Hello, this is Reki Kawahara. Thank you for picking up Sword Art Online 4: Fairy Dance, my eighth published book.
This two-volume story was both a continuation of the story from Volume 1, and a very, very long epilogue. At the time I started writing it, I was only planning on having it be about the hero, Kirito, searching for and finding the heroine, Asuna. But the more I added to the story, the longer it grew in the telling.
One of those features I tried to explore was the question, “Can you write a novel just about playing a normal RPG?”
At the time I wrote SAO Volume 1, I thought that an RPG story required something extra to work as a proper novel. After all, no matter the terrible odds the hero faces in a game, the person controlling him in real life doesn’t suffer a single scratch. In order to sidestep the dual issues of “it’s just a game” and “you can start over at any time,” I came up with the concept of the game of death: Dying within the game means dying in real life.
But there was a part of me that wondered if this was really true. If an RPG novel isn’t worth it without a catch like that, then what does that say about all the thrills and chills I’ve experienced playing MMOs? Were they false emotions? I wanted to try evoking the excitement and fun I had when my friends and I formed a party and challenged our first dungeon. That ended up being a large creative theme within Fairy Dance.
I suppose you’ll know whether I succeeded or not if, having just turned the final page, you feel like trying out an MMO right now (ha-ha).
The very straightforward “virtual-reality online game” SAO series is going to take a big shift in the next volume, whether that ends up being ill-advised or just plain chaotic. Those readers who enjoyed the taste of the original story might be extremely confused, but I assure you that Kirito will continue to be the unchanging core of the series, so I hope you’ll continue to partake in his adventures.
Once again, great thanks must go out to Abec for her delicate illustrations of all the new characters and monsters, and to my editor, Mr. Miki, for putting up with my terribly late submissions! And all the rest of the gratitude remaining in my hard drive goes out to you for reading this!
Reki Kawahara—January 28, 2010