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.