"SAO: Aincrad"

Author: Reki Kawahara

Language of the book: English

First Published in: 2009

This is my first experience reading manga. I'd watched anime (but haven't finished it) before I decided to buy a book.

If I hadn't watched anime before reading, probably I would say the book was awesome. But I can't. However, I loved reading it. It was a joyous experience. The plot for me was quite unusual - as it took place in VR world. It has reminded me of some of my thoughts, how from time to time I would lovet to ran away somewhere into another world, be it a real or virtual world. Nevertheless, characters in the book didn't have really a choice. 

Perhaps, my favourite stage was 9, where Asuna and Kirito met Yui. This chapter was so sweet and sad at the same time.  The most unexpected revelation for me was just before the book has ended. Who'd knew that the bad guy would be exactly him...? For me it was a total surprise. 

I enjoyed reading the development of Kirito character from a lonely wolf to a guy more open to friendship. Their tensions with Asuna were fun to observe too, especially their marriage talks when you know that they're just teenagers it was a little bit strange but cute. What truly kept me reading  were the actions of heroes that they were not just sitting lots of a time and doing nothing, but the were pretty cool sword fights. 

I never was a big fan of a comic like books, where there minimum of text and lots of black and white drawings. Nonetheless, I've seen the hard work behind this drawings and awesome outfits that Asuna and Kirito were given to wear, and just the look of epic monsters and the Aincrad world itself. I loved the drawings.

Conclusion was as expected that the two good main leads win at the end, however the end is left open to see what happens with Asuna in the next book series ...