I suppose I'm a couple years late to the party, but here I am, beginning my journey through UF.
I was on TV Tropes the other day, looking for some kind of crossover media to endulge in, be it official or fan made. From there, I came upon the page for this, and the description for it sounded like something I needed in my life.
I just finished the first story earlier today, and have started on the second. It's a bit weird to read, but I am enjoying it, and can assume that it keeps getting better. I'm not super familiar with Dirty Pair, Bubblegum Crisis, or any of the other series that have been mentioned so far, but the explanations have been good enough so far that I don't think it matters too much yet.

So, from what I've read around, it is recommended that I read the four core stories before anything else? Or should I read any other stories in between? After the four core stories, should I proceed to read everything in chronological order, or release order, or some other order? Are there any stories that should be skipped, or should I read everything?

LAST EDITED ON Jun-30-19 AT 09:54 PM (EDT)
 
Welcome newfriend. You are right that the writing gets better over time, but thanks to the unique way the universe was written, quality can be... uneven... at times.
If you have the time to read everything, read Core 1-4 then the rest in chronological order.
I’m going to be controversial here and recommend this if you have a strong desire to read in chronological order and not read everything.
Core 1-4
The Vocaloid Variations
Rite of Passage
The Vocaloid Variations: The Mother of Invention
Transformers: Flesh and Steel
Operation Archangel
Aegis Florea, Part 1: Commander Moreau
Star-Crossed
Split Infinitive
Manhunt
New Beginnings
Days of Miracle and Wonder
TWILIGHT
The Legacy of Korra Until Book 7
Aegis Florea 2: Commander Moreau Reprise
Symphony of the Sword No. 1: Das Lied von der Erde
Symphony of the Sword No. 2: Blood and Roses
Symphony of the Sword No. 3: The Unfinished Symphony
Shepard's 11
Bacon Comics Titans Vol. 1 No. 1: "Convergence"
Vault: Eyrie Productions Destroys the Marvel Universe
Lost and Found, or, a Time Lord's Holiday
Bacon Comics Titans Vol. 1 No. 2: "Welcome Home"
Bacon Comics Lensmen Two-in-One 2003 Annual: "Excessive Force"
Symphony of the Sword No. 4: Say You Want a Revolution
Bacon Comics Project Phoenix
Bacon Comics Raven: Blood Ties
Lensmen: The Brave and the Bold Presents "New Tricks"
Avalon 17 Presents Our Witches at War
CSI: New Avalon
Bacon Comics Rogue Squadron: Colonial Forces Special Flight Test Division
The Order of the Rose: A Duelist Opera
Last Transport
Lensmen: The Brave and the Bold Presents "Night of the Kissogram!"
A Lensmen: The Brave and the Bold Special: Weapon of Choice
Transformers: Cybertron Reloaded
Warriors of the Outer Rim

So Kris Overstreet and Martin Rose haven’t written anything in years, so while I’m not going to say that their contributions don’t need to be read, I wouldn’t worry too much. Days of Miracle and Wonder will make less sense if you don’t read Marty’s stuff. Parts of Twilight will make even less sense, but that might just be a sacrifice to be made.

If you have minimal time but can listen to stuff, say at work, several stories have audiobook type recordings that Gryph has done, listen to those in chronological order.
If you want to get someone else hooked/ stay hooked, play them the Symphony of the Sword audiobooks.

Happy Reading

LAST EDITED ON Jul-31-19 AT 10:58 PM (EDT)
 
Thank you for the recommendations!
Ideally I'd like to read it all eventually, I have plenty of free time. I will stick to chronological order since you mentioned it, and I'll definitely check out the audiobooks.
As far as my mention of stories to skip, it's more a matter of concern for potential storylines lacking conclusions, if such exist here.

>As far as my mention of stories to skip, it's more a matter of concern
>for potential storylines lacking conclusions, if such exist here.

There is, er, no shortage of those, I'm afraid, although the plan was always that most of them would get conclusions... someday.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>As far as my mention of stories to skip, it's more a matter of concern
>>for potential storylines lacking conclusions, if such exist here.
>
>There is, er, no shortage of those, I'm afraid, although the plan was
>always that most of them would get conclusions... someday.
>

As far as I'm aware, that still is the plan! It's just that "someday" has "a few provisos, some quid pro quos..."

