If I may, let me recommend a novel to you: Sword Art Online: Progressive (I’m talking about the novel, not the manga—the manga completely botched key parts of the story, ignored the amazing Asuna’s character development, and for some reason threw in silly clichés that don’t even exist in the novel, and don't even get me started about the movie...).

Yeah, I know—it's Sword Art Online. The series that most anime influencers love to hate, and honestly, they’ve got a point in some areas… And not in others, ~~some even lied about watching the anime for real, and talked as if they had deep knowledge about RPGs~~.

BUT hear me out: SAO Progressive fixes pretty much everything that made the main series a drag. I even dropped the main series around Volume 21 because the endless love triangle nonsense wore me out, and it felt like it was just going in circles with the author having to invent new ideas on how to progress the work.

Progressive, though? It's everything I ever wanted. Let me break down all the ways it’s different and, honestly, even an upgraded version:

• The balance between the girls and guys is way better here. For pretty much every new female character introduced, there’s also a guy who’s just as important to the story. It makes everything feel way more natural, unlike the main series, where it’s basically five girls for every one guy. Sadly, this is a problem with a lot of light novels these days...
• The attention to detail is on another level, and the story even has a layer of mystery—especially in Volumes 4 and 5. Every little detail introduced ends up mattering, especially when it comes to the quests. Volume 5, in particular, was the peak of this.
• The character development is fantastic—pretty much every character important to the arc gets some growth, even Kibaou. Yeah, that "annoying" guy with the spiky hair who only showed up once in the anime. And Asuna? The Asuna from Volume 1 feels like a completely different person compared to where she is now. She even goes through two distinct phases of personality, with some really interesting dilemmas. This is one of the reasons I can’t stand the movie or the manga—they completely butcher this aspect.
• The RPG mechanics are a huge highlight here. If you’re a fan of RPGs, you’re going to love this. A lot of stories that try to incorporate these mechanics end up making them boring or forget about them halfway through. Progressive is different—the author clearly puts serious thought into the mechanics and how they can be used. There’s some really fun theorycrafting going on, and you can tell he spends a lot of time figuring it all out. What’s even better is that every mechanic introduced eventually comes into play—not always in the same volume, so it doesn’t feel like a cheap asspull. Honestly, a lot of these mechanics are so cool, I’d love to see them in a real RPG or MMO.
• The Worldbuilding of Aincrad makes you really interested in the lore of that world, we have so much conflicts in the NPCs that it even represents the players, I can't say much more about the Worldbuilding besides the fact that each floor is a whole new experience, you would need to read to understand really, but it will be fun, mainly and especially with the Quests being so well-made and interesting.
• The story is so well-paced that I’ve literally missed my bus stop and even skipped a few classes just to keep reading. One time, I accidentally ended up in another city—no joke, lmao. But honestly, I loved every second of it and regret nothing.
• The boss fights are definitely one of my favorite parts of the novel. I’ve played a ton of RPGs, and I can say these fights are truly unique. The boss in Volume 4, in particular, has to be one of the most creative I’ve ever seen. Each fight brings surprises, and trust me, they’re always something totally unexpected—and often pretty terrifying for the characters (and the readers, too).
• Bonus point: The novel really dives into the different sides of the characters in SAO and explores their motives in a way that adds depth. And just to clarify, I’m not talking about the "harem"—because that doesn’t even exist in Progressive, and it looks like it’s going to stay that way, thank God...

But, you might say "The ending is already decided," and you’d be right in some ways, but honestly, the story has diverged so much from the main series at this point that it feels like anything could happen. It’s almost like a parallel universe within the franchise. The only real downsides I can see are that there isn’t a big "major plotline" outside of the Kayaba Akihiko stuff (which, in my opinion, I don’t think Kawahara is the best at handling on a grand scale). Progressive is a better fit for his style, which is why it works so well. Also, there’s some fan service, but the vast majority of it is Kirito/Asuna, which, in this case, makes sense and feels justified.
If you have any question about the novel, give me a heads up, I will happily answer, I know that a most people have reasons to not read it cuz it's "SAO", one of the only popular animes in MAL/AN with a low rating, but I can guarantee you that you are wrong and probably got wrong info about it, just ask me anything about it.
You are also welcome to send me your reasons on why you disagree with any of my points, I encourage the discussion.

Editions:
04/01/2022: Corrected some grammatical errors that annoyed me and added some nice details, old version(1st Edition) is here.
22/04/2022: Removed some excessive parentheses for commas, old version(2nd Edition) is here.
26/12/2023: Christmas for some reason always reminds of SAO and SAO:P, re-watching Aincrad at this time is pretty nostalgic, I recommend it, (3rd Edition) is here.
12/15/2024: Changed the pacing of the review, the old one had some parts that made the reading part unbalanced... (4th Edition) is here