Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be inside a game? people everywhere have always wanted to be inside a game or at least considered what it would be like to live in one. In this day and age there are games like MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing games) where people can customise their very own characters and travel the online fairytale worlds where they can participate in adventures, quests, they can conquer dungeons, fight monsters, meet new people, just about anything but you can't actually experience this firsthand because it is limited to the fact that you cant actually live inside the game, only watch it through a screen.

However this story is set in 2022 where technology has advanced to the point where virtual reality is possible, where people can travel into a created world and experience things just like in reality. Nerve Gear helmet, helmets that connect your brain and receives your 5 senses and relays them to an online world, are used by gamers in this age however not many games have been released yet until a genius by the the name of Kayaba Akihiko, the man responsible for the invention of nerve gear, creates a new generation MMORPG by the name of Sword Art Online (SAO) which revolutionised the MMORPG genre, and created a completely different genre for games called VRMMORPG (virtual reality massive multiplayer online role playing games) in these games the dream of living inside a game became a reality, but that reality was more than they had bargained for.

The story follows Kirigaya Kazuto, an anti-social game addict who jumps at the idea of the brand new game, when the game was released he bought the game and immediately logged in to this new virtual world, creating the online ID Kirito (*Kiri*gaya, Kazu*to*) , there he sees a brand new world in front of him, in this game the main objective was for players to cooperate with each other and clear the levels of aincrad by defeating the boss at each level, sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, they all applied in this world everything was realistic, there he meets a newbie to the game by the name of cline who he-despite having trouble getting along with others- befriends and teaches him the basics of the game, everything was fine until cline realised he couldn't log out, at first they thought it was a bug but suddenly they were both teleported to the town centre where suddenly everyone had declared they had the same problem, suddenly a figure appears in the sky (Kayaba) declaring that they could not log out until they had cleared all 100 levels of the game castle Aincrad, and that if they perished in the game they wont be able to restart as microwaves would fry their brains instantly in the real world and kill them if they were killed in the game or if someone interfered with the helmet in the real world, Kayaba had also declared this in the real world to prevent people from pulling the plug on the players...suddenly the virtual reality became a reality, as 10,000 people found themselves trapped, and as the appearance of the characters the users had created in the game suddenly changed to their actual appearance in the real world, people denied this reality and thought that help would come but none came, some tried to escape by committing suicide but whether or not it succeeded was unknown which not many players risked, this story follows Kirito on a journey to clear the levels of Aincrad and to save the online world where the harsh realities of the real world are depicted in this virtual world.

Would you like to live in a virtual reality? where you could live as a hero? where you could do anything you ever wanted that you couldn't in reality? even when death is also a reality?

the story for me is 10/10, anyone a fan of MMORPG can enjoy this, it starts off somewhat light hearted but it becomes a lot more serious as the story goes on with people trying to clear the levels, forming guilds, a police and forming an actual society in the game but this society doesn't just come with good guys who want to clear the game, in a struggle to survive and gather resources thieves emerge which leads to muggings, which leads to PKing (player killing) and with the cruel fact of dying in this world is real, many go crazy

the art...well this is a light novel so there aren't many pictures however the artwork is still very good and nicely drawn 9/10

characters 10/10 i can relate a lot to the main character Kirito's personality so i may be a little bias on this, the characters are brilliant as they all have their own goals and unique personalities, they all have their own opinions and points of view and each have their own unique past and lead different lives in the SAO game, Kirito leading one of the the most tragic lives......

enjoyment/overall 10/10, when i began reading, i couldn't stop (im on volume 6 now) , this is my first light novel and im glad it was my first as it has been very interesting and has a very unique story, i recommend it to those who like MMORPG's and people who want an adventure story with action with a slight bit of romance

first review so sorry if i made slight errors :P