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

LAST EDITED ON Jul-01-19 AT 00:35 AM (EDT)
 
Don't forget we have the consolidated mini-story Omnibuses, collecting earlier stuff on the mini-story board (though they're at least chronologically arranged in each volume). Some of them contain fully serialized stories, as well.

--- Philip

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here" Fandoms -- Fanart -- Fan Meta Discussions

>Don't forget we have the consolidated mini-story Omnibuses, collecting
>earlier stuff on the mini-story board (though they're at least
>chronologically arranged in each volume). Some of them contain fully
>serialized stories, as well.

Also, the last piece in each one wasn't on the Forum.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I started reading back in early 2000 and it took me two or three weeks THEN to read through everything. Now granted, there were a lot more active authors still then, and so I read everything. But yeah, you've got a bit of a task ahead of you.
Having said that, I would say that after you read the Core, read TWILIGHT, and then start into the Future Imperfect era, and go back and fill in occasionally as needed. There are some real gems in the earlier stories, but if you don't get the older references, you can probably skip them. YMMV, though.

>I would say that after you read the Core, read
>TWILIGHT, and then start into the Future Imperfect era, and go back
>and fill in occasionally as needed. There are some real gems in the
>earlier stories, but if you don't get the older references, you can
>probably skip them. YMMV, though.

Thank you for your input as well! I will consider this way of going about it. I think I might end up worrying too much about if I'm missing out on callbacks to earlier stories, but we'll see. Having more references to things I'm more familiar with is a plus to starting with the later stuff. I'll look into it.

>I started reading back in early 2000 and it took me two or three weeks
>THEN to read through everything.

In a similar vein, my advice is to start with the 4 'core' stories, then go back and read EVERYTHING else in the basic chronological order you see there. While they all were not written in that order (especially with the different authors) having all the, for example, Golden Age pieces in place will help when you move beyond Son-set into the Exile, and even more when you move past Core 4 and Twilight stories into the Future Imperfect (and beyond) stories. Don't worry if not all of these references make sense to you at first either, as the authors here gained experience they did an ever better job of making sure if something was obscure, there was a convenient NPC to exposit to.

Welcome! I'm going to leave the sequencing recommendations to others, because coming from me it might seem too prescriptive, but I hope you have a good time. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Thank you everyone for your input! And thank you everyone for the kind welcoming, this community seems pretty cool. It's also really cool to be welcomed by Gryphon himself.

It seems that the general consensus is to read in chronological order after the cores. I will probably just stick to that, it seems like the least complicated way to go about this. I will definitely read the short story omnibuses as well. Oh, and last thing, the audiobooks mentioned earlier, where can those be found?

Thanks again for all of the help!

>Oh, and last thing, the audiobooks
>mentioned earlier, where can those be found?

If you see the speaker icon () by the link to a story on the main website, that means there's an audio version of that one. You should be able to get them by clicking the icon. If it's not there, I haven't recorded that one.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>If you see the speaker icon
>() by the link to a
>story on the main website, that means there's an audio version of that
>one. You should be able to get them by clicking the icon. If it's
>not there, I haven't recorded that one.

Huh, I'm not seeing the icon next to any of the links. I checked the first Symphony of the Sword story, since that was a specific one that was mentioned, and the link for the audio version was within the story. I'm not seeing anything on the main website though. Is it that the icon is just blending in with the background so I'm not seeing it? Or is there some kind of error on my end preventing it from showing up?

>Huh, I'm not seeing the icon next to any of the links. I checked the
>first Symphony of the Sword story, since that was a specific one that
>was mentioned, and the link for the audio version was within the
>story. I'm not seeing anything on the main website though.

Hmm, you should be. For instance, this is what the top of the list on the index page for Symphony No. 1 looks like on my screen:

(and so forth)

Note that there's no audio link for the second prelude, because for whatever reason I've never recorded that one, but everything else in S1 should have one. (Other areas have less complete audio coverage.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Jul-01-19 AT 01:21 PM (EDT)
 
>Hmm, you should be. For instance, this is...

I see it now, goodness, sorry to trouble you. I forget sometimes when I'm not wearing my glasses, and it just blended together without me looking closely. Totally an error on my part.

