Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6863431-20150103062825/@comment-11188061-20150410012450

Again, the problem with SAO isn't that it's bad. The original award winning short novel - which is exactly that, it's meant to be just one book and done - was good I I quite enjoyed the pacing despite the wildly differing timelines.

But when they try to serialize it and instead of trynig to expand on the first book, went ahead and talk about what happens after while filling details in SAO with short stories, that's where it goes horribly wrong. Ironic that the only novel that fits its title is the first/original one. Everything else is after SAO.

Alicization is basically what SAO should've been, except that it has lost its charm when you try to repeat the same plot a second time to 'fix' your mistake. I'm just waiting for Accel World (from the same author); that one is worth reading.