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When we first meet the Nero and Elizabeth, one of Apollo's thoughts was that he prefers to follow his mother's style of ruling, which is fair but strong. However, she can be dangerous when provoked (esp. if Apollo is in danger), which is why the samurai ends up in prison. She also humiliated Caligula for days in a packed Throne Room because he convinced Nero to withhold anesthesia from Apollo after his whipping in the Colosseum.

Part of the reason Apollo is so weak is that the paranoid Nero feared him too much to prepare him for rule. Apollo banishing his mother later in the story is just an excuse to allow her to go to New Bethlehem and secretly negotiate for peace with the Realm. The concept of a fake fallout between mother and son is right for the story, but I still don't like the way it turned out in v3.

At first, Apollo continues following her style of leadership, which is why he tries not to act violently in response to what's going on around him. However, like you said, he orders a hit on Nero and tells his aides he may execute Mama (because he knows too much about the hit). The hit was something Apollo felt forced into after Nero's first attack on New Bethlehem. Apollo also orders the failed commando raids to arrest Admiral Lupus and Governor Hadisius.

After the 2nd (final) battle at New Bethlehem, he decides to force all of the senior officers (those promoted by Admiral Lupus) out of the Praetorian Fleet and scrap the Praetorian flagship altogether. He's also going to do a purge of senior officers of Earth's home fleet, which was commanded by Governor Hadisius. Hadisius fled the battle, but Apollo expects to capture him eventually and execute him. He also banishes Caligula from the Imperium forever, providing him with nothing more than an explorer ship that will allow him to flee to distant outposts in the galaxy, where Realm bounty hunters are sure to pursue him.

So, you see, there is a progression from weakness to strength forced on him by circumstances. Assuming I ever finish the story and write book two, it was always intended to be much darker. Joseph will be haunted by his guilt for unintentionally triggering the destruction of New Bethlehem, and Apollo will pursue galactic colonization and the Imperium's conversion to Christianity aggressively.

If there's a book three, it was originally intended to be an upbeat ending where Joseph and Apollo together discover the dying alien race that has interfered with the human race in a game of galactic chess (hence the reason there are two versions of God), responsible for the rise to power of Alexander the Great, Stalin, Hitler, etc. The last scene was intended to be the two dying aliens saying to each other they have time for one more round before their deaths.

Since I'm going to use Dr. Francis in the year 7329 to interfere with the human race in 4017, there's no need for the aliens. I may write the second, dark book (set in 4021) and then jump forward to 7329 where the descendants of Joseph's fanatic followers attempt to overthrow the galactic government. The story set in 7329 is the one I tried to write first, but eventually came around to Joseph & Apollo first.

Really cool!

Fantastic website: http://www.baptismsite.com. All about the location where Christians believe (rightly, IMO) that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Jordan made it into a national park and the UN declared it a world heritage site, so Connor can visit it. He'll be coming from Israel, so I still need to research the logistics. Too bad the Jordan River no longer runs by there (the river shrunk and its route changed over 2000 years).

Thank you, njc. The reason I say buy and hold is that I don't like trading in and out of stocks. Like most, I'm not good at it. A better term might be set it and forget it. That's why most of my money is in index funds. I also got bitten there, too. Moved some money into Vanguard's S&P 500 index fund two weeks ago as part of rebalancing my portfolio in preparation for rising interest rates. It got clobbered, too, along with most of the market.

Currency fluctuations are going to be my biggest headache over the next 15+ years. When I moved to the US twenty years ago, the Canadian dollar was worth only $0.60 US. At that rate, I could have retired back in Canada very quickly. Unfortunately, the CDN dollar eventually became worth even more than the US dollar. It fell back to $0.70 US just as I was moving back. It's gone up 10% in one year, so my US disability is worth that much less than it was in 2016.

Although house prices are out of reach for me in Calgary (and they're obscene in Vancouver and Toronto), I may buy a mobile home here eventually. TBD.

I use Vanguard high dividend index funds for most of the money, but wanted specific stocks as well to buy and hold long term.

My retirement account is getting killed by the looming trade war. I bought Boeing the day before Trump announced the first tariffs. Down 12% since then. I console myself with the fact that no one ever went broke buying their stock. Of course that used to be true of GE, too.

Note to self: Seabrass says to be sure to give the archangels flaws and the possibility of failure.

You did indeed. Thank you. I just received a mountain of regular reviews from Andrew Hixson for the beginning of v3. He loved the two opening chapters, including the one spread over three different time periods that introduces Joseph and Apollo at two ages each, and introduces God and Admiral St. James's ghost. He didn't like the Great Collapse of Civilization at all. Thought it was filler. It's probably because it comes too early in the story (K's complaint), but the Galaxinet articles have to occur in a certain order among the early chapters, and I'm keeping all three until my reviewers beat me to death. Dr. Ess rocks! Nor did he like Apollo's opening chapter in the gym fighting Kobayashi. Not sure what was wrong with that one.

Do cheetahs roar?

If you have a moment, can you please check out my Archangel Syndrome post on the last page of my Galaxy Tales thread. I'd be interested to know what you think of my way to put some distance between the story and God.

Thanks
Dirk

K, did you mean that I should just name the voices Archangel? Giving them distinct names eliminates the problem of who is conversing with Apollo/Joseph in chapters where they appear together. I've had reviewers tell me that it confuses them because they expected God to be talking to both in those chapters, which is understandable but breaks POV.

v4 notes
What about this? A new mental illness, called Archangel Syndrome, regularly appears among the galaxy's ruling elite in which the afflicted hear archangels promising galactic peace. It's believed to be caused by too much inbreeding among ruling families. The real cause is Dr. Jorge B. Francis messing with the past. There is, of course, no known cure. The afflicted are encouraged to resist the archangels. Apollo naturally assumes he has the condition and keeps the archangel a secret since it could get him killed by his family, who subscribe to the motto "Only the mentally fit shall rule!" Joseph first hears an archangel (and his dead grandmother) at age four, before he knows about the syndrome. They encourage him to keep it a secret. When he does finally hear about the syndrome, he decides, based on his Christian background, that it's not really an illness, just God trying to save the galaxy. Apollo will hear the Archangel Gabriel and Joseph will hear the Archangel Michael. Dr. Francis will need technology to pull this off, otherwise he would have to impersonate all of the archangels and dead characters himself, around the clock. That's a better job for a computer. Hence the AI that serves as a galactic news anchor.

Since there is no useful link between Aussie from the prologue and the news anchor AI, I'll probably remove Aussie from the story completely, which eliminates the nonsense from the prologue and some of the excessive violence. Sorry, Janet. I just need a name for the AI. It should either suggest a link to the archangels (e.g., Angel) and/or a link to Dr. Francis (e.g., Francis).

Anyone have a better name?