>I see it now, goodness, sorry to trouble you. I forget sometimes when
>I'm not wearing my glasses, and it just blended together without me
>looking closely. Totally an error on my part.

OK, phew. I had visions of some weird config problem on the website, that's been there for years and no one's mentioned it before. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I'm going to disagree about reading in Story Chronological order, and instead recommend publication order. (Frequently new characters and plotlines get retro-added to the story as they strike Gryphon's or the rest of the staff's interest, and IMO it's clearer what's going on if you read in context.)

Symphony of the Sword is probably the best starting place, after the Core -- it's a major step up in quality from the '90s stuff.

I happen to have Marshall McLuhan the list you need assembled from the archives of the EPU What's New page, exactly because I wanted to read the EPU archives this way.

Scroll down to almost the bottom, and start reading from Wounded Rose, on 06/03/2001.

>I'm going to disagree about reading in Story Chronological order, and
>instead recommend publication order. (Frequently new characters and
>plotlines get retro-added to the story as they strike Gryphon's or the
>rest of the staff's interest, and IMO it's clearer what's going on if
>you read in context.)

Ah, thank you very much! I was hoping there was a list of everything in release order. Perhaps this is the best way,your explanation makes sense. I still have plenty of time before I finish the cores to decide which way to go about this, but I'll probably end up with this route.

Oh, yeah! That! I forgot where that was. That's probably the best way to read everything for the first time.
Also, if you are worried about spoilers at all and reading in release order, I wouldn't read Featured Documents, Annotations, or Mini Stories until you reach their release date, because there will be spoilers in, for example, the first Symphony of the Sword movement annotations for later Symphony movements that were released up to the release date of that annotation file.
Time! It's currently/going to be the boss of you!

Hey, welcome :-)

If you want to read in chrono order, that's cool; I tend to like hopping around when I read - either way, whatever is enjoyable is the Right Way to Do It.

Have fun!

Like several here, I've been lurking since the early 2000s; pretty sure I've read (and re-read) just about the whole archive more than a few times over the years. Chronological order seems to be the majority vote, and I feel no real need to rock the boat on that.

Though, imho, I feel it helps to have at least a little knowledge of the source material tucked into the universe you're about to get sucked into; Eris knows I had zero-clue about 90% of it when I started. Now, nearly two full decades later, I've a much better grasp on it. Of course, nearly every character from those canons that the UF-verse draws from are pretty much unrecognizable from where they started, but I like that about this series; it showcases tangible character growth.

Even if all you do is look up wiki entries for context, its a start; you don't HAVE to delve into the dozens upon dozens of different worlds UF taps for inspiration or characters. And who knows? Maybe you'll find more worlds to love and stories to explore in the process.

Welcome and Hello!

One of the resources not mentioned yet is the Forum itself.

You might find help in Annotations - not every story has one, but a lot of the references may get clarified - and in the Featured Documents section, which gives some of the in-universe background stuff that might help.

And you can always ask if something doesn't quite make sense or gel for you - while taking a thread over 50 replies can sometimes cause High Weirdness, it's not like we're paying for this stuff by the electron and bit.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

I'm still on the second Core story, I haven't read any more since my initial post. Whoops.
Anyways, thank you all again for the continued suggestions since my last post. It's really helpful.

I was here quite a bit ago. Well, you preserve and you crunch through text. Enjoy the history of the fandoms.

I still curse drakensis for seducing me here.

You are welcome.

>I'm still on the second Core story, I haven't read any more since my
>initial post. Whoops.

In the past couple of days, I've read more in my free time, and I'm a little over halfway through the second Core. I'm really loving it, and I'll try to finish it tonight.

Quick update. I've had a lot going on lately. I'm still reading the second Core, just very slowly. I've gotten caught up in reading other books and taking care of important matters.

I've started watching Robotech, and I'm loving it. I'm almost done with the Macross saga. It's better than I could've imagined, and it's reminding me quite a bit of UF, which I suppose is intentional.

I really should get back to reading though, I certainly haven't lost interest.

Update, I just finished the second Core, it was very enjoyable to read. I also finished the Macross Saga of Robotech last month. I started watching the Masters Saga, but I couldn't get into it, so I bought the novels adapting it which I'm really enjoying. I will get started on the third Core as soon as possible.

