Sword Art Online

[MasterOfMoogles]

If you at all enjoyed the SAO part of SAO, you will almost certainly like volumes 5-6. I will warn you though, you will get more of Kirito being awesome.

Volume 7 is more Asuna-focused and has some interesting bits about using NervGear for medical purposes.

Volume 8 has flashback side stories set early and late in the series - Kirito's first day in SAO after he runs away from Kline, The murder mystery, and the the quest for the greatest sword in ALO - a good excuse to have all of the characters meet up and do something together.

Volume 9+ kind of take the series in a different direction starting a multi-volume arc spanning up to the currently released volume. While it has some interesting parts and interesting philosophical questions, it is a lot slower-paced. I don't like it as much as the original premise or Phantom Bullet. It kind of throws away a lot of the things that have been built up in the series so far.

Not to turn this into a LN discussion, but:
Ryll, I'm curious if there are some LN you think are very well written. I thought SAO was pretty on-par with the rest of the LNs I've seen translated. LNs as a whole seem to be very dialogue heavy and tend to leave it up to the reader to imagine the scenery or actions. I feel like none of them are spectacularly written, but I've been able to enjoy reading them despite that, though.
For reference, I've read: Haruhi, Zero no Maria, Gekkou, SAO, some of Index and Heavy Object (same author, and I really hate how this guy writes sometimes), Fate Zero (Urobuchi is probably the best), Tsukumodo Antique Shop.