Is the SAO LN badly written?

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I've been listening to the English audiobook for SAO volume 1(can't read a book while commuting in a car), and aside from being annoyed by the narrator (probably just me being personally annoyed by their voice), I've also been disappointed by the writing. I wasn't expecting a literary masterpiece, but it's just sort of blah? I'm not sure if this is just me comparing the story progression and pacing to the anime. But, you get a more nuanced view of Kirito in the anime. In comparison, the book has the standard intro to the world (episode 1 of the anime), then it immediately jumps to Year 2 in Aincrad with the Ragout Rabbit (episode 8).

So, has anyone read the original LN in Japanese, does the story come off better than the English translation? Or is it pretty similar? Do the later volumes get better? Or do people feel, it was just the fans falling in love with the world, and less the writing itself? Maybe it's just my personal failure to understand how the LN system works, and that's how they're all written.

Hopefully people don't think I'm badmouthing it, maybe the LNs just aren't how I personally should be experiencing the story. I'm just trying to decide if I should put any more time into cotinuing, or if I should just give up.
 
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I've been listening to the English audiobook for SAO volume 1(can't read a book while commuting in a car), and aside from being annoyed by the narrator (probably just me being personally annoyed by their voice), I've also been disappointed by the writing. I wasn't expecting a literary masterpiece, but it's just sort of blah? I'm not sure if this is just me comparing the story progression and pacing to the anime. But, you get a more nuanced view of Kirito in the anime. In comparison, the book has the standard intro to the world (episode 1 of the anime), then it immediately jumps to Year 2 in Aincrad with the Ragout Rabbit (episode 8).

So, has anyone read the original LN in Japanese, does the story come off better than the English translation? Or is it pretty similar? Do the later volumes get better? Or do people feel, it was just the fans falling in love with the world, and less the writing itself? Maybe it's just my personal failure to understand how the LN system works, and that's how they're all written.

Hopefully people don't think I'm badmouthing it, maybe the LNs just aren't how I personally should be experiencing the story. I'm just trying to decide if I should put any more time into cotinuing, or if I should just give up.
??? IT WAS THE SHIT BACK IN 2011.
 
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??? IT WAS THE SHIT BACK IN 2011.
yeah but its not 2011 anymore and you're not 15 anymore :boomer:
(idk, I thought at the time I wayched it that the first and second season were alright, the incest plot line was weird tho. but personally if I could, I would also place my fetish in my very sucessful story but I'm also not into incest so...)
 
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I remember reading this on baka tsuki many moons ago honestly it was just a time killer but in my personal experience listening instead of reading a book hits different maybe you should read it instead and if you still don't like it then just drop it
 
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Original SAO was always mediocre timekiller if you have absolutely nothing else to do. I have to admit that if you turn off your brain while reading SAO it's fine. But as soon as you start questioning "why?" it becomes... I won't say bad but very mediocre. I have no idea whhy is it became so popular.
However I find somewhat entertaining GGO arc (Sinon isn't the reason 😏).

PS. my first "rule of thumb" - even if everyone praises your newly picked LN be ready it will turn out to be shit.
Don't forget every LN is planned to be selfinsert timekiller.
 
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For me original season 1 SAO pretty good. It was new concept at the and the most similar one at the time is No game No life (gosh I miss that anime, it's good but no fucker want to make another season of it). Like for me the concept getting trapped into fantasy game world is wild. It's had pretty good potential if not milked until today and if the freaky romance didn't happen, just let Asuna be the one and only heroine is fine but they gotta make it harem and even the sibling (man what with Japan and incest). The harem really a turn off for me, it's become more and more mainstream anime. With more similar genre coming up and isekai fatigue it didn't help. I stopped watching at season 3
 
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Chapter 16.5
e-boy.gif
 
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You cannot say light novels and well written in the same sentence.
You can actually. But chance are like uhm 1 out of 1000? Like Spice & Wolf or Miniskirt Pirates or Crest/Banner of the Stars. I won't say these are masterpieces but really good. IMO.
 

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