Update again!
I'm sorry that I keep posting here so frequently, please let me know if it's getting annoying.
Anyways, in the span of three days, I read the third Core volume. It was crazy, lots of things came unexpectedly, I'm thuroughly engrossed and will proceed to blaze through volume 4. I still haven't decided if I want to read the other stories in chronological order, release order, or if I want to pick and choose. We'll see. I'm just becoming a huge fan.

I'm actually from Massachusetts, and I get a bit excited when I find stories set there. That was part of the initial appeal as well.

Speaking only for myself, I am actually somewhat entertained by getting to hear the reactions of a new reader.

--dbrandon

So am I! I won't lie--I never reread Core again after my first read ages ago, but the later stories I read over and over again. I'm really waiting for the reactions to the newer material. =)

>Speaking only for myself, I am actually somewhat entertained by
>getting to hear the reactions of a new reader.
>
>--dbrandon

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

Ah, well thanks for your input regarding my input!
If there's an audience, I suppose I will continue with my updates. I'll try to be more thorough in my thoughts and reactions.

Today I read the first third of the core volume four. I'll probably read a bit more tonight. Ideally I'd like to finish it tommorow, but I'm shooting for finishing it the day after.
I'm enjoying it thus far. I read the description for the Exile era a while back, and I assumed some of it would be detailed in the core stories, I was not expecting a time skip between 3 and 4, not paying much detail to what happened in between. With that, I think my first priority after I finish this, will be to read some of the Exile stories, because I'm really interested.
ReRob became one of my favorite "characters" somewhere in the third volume, and his introduction with the band at the beginning of this one was really nice.
On that note, I've been wondering how much all of the characters differ from their real life counterparts (personality at least, obviously none of them really build or pilot starships).
Also, some of the detailed descriptions of the science and machinery throughout these has been going right over my head, I apologize, though I do recognize the effort put into such passages.

LAST EDITED ON Oct-26-19 AT 06:30 PM (EDT)
 
Vaughn, my other favorite "character" made a wonderful entrance.
Where I'm at now, Ben just killed Largo, he's recovering, and one of the Bumas is talking about redeeming Genom as just a corporation and giving up fighting.
All is good, but there's around 70 pages left (I downloaded the txt file and am using an ebook reader application for convenience). I predict that Zoner is going to die.
When Vaughn walked in on ReRob2, MegaZone2, and Gryphon2, they were talking about how to end the story. One of them mentioned having Iczer-1 come back, and another mentioned having someone get close and fight Largo personally, both of which happened. Zoner mentioned having himself die, which hasn't happened yet, and I dread that it will soon. Please nobody tell me if I'm wrong or not.

Edit: Right after posting this, Iczer-2 came back. Someone is definitely going to die.

Edit: Nobody died

I don't think anyone here is likely to drop any spoilers! At least not in this thread. There's a lot of discussion elsewhere on the forum, of course.

dbrandon

>When Vaughn walked in on ReRob2, MegaZone2, and Gryphon2, they were
>talking about how to end the story. One of them mentioned having
>Iczer-1 come back, and another mentioned having someone get close and
>fight Largo personally, both of which happened. Zoner mentioned having
>himself die, which hasn't happened yet, and I dread that it will soon.

Heh, that conversation really happened (up until the part where Vaughn showed up), and as I recall, Rob and I shot that idea down pretty much immediately. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>Heh, that conversation really happened (up until the part where Vaughn
>showed up), and as I recall, Rob and I shot that idea down pretty much
>immediately. :)
>
>--G.

I'd assumed that the other two ideas were also shot down until they happened, I couldn't be too sure if the third idea was actually shot down. But I'm kind of glad that it didn't happen.

Okie dokie, I have finally finished all four Core volumes! That was a lot of fun. I love this story. I have no idea what I want to read next, I'll look through the suggested reading orders again.

LAST EDITED ON Oct-28-19 AT 01:15 PM (EDT)
 
For now going in chronological order, I'm halfway through One Vision. It's much shorter than the Cores, and thus far, much smaller scale. It provides a much different and more personal experience, being written by one author, as well as him being an author who didn't previously work on the Cores. I'm enjoying it so far.
With more threads being made, I don't want to trouble anyone by spamming the forum and keeping my thread at the top, so I think my updates will be more sporadic.

