A review by aconfundityofcrows
Accel World, Vol. 1 (light novel): Kuroyukihime's Return by Reki Kawahara

3.0

An interesting premise but the pacing was too slow at the beginning for me. I really would have liked if it gave a bit more worldbuilding than it did. I know this is only the first book but I don't feel like I have have a good enough idea how this world works. I just think more setup is nessacary so that when something about the world becomes relevant to the plot it doesn't feel shoehorned in because it was the first time it was mentioned in the story. In the story the two main characters Haru and Kire are walking down the street when they are almost hit by a car. Haru meantions how thay is unusual because the cars are automated and drive themselves. Someone would have to hack the software to make the car go off the street. This scene is the first time that the audience is told that self driving cars exist in this world. It's sudden and a bit jarring and could have easily been fixed by causually meantioning it earlier in the story. The main character walks down several streets prior to this, so it would be easy to make it sound like a description of the scene or something. This may seem like a nitpick but it is just one of the minor problems of the story that end up adding up to bigger ones and making the book less enjoyable.