The first half of Messiah is from a magazine (SciFi short story magazines were big at the time). It was kinda forced on Frank IIRC, and he wasn’t ready for it. The story was much more of a first draft than a real final product. The second half was like all the rest of the books. If you choose to continue, that second half experience will likely remain through Chapterhouse. I think the last two weren’t bad either. They just were not Frank. They weren’t as bad as the first half of Messiah IMO.

The first half of Messiah was the only slow part for me. After that, several were ‘stop what I’m doing and finish this book because I can’t put it down’ moments, which is quite rare for me when it comes to novels.

Never watched anime in my life and I’m not into ads or data mining stalkerware. Is there anything like a newpipe or a peertube like option just to check stuff out for the experience from people that do it for art and passion, or is it all corporate peeping tom apps versus piracy?