And that's a good thing.

I think it's been remarked on before in the forums -- in fact, I'd not be surprised to find that a full thread has been hashed out, rehashed, left in the fridge for a week, hashed again, and finally left out for the vultures to pick over.

But it's a fresh realization to me.

Reading through the recent Symphony works, I discovered that I like them more -- way more -- than I like the original UF. That's not to say I suddenly dislike the core stories... but the Symphony works, and, to a lesser degree, the whole Twilight arc, really seem to me to be more mature, more well-thought-out, and better-written than their counterparts.

In fact, what I'm noticing (and this is all My Opinion Only, here, obviously) is that, as the characters in the story get younger (Kate and Utena in SoS, Priss and Sylvie in Cybertron Dreams, etc), the story itself seems more mature, deals with more personal details than the original stories.

Or, put another way, the original UF stories -- and bear in mind that I've not yet found a specific place that I can point to and say, "Here. Here is where UF grew up." -- felt like flights of fantasy through the authors' wildest dreams, whereas the later works (especially recently) feel like something real, almost. As if it really happened.

I can't quite describe why I feel this way about the new pieces. Maybe it's because they've come down out of the stars. Instead of focusing on the Grand Scheme Of Things, they focus on a small set of characters, people with their likes, dislikes, feelings, adventures, emotions, the whole nine yards. I can identify with that much better than I can with, say, the Greatest Starfighter Pilot in the Galaxy. (Much as I would, in fact, like to be able to identify with said character... ;)

What this all boils down to, I suppose, is simply this: Thank you.

I've always liked UF. Now, I like it even more.

--sofaspud
--

Without soundling like I'm saying me too, I do need to add a Me too to that, Spudster.

When you consider the sheer volume of works (Both in titles, series, and K-bytes) that EPU has produced over the last 10 some years, I'd be suprised if their writing style HADN"T matured. You simply can't write as much as they have without learning a few things along the way! That's also why you can't point to a single piece and state that "this is where EPU grew up", because there isn't one! Its been an ongoing process from the time they sat down with this wierd idea of "Hey, lets write ourselfs a story about Us" and first commited Undocumented Features to bytes to now.

Now, having both expressed our great love for the way the prose has continued to improve, If you'll get back to getting TotW 2-10 up, I'll be sending 2-11 to submissions@sofaspud.org in the next couple of days... And I'm about 20-30% through 2-12 as well.... :P

___________________

Vaughn doesn't know I exist. I guess this explains why the rest of reality keeps ignoring me as well. >_<

>When you consider the sheer volume of works (Both in titles, series,
>and K-bytes) that EPU has produced over the last 10 some years, I'd be
>suprised if their writing style HADN"T matured. You simply can't
>write as much as they have without learning a few things along the
>way! That's also why you can't point to a single piece and state that
>"this is where EPU grew up", because there isn't one! Its been an
>ongoing process from the time they sat down with this wierd idea of
>"Hey, lets write ourselfs a story about Us" and first commited
>Undocumented Features to bytes to now.

You know, I just said as much in a private email to Gryphon a week or so ago. I've been writing seriously for about 21 years, not counting some half-hearted stuff in high school in the late 70s. (Yes, I'm almost 40. Anyone want to make anything of it? <grin>) Even though I have had no small success with my writing -- twelve years of professional sales, including fiction -- I really don't think my skills have evolved and improved as much in that period as the Eyrie crew's collective and individual abilities have in half that time.

Frankly, I'm envious, and I told Gryphon so.

(I sometimes wonder what starting my own version of UF will do for my skills... then I realize that I don't have enough time left in my life to add that kind of monster project to the mix... DW is enough for now...)

-- Bob
---------------
Maya: Isn't there anything we can do?
Ritsuko-chan: Well, there is one thing we haven't tried. We can pray real hard!
-- from Tenshi Muyo! Rei-o-ohki

>You know, I just said as much in a private email to Gryphon a week or
>so ago. I've been writing seriously for about 21 years, not counting
>some half-hearted stuff in high school in the late 70s. (Yes, I'm
>almost 40. Anyone want to make anything of it? <grin>) Even though I
>have had no small success with my writing -- twelve years of
>professional sales, including fiction -- I really don't think my
>skills have evolved and improved as much in that period as the Eyrie
>crew's collective and individual abilities have in half that time.
>
>Frankly, I'm envious, and I told Gryphon so.
>

I'm only 4 years behind you, age wise anyway; I don't have near your experiance. I've just started writing seriously in the last 2-3 years, as in sitting down at the WP and saying You WILL get this out, making deadlines for myself, etc. My only sigh is that I know my stuff will never get the recognition level... that sort of feedback is what helps writers gro, and I think is part of how it is the GweepCo has come as far, as fast as they have.

___________________

Vaughn doesn't know I exist. I guess this explains why the rest of reality keeps ignoring me as well. >_<

Alot of the enjoyment I got from reading UF for the 1st time was watching the writing styles and story concepts evolve towards what they are today. I also like that despite how primative their early work is, they are able to build on it with their current more refined writing style.

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Whoa! What IS it?!