Accel World - Volume 5 - Chapter Aft

AFTERWORD

Reki Kawahara here. Thank you for picking up Accel World 5: The Floating Starlight Bridge.

First off, I have a confession. At the beginning of book three, I noted that there already existed a space elevator in the setting of Accel World, but my apologies! At that time, I hadn’t done any kind of technical investigation into this. I simply wrote it because I got carried away with the vague idea that of course they would have space elevators at least in 2047, but then I thought that I should get around to making that the setting for this volume, and when I belatedly checked it out…I was fairly stunned and sort of stuck…

In fact, the so-called space elevator still hasn’t left the realm of a thought experiment, and it definitely doesn’t look like it will become a reality in the next thirty or so years. The details for this are explained by Kuroyukihime in the novel, so I’ll omit them here, but I’ll say that I did retort “An asteroid for a counterweight!” to the NASA person and grew quite pale.

Fortunately, there are some researchers who have put forth somewhat more practical ideas, and Hermes’ Cord appearing in this volume is modeled on those. However, there is also apparently a huge problem with the hypersonic skyhook I used as a model…but what the problem is is not written in the book. So I’m going to act like I didn’t notice it.

At any rate, this was a valuable lesson in “when you write about something, first check it out!” In the next book, a fairly young new character will probably show up, so I’m going to work hard, check into a bunch of things, and discuss with my esteemed friend A-yama-sensei.

I’m writing this afterword on April 10, that is, the deadline for the seventeenth Dengeki Prize. Which means a full two years have passed since I brought the envelope (well, it was actually an ExPack) with the first Accel World manuscript in it to the post office.

To be honest, at the time I submitted it, I thought if I won some kind of prize, that would be the finish line. I never thought that it would actually be a new starting point and that I would keep churning out manuscripts after that…Of course, I am super, super luckyyyyyy to be able to write these, but I can’t help but be sort of baffled sometimes. Exactly where is the finish line on this Thunder Road?

And to my editor, Miki, who has been so kind as to guide little lost me with the deepest patience; my illustrator, HIMA, whom I am always messing with with my many troublesome requests; the manga artist Tatsuya Kurusu, who was kind enough to take on the design of the new avatars; and to you for sticking with me this far, giga thank you!!

Reki Kawahara

April 10, 2010