Edit: Finished One Vision, I loved it, it was really nice and sweet.
Did The Stage ever get made? If so, where can I find it?

I read them in publication order, so I'm really interested in your reactions to a chronological read-- some of the stories that take place next to each other were written years apart.

dbrandon

Well, I may just skip around. If I enjoy a story that has a continuation, I may skip straight to the sequel even if there's other stuff in between. Or if I like something by a certain author I may seek out more of their works. But for now the plan is to somewhat go through it chronologically. I'm also open to suggestions for specific stories that stand out that are really good and worth reading first.

Some of the big secondary chunks might be good if you're skipping around-- Twilight, Road Movie to Naboo, Manhunt, or if you're feeling ambitious you could jump right into the Symphony. It might depend on if there are stories featuring characters/fandoms you already know.

dbrandon

I just finished Hammer Time Book One, and I loved it. Chances are, most of my reviews will just be me saying that I love the story.
Anyways, Martin is a great protagonist. Very amusing and relatable. I wasn't expecting such a focus on Transformers, but I certainly didn't mind it. "A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one," as they say. It was a good introduction to that part of this universe, and it seems Transformers have a bigger focus in later stories.
I will no doubt read Hammer Time Book Two next.

I took a bit if a hiatus to read more of my Robotech novels. I also got around to watching Robotech the Movie, it was a pleasant surprise to see Eve pop up. I plan to watch the original version of Megazone 23 soon.

Today I finished reading Hammer Time Book Two. It was pretty great. Eiko is a cool character, spies becoming friends isn't a trope I mind. I wonder if her backstory is true, or fabricated memories. I believe it was addressed earlier on, or maybe it's just something I thought of, I'm not sure.

I can't decide if I want to move on to Exile and read Book Three, or if I should read the rest of the Golden Age. I'll definitely take suggestions. Chris Meadows is listed as an author for Hammer Time Book Three, should I read The Universe According to Chris first at the least?

>I took a bit of a hiatus to read more of my Robotech novels. I also
>got around to watching Robotech the Movie, it was a pleasant surprise
>to see Eve pop up. I plan to watch the original version of Megazone 23
>soon.
>

A good plan. I've survived without watching all of the source material, but it does deepen the enjoyment.

>
>Today I finished reading Hammer Time Book Two. It was pretty great.
>Eiko is a cool character, spies becoming friends isn't a trope I mind.
>I wonder if her backstory is true, or fabricated memories. I believe
>it was addressed earlier on, or maybe it's just something I thought
>of, I'm not sure.
>

Nothing we've ever seen says her backstory is fabricated. At this point, it should be clear that she's been told lies.

Also, if you want to keep going down the rabbit hole of source material, Eiko is from Project A-ko. I've never watched it because the summary on the box didn't grab my interest, but my tastes are not universal.

>
>I can't decide if I want to move on to Exile and read Book Three, or
>if I should read the rest of the Golden Age. I'll definitely take
>suggestions. Chris Meadows is listed as an author for Hammer Time Book
>Three, should I read The Universe According to Chris first at the
>least?
>

I'd recommend reading The Universe According to Chris first. Chris and Katie are part of Book Three, and I think it would help to have the introduction.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

This is all very helpful, thank you! I will surely move on to The Universe According to Chris then.

I don't plan to endulge in all of the source material, only things that interest me and aren't too long. I'll also definitely be checking out Bubblegum Crisis soon. I'm not sure if I'll end up checking out Project A-ko, it doesn't seem super interesting to me either.

>I'm not sure if I'll end up checking out
>Project A-ko, it doesn't seem super interesting to me either.

The first one is very silly, and was originally scheduled to be part of a somewhat infamous Japanese series called "Cream Lemon" - the earliest hentai series, really - and then it got de-porn-ified. It's light fluff, and there's a lot worse ways* to kill an hour and a half.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

* Like some of the original Cream Lemon series! It wasn't good.

For some reason I thought A-ko was a series. Seeing that it's a fairly short movie, I will most certainly check it out. Reading about it more, I think I am interested.

I believe it's a series of movies. At least that's what the RPG told me. (Yes, there's an RPG. The 90s and early 00s were a magical time.)

>For some reason I thought A-ko was a series. Seeing that it's a fairly
>short movie, I will most certainly check it out. Reading about it
>more, I think I am interested.

