SAO Progressive volume 6 read:

SAO Progressive volume 6 is finally available in English today, over a year after it came out in Japan, over at Amazon.

This wasn't a very good book.  It was good enough to read in one day, which means it was able to keep my attention for the most part, but it isn't up to the standards I expect of SAO.  All the work they did on all their previous floors was undone in an unfair instant.  The game mechanics are totally broken and swingy -- why is there an item that can paralyze an entire raid available for any old user to invoke at will? -- etc.

It feels less and less like a well balanced, well designed game and more and more like a series of deus ex machinas the characters are simply tossed about within.

I guess the only good thing was the picture of Asuna bathing. . . plopping seven dollars down for that seems reasonable. . .

But I'm not very enthusiastic about Progressive anymore.  I think the first four were excellent, but these last two haven't been.  I'll keep reading because it's SAO.  SAO isn't something you can afford to miss any bit of.  But the charm is gone.  I hope Reki doesn't actually intend to make this series 75 volumes long to match every single floor of Aincrad. . .

Frankly, Gundam: The Origin was a much better story than this SAO volume.  Granted, anime will always be more fun than reading books, but still. . .when you're losing to Gundam. . .