Reki KawaharaSword Art Online Progressive 6 (light novel) (Volume 6)

I had been looking forward to the English language release of this book, which concludes a floor arc started in book 5 - however I was badly disappointed. The "Progressive" arc started out brilliantly in book 01 - that's the book that began life when Reki Kawahara was informed by the producers of the 2102 anime that they needed some additional story material to fill in the huge gap in the previous SOA saga between Kirito's very first day in SOA versus his joining the Moonlit Black Cats, many floors later. He came up with the story of how Kirito & Asuna first met; a very-well adapted & abridged version of this story is presented in "Beater" in the anime; however the original, longer "light novel" version he wrote is worth reading for its own sake. Kawahara says in an afterward that writing this longer story was the origin of the whole "progressive" version of the story, in which he plans to take Kirito & Asuna upward floor by floor, in great detail. In other words, same characters (with a similar relationship at the beginning), same world, but a different story in the details.Not a bad idea - or so I thought when I started reading. And books 02 through 05 were definitely enjoyable, I found. However I did notice that both the writing & the English translation started to get a bit sloppier with each book. And alas, here in book 06, both the writing & translation have fallen down to an abysmal level. Book 06 totally fails to advance or deepen the developing relationship between Kirito and Asuna - if anything, they seem to regress in how they see each other - and not in a meaningful way. What we get in place of any meaningful character development is an action-only plot - and not only that, an unconvincing, sloppily written plot in which many of the key details simply do not seem credible. An example of this is the way Kirito manages to get his hands on (and then lose) the precious 'keys' that the Dark Elves are dedicated to collecting & keep safe - he doesn't even bother to first consult their trusted friend/companion, the elf warrior Kizmel. This made zero sense to me & I really began to lose heart as a reader - I did manage (despite the boredom) to make my way to the end of the book but there was nothing along the way to redeem the experience of having done so.It's as if Kawahara at this stage wants to just crank out copy for the $$, without bothering about quality. I haven't even looked at his other, non-Aincrad light novels with their various story lines, as it seems pretty likely they are also just being cranked out. Sad, because when he takes his time, he can be an entertaining author.When I think about it, though, his plan for the "progressive" arc to write an entire book for Kirito & Asuna's adventures in conquering each & every of Aincrad's 100 floors was probably bound to fall apart. That is just too much material for it to remain dramatically interesting - especially if (as seems to be the case) he can't be bothered to write more deeply & interestingly about the romantic involvement of the two lead characters. The original version of the SAO/Aincrad arc succeeded in part because it *wasn't* too long & therefore it was possible to show their involvement moving along in stages that were emotionally satisfying to viewers/readers. Dragging it out over 100 floors is just not going to work - alas. I will take a peek at 007 when it comes out in English just to see if he manages to recover from the disaster that is 006 - but I'm not hopeful.

The second part of Floor 6 was finally finished in this volume and what a ride it's been.This volume focus a lot of the quests and very advanced "NPCs" there was a lot of foreshadowing, not only for latter event in this same volume, but for events happening 2 to 4 years later in the main story, even in 2nd half of alicization.This Volume was all from Kirito's PoV but damn it was an enjoyable and fun narrative overall.Kirito's unspoken jokes, his nicknaming habits and even his dorky reactions are always fun to read.There was several interesting plot going on at the same time with a good chunk of mystery, 2 big fight ( a group battle and a boss battle )Definitely worth my time and money, 5/5 recommend for any fan of the old volumes.

I'm not saying it's bad by any means. This one just felt a little...drawn out. Personally in games, I don't care for tons of puzzles. A well places puzzle here and there, cool. But an entire floor where everything is a puzzle within a puzzle is just too much. The quest started in the last book continued into this one, taking the entirety of the book, which kind of bored me. It took a while to come back and finish it once I set it down the first time.That being said, I did enjoy the elaboration on the quest, just probably would've preferred a more entertaining quest than Curse of Stanchion. I also enjoyed the thought behind it, of what if the quests would change and evolve depending on outside influences. That was neat, again just a better quest would have helped, in my own opinion.Overall, still worth the read and I still love this series, I just got a little bored with the puzzles in this one. Next!

My 11 year old is a huge fan of the sword art online series, with exception to the newest (alicization) because of its higher content rating. Anyways, she has enjoyed reading the progressive series and only wishes the books come out faster! She gets upset with cliff hangars and re-reads every book before the next in the series comes out. Keep them coming!

After seeing what's next, I had to get back to the progressive novels and I'm so glad I haven't speed read through them yet. I missed reading about Kizmel and am really glad we get to read and learn more about her!!! One of my go to books before going to sleep.

One of my favorite parts about SAO is that it dabbles very subtly with some weighty topics of AI, individuality, death and reality. This book played well with the notion of “what is human” as it became harder to determine if the NPCs were truly just automatons following a script or maybe more “alive” in a very observation, personality sense.

One of my favorite authors, and I'm so glad he is continuing the SAO: Progressive line of light novels.

Another great volume by Mr. Kawahara. Very much enjoying the ride this far. Keep up the great work! I hope to see the next volume soon!

Progressivo é a série que todos pediram, cada um dos 100 andares de Aincrad explorados com cuidado e mostrando como é a vida durante os anos que 10 mil pessoas ficaram presas em SAO.Cada um dos livros até agora vem contando mais ou menos um andar por volume, Progressive 6 nada mais é que a continuação de Progressive 5 que acabou de maneira rápida, de acordo com o autor ele teve que dividir os livros para evitar que ficasse apenas um volume muoto grande (o que não é recomendado para LNs).Felizmente Progressive 6 consegue recuperar o fôlego e terminar o sexto andar de maneira digna, trazendo para os livros um elemento importante e único do anime (não vou dar spoilers). É notável também como Kawahara melhorou como escritor desde os primeiros livros mais de uma década no passado.

As continuation of vol. 5 this Light Novel finish the story of floor 6. The fight's are tricky and new characters get involved. And our beloved "we aren't a pair" couple have a reunion with Kizmel.

Kirito und Asuna auf dem Weg zue siebten Ebene. Ich liebe ihre wachsende Beziehung und auch wie sie mit ihren Mitstreitern agieren. Schade, dass progressive nach dem 6 Band Schluss ist. Hätte auch den siebten, achten oder neunten verschlungen. Das englisch ist wunderbar gut zu verstehen.

Another decent continuation for the progressive series. Fans will enjoy.

Nesse volume é finalizado o arco do 6º andar.Historia continua muito boa e ediçao no mesmo padrao das anteriores