As a native speaker of mandarin, i am lucky enough to enjoy the novels without needing to wait the long translation time or the english translation of the book. Although the first story about Aincrad have seem to be unorganized and messy in structure due to its original purpose is for a novel contest, the story construction skills of Reki Kawahara is something that is definitely worth praising. Both the ALO arc and GGO arc provided a thorough and organized storyline, that are easy to read, understand, and enjoy. Kawahara together with his incredible skills of building tensions and setting the mood while reading, shown in book 7 (mother's rosario) cause the story to be attractive for readers that doesn't reject sci-fi or fantasy stories since the whole timeline is based on future with currently undeveloped technology.

The illustrator abec's work is fantastic, with each page of illustration builds up and add on to the feelings or mood that Kawahara wants to present, like the illustration for return of Kirito at the near end of the UW arc, and the scene of Yuuki laying in Asuna's lap at the end of Mother's Rosario.

For english readers that are still waiting for translation of the Alicization/UW arc, the story is definitely worth the wait. The whole arc could be a master piece in the category of light novel. The complicated yet understandable setting and plot connected with the illustrations of abec is just pure enjoyments when reading.

Reading this arc was so enjoying that i wouldve want a brain wash so i can re-read the series again.