It is a series of movies, some are sequels to the first, (which stands alone very well), and others are a completely different storyline, (and setting), that happens to use the same characters.

I've finally finished reading the Robotech Masters novels. They were very enjoyable. Hopefully there's nothing too important from the show that wasn't included in the books, or anything too major that was made up for the books but not in the show. I shall start New Generation soon. I plan to watch the show. From what I've heard, that saga of the show isn't too bad. As well written as the novels are, I'm an extremely slow reader, it's taken me around five months to read this 500 page book, I don't think I can commit to reading more, I have other books I need to get back to reading.

Anyways, I'm on a holiday break for a couple of weeks, I should be able to read a few UF stories in that time. I started Universe According to Chris a couple months ago, I shall finish that as soon as possible.
Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) popped in my head the other day, which got me back to thinking about UF.

I've finished The Universe According to Chris. I wasn't a huge fan. I wasn't expecting it to directly mention One Vision or Hamnertime, so that was neat, thankfully I read those first. I've started TUAC 2, which I'm enjoying a bit more so far. I'm not sure what I'm going to read after this, I don't want to step into Exile without reading all of the Golden Age stories first. I've already broken chronological order, so I suppose that's not a priority. I'll consult the old suggestions for ideas.

In other news, I've started reading the Robotech the Sentinels comics, which I'm loving, and I've started watching The New Generation saga of Robotech, which I'm also enjoying. I got the Robotech Ace Pilot game, which I hesitate to call a board game or a card game, because it doesn't have a board, and barely deals with cards, but those are the only things I can think to describe it as. I've also gotten a cool SDF-1 shirt, which is specifically Macross rather than Robotech, which I suppose I should get around to watching eventually as well. Robotech has become an obsession for me, all thanks to you folks.

Today I finished The Universe According to Chris part 2. I much prefered this one, and I look forward to reading Mako's other stories.

I started watching Megazone23 part 1 the other day, I watched the first 30 minutes and haven't gotten around to finishing it yet. I wasn't really enjoying it much, I think I prefer the versions of the characters in Robotech the Movie, but we'll see. With how well received it is, I'm sure it'll get better later on.

I have started the first Redneck story, which will no doubt take me a long time to read. I wasn't expecting it to be so long. It's longer than the first 3 Core volumes, and only a bit shorter than the fourth. Heck, it's longer than the first two combined. And those each took me a long while to read.
But at least I'm enjoying it so far, and it's well written.

> With how well
> received it is, I'm sure it'll get better later on.
>
>I have started the first Redneck story, which will no doubt take me a
>long time to read.

to be honest JRZag, I found MegaZone-23 to be a real downer. Really kind of explains why UF-Zoner can be so given to angst, as UF-Gryph accuses him of doing?

EIther way I cant blame Zoner that much because I am having a really bad day, even if not as bad as Son-Set was for the UF Crew?

I still haven't gotten around to finishing MegaZone23 part 1, I keep watching other things. I haven't read much UF lately, I keep reading other things. I plan to change this soon.

>to be honest JRZag, I found MegaZone-23 to be a real downer. Really
>kind of explains why UF-Zoner can be so given to angst, as UF-Gryph
>accuses him of doing?

That is interesting, I wonder if it's an intentional connection.

>EIther way I cant blame Zoner that much because I am having a really
>bad day, even if not as bad as Son-Set was for the UF Crew?

I hope that things have gotten better for you since!

I've been struggling to get any reading done the past few months. I've started two books, didn't get far in either, meanwhile I have a book that I started reading probably over a year ago that I'm only halfway through and haven't touched in months. On top of that, there's UF which I've been neglecting. I picked up Redneck Quagmire Project again earlier today, I'm halfway through, I intend to keep up with reading it.
I finished reading what I physically own of the Robotech II: The Sentinels comics, which is Book 1, or the first 16 issues (plus the two issue wedding special). I'm quite enjoying this comic series.
I forgot to mention here, I got around to watching Project A-Ko. I did not enjoy it.
I have Wing Commander a shot, I am not good at it. I did not play for long, I need to give it a more serious attempt sometime.
I started watching Buckaroo Bonzai some months ago, but I had to stop for some reason and never got around to finishing it. I will try to soon, it's very enjoyable.

I'm very surprised how much this series has impacted me in the past year.

