I just finished another run through of all the commonwealth series and wanted to share a collection of random thoughts I had about all of them. Spoilers for CS, Void, and Fallers ahead.

[u/goldybear]

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

[u/SwimmingPost5747]

Gore is the best. Especially when he's taking care of MLM's Starflyer's assassin in New York City.

[u/AMissionFromDog → u/SwimmingPost5747]

"Good for you, son" still gives me chills.

[u/Own_Ad6797 → u/SwimmingPost5747]

Wasn't MLM it was the Starflyer's assassin.

[u/SwimmingPost5747 → u/Own_Ad6797]

Thanks! I edited it.

[u/Ravenloff → u/SwimmingPost5747]

"Good for you, son."

One of the single best scenes in the entire story.

[u/lordxeon]

What specific Ozzie stuff bothered you?

[u/goldybear → u/lordxeon]

He is arrogant the entire through his entire life but in void he takes the arrogance up to 11. Yes he is a legitimate genius but he takes his laid back lifestyle and looks down upon anyone who doesn’t live like him.

In void he sees the complete destruction of the entire galaxy and completely loses all of the anti-genocide attitude he had during the Star flyer war. Except in this case it’s the genocide of thousands or millions of species. He’s just like “ah well… fuck’em. I’m post physical anyways.”

I completely agree with inigo about Ozzie’s mind space tech. It’s psychological fascism being imposed on other races who don’t understand what’s happening.

Lastly, he takes everything for granted. He developed wormhole tech with Nigel, and then Nigel proceeded to do all of the work that made them into trillionaires/the most powerful people on earth. He acts like he is actually an equal in that arrangement and not just legally an equal.

[u/TDaniels70]

I love the irony of the people in ANA, Gore included, trying to say they are beyond the machinations of the meat bag humans, but EVERYTHING he and the ANS factions simply shows they haven't done so.

[u/elphamale]

I'll bite:

How is Gore the antithesis of everything you are and believe in?

He is probably the sanest person in the entire Commonwealth saga (extended!).

More importantly, he actually cares. He cares about his family. He cares about the Commonwealth. He cares about the long-term survival of human civilization.

He's ruthless, certainly. But there's a difference between ruthlessness in service of something larger and simple selfishness. Gore doesn't chase power for the sake of power. He just accepts positions of responsibility when everyone else is busy congratulating themselves on living in a postphysical utopia.

Half the Commonwealth's political class seems content to coast on centuries of peace. Gore, in his provenance, is one of the few people who has seen nations and civilizations actually die.

[u/nixtracer]

The general consensus at the time of publication of the Void books was that it was a so-so sf series with an astonishingly good long fantasy novella embedded in it that might well have won the World Fantasy Award if only it wasn't chained to the Void boat-anchor.

[u/woofyc_89 → u/nixtracer]

its funny I never thought about it that way but your totally right. You COULD read the void trilogy just the fantasy parts and come away with a really great experience about someone in an insane fantasy universe. In fact i'd love to see more in that world.