That's what I did when I first discovered UF. It's... not an experience I would recommend, since you have to be willing to endure all the in-jokes (and later all the angst) before you can get to the well-written parts.

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"V, did you do something foolish?"

"Yes, and it was glorious."

Oh.

So, like NXE's mockery of NGE, something that is there on purpose.

Yes, I fear Mr. Geth is in for some rough sledding. :)

--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.

Technically, zeerust is usually understood to mean things that are dated now but were futuristic when they were created, i.e., not deliberately retro-futuristic (think TOS). Though, as with all neologisms, whether this is worth splitting hairs over is debatable.

As for NXE, it's clearly a love or hate it kind of story, so given that it was a purposeful mockery, I guess I can dial down on the disgust for it, now that I know it was intentional.

When I first read it, I thought it was a serious Mary Sue rewrite of the series, but now that I know it was parodic in nature, I can amend my position, especially since that was the whole point.

As for the "Zeerust" that made me cringe, I'm one of those types that can adjust, I'm just one of those types who likes the Zeerust to have some clear justification (the Fallout series is a good example of that) up front, and having read awhile into SotS, I now understand the logic behind it and have gotten over it.

To be honest, I am rather cynical by nature, so forgive me if I came across as overly negative, but I went into this expecting the worst, and to my surprise, Symphony of the Sword turned out to be surprisingly good, my initial trepidation aside, and while I've been made aware the earlier parts of UF are rough around the edges and not all of the series is as high quality, I'm willing to be open minded and keep that in consideration.

I would also like to apologize if I offended anyone with my bluntness.

> I'm GethN7, one of the senior administrators of the All The Tropes wiki
I'm a guy who has a website, too!

> I apologize if that sounds harsh, but I have to admit this colored my desire
> to read anything else produced here, but Vorticity convinced me to give SotS
> a try anyway.
Luckily, I left out the part about the crypto-lesbians.

>>You may wanna avoid the UF core; I like it, but it's rife with in-jokes,
>> weirdness, and it's about 20 years out of date.
>> ...
>>If you wanna try reading it all chronologically, then well...
>>may God (or your higher power of choice) have mercy on your soul.
>
> That's what I did when I first discovered UF. It's...
> not an experience I would recommend

I still don't understand the CORE hate. It's not the most well-written part, to be sure, but it's still fun to read. And it's still produced a stable framework upon which hundreds of stories have been built, which is pretty damn impressive for a story intended to be a big in-joke for a few friends.

The core stories are like being invited into someone else's social group, and getting to see how all the people interact and have fun. And then getting to think about how you could be a part of such a cool crowd. Like what Utena and Miki and Juri felt when joining the WPI band geeks.

>Anyway! This post is such a mixed bag of aggressive disdain and cautiously
>backhanded praise that I'm not even sure how to engage with most of it, but I
>guess I'm glad you're enjoying the Symphony in spite of itself? I don't know
>for sure. It's hard to get a read on whether you're pleasantly surprised or
>just feel dirty. :)

LOL! Having worked with Geth-kun, let me sum it up: he is in love with the Symphony, abhors NXE, and cannot reconcile the two opinions. Since Geth-chan can't synthesize a clear opinion without additional Geth to help on the calculations, he just kind of word dumped whatever was going on in his head (which sounded polite internally, anyway).

>Just to be clear, I'm not a total putz.
Dude it doesn't work when you're saying it yourself.

>I would also like to apologize if I offended anyone with my bluntness.
No one was offended, just confused. Again, welcome.

Just a minor clarification: I happen to like the Core (and its glimpses into this particular social group's dynamics), I was just offering fair warning that it's ...well, dated, to put it mildly. :)

Just to be clear, he's not a total putz.

-- Bob
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My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying I wouldn't recommend starting with it.

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Hey, I esemble that remark! (About Battletech anyway...):)

Craig