency to skip around and only really focus on the main romance and a few minor side stories while in this story we get to see much more of the castle of Aincrad. It’s really interesting to see how things play out and what new floors look like not to mention mysteries that begin building up.

All in all, I think this is a pretty good read especially if you already like Sword Art Online or at least the concept it presents.

Sword Art Online Progressive 001 by Reki Kawahara

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Okay, confession time: I’m not really into Japanese anime and manga, or things like that. That is, until I read SAO, or Sword Art Online by Reki Kawahara.

To be clear, there are basically three adaptations of this book. One of them is a graphic novel, but this book, SAO Progressive 001, is a fictional chapter book that’s about 300 or so pages long.

To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have picked up this book if it hadn’t been for my friends, who are obsessed with Japanese manga and stories. The cover art is really cool, but personally, I just wasn’t that interested. One of my friends, who had read the book cover to cover about thousands of times, allowed me to borrow it. At first I was doubting it, but since the cover looked awesome (I know, don’t judge by a book by its cover! Sorry!), I decided to open it.

And then I pretty much didn’t put it down. The story is centered around the main character, a dark-haired swordsman named Kirito, shown on the cover. Next to him is a fencer, named Asuna. Sword Art Online is a a “virtual-reality” world game, where the player is transported into the gaming world, filled with monsters on each level of the hundred floors of a floating, chambered castle: Aincrad. However, there is no escape. Once you enter the game, there’s no way you can leave it. And the death toll begins to rise. 2,000 players are dead, killed by the monsters in the game.

As Asuna the fencer says, “There’s no way to beat this game. The only difference is when and where you die…”

Kirito meets Asuna in the beginning of the story, and over the events happening throughout the book, they form a sort of friendship. They’re not exactly a team, for they are both solo players, only working to strengthen themselves. But when fighting alone means certain death, will Kirito and Asuna overcome their differences and fight together to survive?

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for high-action, intense combat scenes against bosses, and a story that keeps you hooked in every page. Would you wish SAO was a real-life game that we could play? Anyways, I can’t wait to read Sword Art Online Progressive 002! I’m sure Reki Kawahara won’t let me down!

-Katharine L.