AFTERWORD

Nice to meet you, or long time no see. This is Reki Kawahara. Thank you for reading the first volume of Isolator.

This is my first new series in the five years since my debut in 2009, but just like another of my works, Sword Art Online, this book is based on a work that was serialized on the Internet. I’d like to start off by writing about why the book was released at this point, when both SAO and Accel World are still being published.

There are two major reasons. The first is that, although I put Isolator (the title of the Web version is slightly different: Isolation) on hiatus while it was still incomplete, it’s been stuck in the corner of my mind ever since my pro debut. If I had to say one way or the other, I tend to be the type who writes stories under pressure, so I was always concerned that I might never start writing it again if I abandoned it at this point.

The second reason is an issue of capacity.

For these past five years, I’ve basically published books at a rate of six books a year, putting one out every even month. This wasn’t really something I decided from the start. When the end of the year approaches and my editor and I discuss the next year’s schedule, it concludes with me declaring my intentions by saying something vague like, “Well…let’s do things the same way we did this year I guess…”

That’s why I didn’t think much of it when, at the end of last year, my editor and I agreed to do one less book in 2014 for a total of five books. This was because the time it takes me to work on one book has gone up in comparison to the start of my debut and because it seems like my work outside of publishing will be increasing. However, afterward, a feeling of doubt or maybe hesitation bubbled up inside me. I wondered, Is it okay to mess up my pace this easily? Before I decrease the number of books I publish, shouldn’t I do my best for as long as I can?

Even I don’t really understand what point there is in getting hung up on six books. Maybe it’s just that I’m randomly afraid of having something or other change when I do five books. In any case, that’s when I thought of taking the existing manuscript of Isolator, doing the minimum amount of editing, and turning it into a book. I thought if I did that, I could release one more book without putting pressure on my schedule.

Of course, before that, I had to get my editor to read the manuscript and look into whether it would be right for publishing. Luckily I received the okay, so I dove right into the editing.

However, the portion that seemed suitable for the first book was a draft from ten years ago, so parts that bothered me just kept coming up… I tried to fix everything that I could within reason, from small things like sentence composition and phrasing all the way up to big things like establishing characters, but before I knew it I’d rewritten more than 90 percent of the manuscript.

Naturally this took more time than either SAO or AW. It put intense pressure on my schedule, and I got to hear things like, “I knew this would happen…” from my editor. Still, I have no regrets. I feel that I poured every last drop of the light novel skills I currently have into this book, so now the only thing left is to hope that you all will enjoy it.

I’ll end the discussion of the publishing process here and talk about the content a bit as well.

If we were to summarize Isolator by genre, would it go into the “supernatural battling” category? I’m both surprised and impressed by myself from ten years ago; he allowed himself to just write using the twist-free premise of “young men and women with mysterious abilities battling evil and powerful people.” However, when I think about it, my other two works don’t have any big twists, either, so instead of giving up on this book as being just that…I plan to be positive and move forward like I’m pitching a fastball as hard as I can.

If there was a part that could somehow be thought of as a twist, would it be the main character Minoru’s ability? It’s called a “protective shell” in the book, but more simply, it’s the embodiment of something else: Who didn’t, as a child, cross their arms in front of themselves and shout, “Force field”?

…I apologize, I guess that’s not really a twist after all…

It’s a complete protective ability that might seem a little strange for a main character. However, for me this was a rare series where I also wrote quite a bit from the enemy’s point of view, so this adds the element of powerful enemies trying to figure out how to conquer Minoru’s complete protective barrier. I’m working so hard to accumulate ideas that I even asked all of you to let me know through Twitter or letters if you had any great ideas about how to conquer it. Still, since the publication of Zettai Naru Kodokusha originally started from coincidence, it still hasn’t been decided when the second book will come out. Before that, the publisher is still undecided about whether or not to put out the second book… But for now I’ll say that all I can do as the author is try my hardest! With that, I hope to see you for the second book that will (probably) come out someday. The subtitle for this one will be “The Igniter.”

To my editor, Miki, who went through so much trouble and concern and annoyance because of the process I explained earlier, thank you for taking such great care of me! To Shimeji, who again took on a variety of difficult tasks involved in illustrating a light novel and who provided cool, beautiful, and impactful illustrations, thank you so very much! And just one more time here at the end, I’d like to ask all of you to cheer me on!

A certain day in April 2014

Reki Kawahara