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Sword Art Online 1: Aincrad

By: Reki Kawahara, Stephen Paul
Narrated by: Bryce Papenbrook
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Summary

Check out the novel that ignited the phenomenon!

In the year 2022, gamers rejoice as Sword Art Online - a VRMMORPG (virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game) like no other - debuts, allowing players to take full advantage of the ultimate in gaming technology: NerveGear, a system that allows users to completely immerse themselves in a wholly realistic gaming experience. But when the game goes live, the elation of the players quickly turns to horror as they discover that, for all its amazing features, SAO is missing one of the most basic functions of any MMORPG - a logout button. Now trapped in the virtual world of Aincrad, their bodies held captive by NerveGear in the real world, users are issued a chilling ultimatum: conquer all 100 floors of Aincrad to regain your freedom. But in the warped world of SAO, "game over" means certain death - both virtual and real....

©2017 Reki Kawahara (P)2021 Yen Audio
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What listeners say about Sword Art Online 1: Aincrad

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Superb

Like many I watched SAO when the anime began to air, started to enjoy the games and read the manga.

It had never dawned on me though to read the LN. Till I saw the book had been published on Audible - highly enjoyed it and will absolutely be continuing the series.

Bryce Papenbrook reads like the pro he is!

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is a great listen

I've watched the anime and every line spoken I could envisage the correlating scenes, well narrated.

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Good story even better performance

The story is overal good and nice to listen to. However there are some issues. Some of those are just the story and can mostly be for given this being the authers firs novel and all.
Some thing I like to see though is the female voices getting performed by a female actress (I would prefer cherami leigh because she voices Asuna in the English dub of the anime). Bryces female voices are funny to listen to but are not very easily take seriously.

Thes are the only complaints u have however.

If you liked the sao series or want to get in to the series(be it book or anime) i recommend picking it up.

I am very much looking forward to the next audio book in the sao series.

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enjoyed

this was a fun listen Bryce papenbrook did a great job , I'd recommend this audiobook.

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Hurry up and complete the series

Absolutely amazing can't wait for them to make the rest of the series avaliable. Will be buying as soon as they drop

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Good Story, OK performance.

The narrator was really good but having him voice the female characters was a mistake and massively took me out of the story.

I've heard they get the female voice actor from the anime for vol.2 onwards so that should be a huge improvement!

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Bryce’s performance is marvellous

This is a fantastic audio edition of this story I have watched read and now listened to every version of this story numerous times and in each version I find something new to love about it.

This time it was undoubtedly Bryce Papenbrooks heartfelt performance of the material and hearing Kirito himself tell his story was a special experience.

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  • Overall
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Awesome to hear Kirito reading as Kirito, but not some much as Asuna… 😅

As a hard anime and light novel fan I absolutely loved this audiobook rendition! My only complain is Bryce’s honestly painful rendition of Asuna’s voice. Please oh please bring in Cherami to handle the female characters, or any female VA honestly. I know this series is planned to be continued as an audiobook, but given how many more female characters and POVs will be introduced in the next volume alone, please hire a female VA to handle all their voices! Biggest stickler! I know many SAO friends who instantly stopped listening as soon as they heard Bryce’s Asuna. I myself powered through, but only because I already know the story and played this in the background. Otherwise, all of Bryce’s work for the majority of the book, absolutely fantastic job! Great emotion! Great story telling! I personally thought Klein’s voice was a little low effort, but wow some of the voices surprised me as super awesome/well done! Daizan and Nishida were my surprise favourites!

TL;DR: Fantastic job! Except… female/Asuna voice sounding painfully bad! Just hire a female VA and this would be a 9/10, otherwise it’s a solid 7/10 for me :D

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Love SAO so much

The SAO series as a whole is amazing my personal favourite. The audio is amazing hearing it from the English dubbed voice actor of the anime is brilliant but hearing him do the female voice is a bit off maybe asuna voice actor would be better for it.
Anyways it’s amazing and totally worst the credit.

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Fantastic!

What a amazing book, so Iv seen the anime series and also read the manga but never have I the original story and it just brings it all to life again, the voice acting was great, nothing I can really complain about, I remember you reading this even if a first time seeing it you don’t need to watch it just listen to this story then go watch the animated series!

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