>I'd just skip the first story, but it pretty much sets up
>everything after that; I read a few pieces of some other story,
>Twilight of the Gods, I think, and had almost zero clue who was what
>when and where.

I'm not sure, but I suspected if you started with The Long Road (Core 2), you wouldn't be all that lost. I mean, the Wedge Defense Force doesn't even get founded until midway through that one.

OTOH, it's not much better than Core 1, so I'm not sure how much that would help.

>Or would I have to read through a great
>amount of dross (I apologise if I'm hurting your feelings, guys, but
>Core 1 is olllllld; your writing skills have improved immensely
>since you wrote it. Not to mention there's the whole injoke angle
>still.) to have any clue about the good stuff?

If you read UF, you have to read through a great amount of dross anyway. If you're dross-averse, stay out of the Exile directory entirely. And don't read any of my FI material except Twilight and the Symphony. Or my Golden Age stuff, except Rite of Passage.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor in Chief, Netadmin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/