u/goldybear

As I continue my current reread of PFH’s entire bibliography I wanted to point out one book where he strays from the norm. In just about everything he’s written PFH has a character who is some combination of ultra wealthy, a ruthless capitalist, an outgoing entrepreneur, cavalier, dislikes (or at least sees it as inferior than themself) the government, and this person usually plays a large role in saving humanity when governments have failed. Nigel Sheldon, Gore Burnelli, Ainsley Zangari, Joshua Calvert, Ione, etc.

The one exception is Great North Road. In this story the only person who truly understood what humanity faced and actually could solve the problem was the Marxist living on a commune habitat who has rejected his brothers capitalist outlook because it holds back true human growth. Sure he is only able to start it all up because he inherited/helped build the largest company ever but PFH goes out of his way to show that it is his economic and social system that gives humanity the tools it needs. It’s just a neat outlier.

The other thing is just silly. As I went through Salvation I was imagining what Ainsley Zangari would be in the world we inhabit and it’s just horrible to think about lol. Imagine if Jeff Bezos was going around every day saying that Mexicans are shifty bastards who are secretly out to destroy us. He makes this well known to the point that even other racists look at him funny. He’s so paranoid that he begins secretly building nukes to use against Mexico. Then at some point it turns out he is right and every Mexican immigrant is actually an enemy agent who has been plant bombs/spyware in all American construction projects.

Laying it out in real world terms really makes you understand why everyone thought he was a nutter until shit hit the fan lol.

The main thing is the first time I was so engrossed in the storylines and keeping up with everyone (it was my first PFH books) that I didn’t realize just how many storylines could be completely removed and it either wouldn’t change a thing or would only require minor tweaks. I’m honestly amazed than an editor let all of that through for an author that was still up and coming at the time first.

The biggest, despite the second book being named after her storyline, is Dr. Alkad Mzu. In then grand scheme of things her story has absolutely zero relevance to the actual A plot of the possessed. It’s just a side quest that went nowhere and just gave Josh something to do in between adventures. She was virtually irrelevant in the sleeping god mission so she could have just been written out altogether.

The Skibbows are could be completely removed with almost no changes. All he would have had to do is make Kiera any other possessed woman taking charge like Eckland. They didn’t even achieve their goal in the end. It’s was just a side story that went nowhere and affected almost nothing.

Mortonridge would be tougher to remove but it could be done. I wouldn’t just because of seeing the post-physicals helps to give an answer to the beyond. You either need that story or Valisk but honestly either could go as long as you have the other.

Lastly Louise was irrelevant other than just adding some world building for Mars and Earth. A quick change of having Josh end o with Ione or Syrinx and bam. No need for Louise.

I truly enjoy the series and really like almost every storyline, but it was just weird realizing that they really don’t connect with each other as much as it felt like the first time around.

First off, the absolute most cringy relationships in all of PFH’s bibliography are the Justine/Kazimir and Melanie/Orion. For J and K is just fucking weird that a 2-3 hundred year old woman just says alright I’m going to bang is 17yo uneducated cult boy for 2 days straight and proceeds to be obsessed with him for 1000+ years. She has issues.

As for M and O I found it so contrived that they got together in the end considering they had one day of interaction before that and suddenly Melanie (who has grown and matured through the whole book) just decides to get with this teenage weirdo with zero life experience outside of the paths.

Next, Ozzie was so damn stupid at the end of Judas by trying to save MLM. All he did was either give it a painfully slow death(so still genocide) or leave to advance until it can break down the dark fortress and be an existential threat all over again. He was already annoying in CS but damn Ozzie was insufferable in void. After the stint on The Spike I lose all good will I have towards the man.

Paula is awesome in CS and Fallers but again PFH just decided to make her annoying in void. Idk why but a lot of returning characters were weird in that one.

The Cat is a great villain. She’s silly yet still menacing at the same time. It also helps that I like to project one of my cats as being The Cat lol.

I got really really tired of the Silfen after a while. There is a point at the end of void where Gore sees a silfen while he is trying to ascend and he tells the other alien to ignore that loser and gives it the finger. That perfectly encapsulated how I felt about them by that point. They are fucking do nothing losers who in the grand scheme of things contribute very little compared of they screen time.

While Gore is the antithesis of everything I am and believe in, I still absolutely love the character. The man is so damn funny that I was excited every time I got a Gore chapter.

Fallers were an awesome villain but it did find the whole “Sky lords are just void evolved fallers” thing to be a bit dumb. It just doesn’t make much sense that they would adapt into that of all things.

The first time I read void I absolutely hated all of the Edeard stuff but I have come to really appreciate it. It’s a lot better when you know it’s there and aren’t surprised and wondering why you are getting all of this fantasy stuff in your space opera.

If you listen to the audiobooks, John Lee makes a number of errors. He calls Inigo “Indigo” and the Pass Through “Pass Throw” a bunch of times. There are plenty more but I did void last so those are still fresh.

I had several more things when I finished yesterday so I may come back to add more later. For now I’ll just end with a ranking of them.

1. Commonwealth Saga
2. Chronicles of the Fallers (Abyss is peak)
3. Void

The city has been adding new sidewalks around me for the last 3 months. Today they started on mine while I was at work and upon coming home I see they fucked up my sprinkler system, tore up one garden, used my hose, completely removed a large holly bush that’s been there since I was a kid, and decided this part of the sidewalk needed to be halfway up to my house rather than at the curb like the rest.

Who exactly am I supposed to bitch out about this? I sent my councilman a message but for the day to day operations person would it be the street maintenance dept? Is there a different dept that deals with the sidewalks?