Reddit reviews Accel World, Vol. 1: Kuroyukihime's Return - light novel (Accel World (1))

Other works of fiction that contain the concept of a metaverse;

Books

• The Otherland series, by Tad Williams, beginning with City of Golden Shadow (sidenote, this series also has an MMORPG based on it, currently in closed beta, and recently (October of last year) brought back from the dead)
  
  
• The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons, beginning with Hyperion.
  
  
• The Golden Oecumene, by John C. Wright, beginning with The Golden Age.
  
  
• Accel World, by Reki Kawahara, beginning with Kuroyukihime's Return. (If you are familiar with the manganime Sword Art Online, this is by the same author, and shares the same universe)
  
  
• This Alien Shore, by Celia S. Friedman. (amazon link)
  
  
• The Sprawl Trilogy, by William Gibson, beginning with Neuromancer.
  
  
• Accelerando, by Charles Stross. (free e-book link)
  
  Anime and Manga
  
  
• The .hack series, specifically .hack//SIGN
  
  
• For a lighter feel, there's Summer Wars (available on CrunchyRoll) and the INCREDIBLY similar second Digimon movie, Our War Game!. Also I guess by extension, but not really explored as much, the entire Digimon series, as it takes place in an analogy for the internet.
  
  
• Serial Experiments Lain
  
  
• Okay fine, here's Sword Art Online (CrunchyRoll link)
  
  Film
  
  
• The Singularity is Near, a speculative documentary based on the Ray Kurzweil book of the same name.
  
  
• The Thirteenth Floor, a crime thriller about the owner of a VR simulation company getting murdered.
  
  ----
  
  I know I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the genre, because if there's one thing humans are good at, it's writing fucktons on what we like.
  
  So feel free to comment additions to this list, or opinions on what I've currently included. I have by no means read/watched all of these, so having someone with actual experience with each of these weigh in would be nice.

You can buy them on Amazon. or Barnes And Nobles (Only first book at the moment; second comes out November, and you can preorder from Barnes and Nobles)

> So I quite liked Accel World anime, but I'm almost 100% sure there won't be another season...

fyi, the studio behind it said (during a panel at a AX) that they want to make another season of Accel World and more Horizon. But they've been busy as hell making Love Live! in it's many forms so they just didn't have a lot of time. An Accel World season 2 would appear later next year at the earliest, but I imagine you don't wanna wait that long.

For reading the light novels, they have been licensed in the US (Volume 2 comes out in November, Volume 3 in March) Here is a site for fan-translations though I don't know how far it is and I can't vouch for the quality. Also, from what I gather, stay away from the manga adaptations (it's LN original) unless you really want to read them. I don't think any translations (manga or LN) are farther than the anime though, so be prepared to read stuff that you'd already seen.

Not too uncommon; most series that get an official translation are very popular. But don't be disheartened! You can look into older series.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Toradora, Guin Saga, Kino's Journey, Shakugan no Shana, Slayers(or try here), Gosick, Seikai: Crest of the Stars, Adventures of Duan Surk, Zaregoto, Psycho Busters, Full Metal Panic. Note here. I have not bought from rightstufanime, but they have older out of print stuff.


For newer stuff that I neglected to include, The Irregular at Magic High School, Black Bullet, Strike the Blood, The Isolator, [Trinity Seven](http://www.amazon.com/Trinity-Seven-Vol-Magicians/dp/0316263672/ref=pd_sim_14_19?ie=UTF8&dpID=51CzJOSWijL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=1Q3F3Y76HEVKVT3ER83G], Durarara, Accel World.


For your brother saying he read the previous lsited items already, I think he could appreciate Baccano and Rising of the shield hero. The shield hero fan translation is the webnovel, and there is a bit of diversion, and the light novel version is better edited, in my opinion.
Baccano had the first novel somewhat translated, but that did not continue (to my knowledge).

So ask him about these new titles, and the 2 I mentioned again. But remember if you choose one, triple check its the light novel version.

>I also think like many other light novels they weren't officially translated and sold in the west

The official release of the Accel World novel in English is today, it got licensed a year ago.

Bookdepository

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Accel World - Supposedly similar to LMS/ARK. I haven't read it yet.

EC - MCs (there are 4) ended up getting tricked as newbs in a game called Second Phantasia, became level 0, get tricked again, now they are stuck running an academy in the game.

Half Prince - A female MC that ended up with a male avatar in a VRMMO with some elements similar to Ragnarok Online.

Key of the Sunken Moon - It's on my "to read" list. As I haven't read it yet, I can't give a quick summary. Not sure how similar to a game it is.

Master of Monsters/Monster Tamer - Entire school get warped to another world. Everyone is granted an ability similar to those in games. They were attacked as soon as they got there, eventually setting up a safe zone. But that all broke apart when the ones with ability started an expedition and the remaining people turned on each other. MC, on the verge of dying, ended up taming a slime. The story go on from there as MC starts his non-human family. Warning: Might be Too Gruesome/Dark for some people.