Update on Buckaroo Banzai, I've since watched it twice, it's now one of my favorite movies. Also I'm around halfway through book 2 of The Sentinels.

So I've really been struggling through Quagmire Project. I'm a very slow reader and it's very long. I've taken a break from it to read some shorter stories. I read Stolen Time which was heartbreaking...
I'm currently about halfway through Vocaloid Variations, I'm really enjoying it.

A few days ago there was this virtual panel for Robotech's 35th anniversary featuring the voice actors of Rick, Roy, Lisa, and Minmei. It was very nice to watch, somewhat insightful and fun. Again, I wouldn't care about Robotech whatsoever if it weren't for UF, so thanks a lot. In recent months I've spent way more than I should've on Robotech products, such as a signed hardcover of some of the Sentinels comics and all of the Sentinels novels. Robotech is taking over my life.

Eh. I know that I'm gonna get booed here, but I'm rather lukewarm towards Robotech. Ever since I learned about the difference between Harmony Gold's somehow-it-works kludge of three different franchises, and the said original media franchises that they used from Japan, I've been much more of a Macross fan.

Fun fact about Macross: all the movies, tv series, games, and such? They're the in-setting dramatizations of the in-setting events! In other words, if you were actually in the Macross universe and you felt like watching the dramatized retelling of Space War 1, then you'd be watching the very same show you would here! (That being fist series, Super Dimensional Fortress Macross.)

Yeah, it's meta as all hell, almost to the point of being trippy. But it sure gave them a heck of a lot of wiggle room for creative license, though, and explains very much why the visual style shifts so much from one series/movie/game to another. (The utter outlandishness of the series, Macross 7, makes soooo much more sense in this context.)

Wowzer, it's been over a year since I last posted here. Unfortunately I can't say that I've read any more since then. Heck, I haven't read much of anything lately.
In the time since then, I have graduated from highschool, officially decided against college, and have begun my first job, which has been going well.
Anyways, being done with school, I have far more free time than I've ever had, and I've been thinking about getting back into reading this stuff. I'm constantly reminded of these stories, be it from hearing mention of certain anime, or hearing certain songs, UF has definitely made an impact on me, for better or worse, pretty wild.

>UF has definitely
>made an impact on me, for better or worse, pretty wild.

You are (not) Alone. While the active folk might be less now than then, Yes, UF has made an impact on many, many, people.

Even if some claim it was a negative impact. (thinking that whole crypto lesbian thing... 5{?} years ago?)

>Even if some claim it was a negative impact. (thinking that whole
>crypto lesbian thing... 5{?} years ago?)

(Bob Newhart hesitant stammer) More like... more like 20.

--G
ye gods
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I wasn't around for that on account of being an eight-year-old.

...

Look, I know I'm reformed now, but I still get one Feel Old Dammit per quarter. =]

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

now i just gotta send gryph 25 cents

>
>Look, I know I'm reformed now, but I still get one Feel Old Dammit per
>quarter. =]

I buy mine wholesale from Costco, it's the only way I can afford 'em. And canes, too. Back in my day canes for shaking at the kids on the lawn were free!

--sofaspud
--my kid was just barely too young to grok UF at the time. Barely.

>I wasn't around for that on account of being an eight-year-old.
>
>...
>
>Look, I know I'm reformed now, but I still get one Feel Old Dammit per
>quarter. =]
>

When you get to my age, the Feel Old Dammit rises to once per DAY.....

Craig

Wow, I've been here since '96! I'm olllllld.

*****************************
****
I'm really here, but I'm not
here, really.

25.807 - The square root of
all evil.

If I remember correctly, I also found UF in 1996.

Amusingly, it was by putting "sunos undocumented features" into, um, I think it was AltaVista that was the state-of-the-art Web search engine at the time? I was trying to sysadmin with almost no training, in way over my head, and hoping the net.gods would bestow me some kind of Clue.

I didn't find what I was looking for, but I got hundreds of hours of entertainment (spread over the time since) instead. :-)

Hah... I wasn't alive in 1996, I wouldn't exist for another 6 years. I'm going to go on a whim here and guess that I'm probably the youngest member here currently.

I started writing Otaku Rising with Cor in '94, so I must have read UF before that, which probably makes me one of the oldest regulars who aren't a contributor. :)