You know something, Beard? If you have it in you ( not a challenge, we all have busy lives - meaning if you have the time/interest ) and Bakker approves, it would be cool to have you ( with your gift for humor/street language ) write a companion piece to the PON series which would provide clarity on both what we're supposed to know and what is supposed to be mystery with these books. It would be fun, funny and provide much needed perspective for us lower minds such as myself.
For starters - biggest problem I had with the books is I made the mistake of trying to pronounce the names of peoples and places myself. It would have been a big help if there was a pronunciation glossary with the books. You could write the names phonetically in the companion. When I read the books again, I'm just going to create pet names for everyone so when I see it, I don't slow down wondering "is that the same person as before, etc". For the first 2 books, I thought Ishroi and the Inchoroi where the same ( both Non-men ) ... didn't realize until the 3rd book the Inchoroi were aliens. I know, I'm dumb, right? But I bet there are others who encountered similar difficulty following the story. That said, it's not a criticism. I love that Bakker doesn't hold the hand of the reader, yielding some beautiful writing. Like when Cleric becomes possessed in Cil-Ajus - another writer would say he was possessed - but Bakker describes as "dons like finery", which was a really cool way of putting it. So the translation the reader makes from description to understanding is wicked cool/fun ( and makes me feel smart when I do it successfully ) ... just struggled with the names and apparently too often failed to grasp what he was getting at. Like the description of Seswatha checking out the Ark completely lost me ... just too hard to follow, maybe the extreme nature of the thing was too hard to understand from mere words.
If you're interested, you could take a stab at "summarizing" the timeline posted online with your funny way of putting things - like ( forgive me, I do not have your talents, this just an example ) "ship with big horns crashes into Earwa, turns earth into lava, cools off, aliens jump out and tell non-men, "fuck you!", no-men reply, "No, not fuck me ... FUCK YOU!", they fight, non-men win, but aliens trick non-men ... ". That was way too general, would need a few dates in there with more detail, etc.
Anyways, think your comedy could translate into comic writing as well is all I'm saying. Appears you're taking a stab it already with your aewarian comic contest. Not trying to drag you into doing something you don't want to do, just thought I would throw it out there. If you're not into it, then maybe Bakker ( if he reads this stuff ) can get off his ass and write it himself ( doesn't have to be funny if he's not gifted with the art, but a "history" - something more robust than the glossary at the end of TTT ).
- TH