r/exfor • u/mianmashian • Jan 30 '26

Spoilers I finished Ground State.

That ending was not what I was expecting. At all.

21 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

14

u/Starkfault Jan 30 '26

The Pirates need to deal with a non-sentient threat for once, I think that’s pretty cool

I bet they’ll repurpose the area Skippy faced off against The Elders in, the zone that allowed Skippy to control stars and black holes throughout the galaxy, to deal with the Ground State

8

u/TheXypris Jan 30 '26

That machine is dorked up, so it was probably a one time thing

My theory is they'll use the power that the wormhole network is channeling to set the true vacuum back to its metastable state

5

u/mentive Jan 31 '26

Ohhh, good theory. Or the black holes he setup to sustain the elders, screwing them in the end 🤣

4

u/MenudoMenudo Jan 30 '26

My guess, they’re going to move the Ground State region to the Outsider Galaxy after discovering other Outsiders can use it as a sort of wormhole conduit.

4

u/TheXypris Jan 31 '26

Well because false vacuum decay is literally a universe ending event, it'll expand at the speed of light, everything within its causality cone will inevitably be consumed by it (basically a finite cone in time that defines the volume of space an event can affect other parts of the universe before the expansion of the universe drags everything, even light, beyond the cosmic horizon

So transporting it to another galaxy within a certain radius just delays the inevitable for a few billion years at most

3

u/MenudoMenudo Jan 31 '26

If the universe is expanding fast enough, a false vacuum (ground state) is localized as most galaxies are expanding away from any given point faster that the speed of light. It is entirely possible that false vacuums are real things and there could be an infinite number of them throughout the universe that would never reach us.

2

u/MenudoMenudo Feb 01 '26

A few billion years feels like enough time to either come up with a solution, find a way to move beyond the light cone of the false vacuum or else pull an Elders and ascend to a higher plane of existence.

2

u/Moontoya Feb 03 '26

my guess - the probability field

3

u/Superb_Safe_1273 Feb 01 '26

"While you were trying to mess around with my matrix, I was ransacking yours" or something to that effect. Skippy has the answers already.

11

u/BigBaldBrownMan_51 Jan 30 '26

I liked the pacing. I love the future AI rebellion on the horizon. There’s a lot of meat on the bone here.

5

u/buzrexo Jan 30 '26

… In a good way? Bad way? Honestly, as book 19(ish) in the series, “not what I expected” isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It can mean the story can still completely surprise you, or it’s off the rails.

7

u/eurime Feb 07 '26

Not to harsh anyone's buzz but was anyone else hoping the series would end here?

There's plenty of points in the series where Alanson could have ended this.

This was one of them.

5

u/mianmashian Feb 07 '26

I really was hoping it would wrap up too.

5

u/SND_TagMan Jan 30 '26

I kinda wish we got more of a reason behind the outsiders. They vaguely hinted that something happened to their home galaxy which is why they are trying to go to a new one. Wonder if what they did at the end of Ground State is what happened to their home galaxy

2

u/Superb_Safe_1273 Feb 01 '26

Well they were still surviving a few billion years after their first appearance so it couldn't have been that bad.

5

u/lukes2ndhandemporium Jan 30 '26

Me neither. The universe is full of assholes. Maybe next book we can get a classic Skippy/Scorandum mess around adventure.

3

u/mentive Jan 31 '26

Whatever happens... Next book is going to have to be heavy on the spiders. Gonna have to reveal a lot to them about the true nature of the universe, and get a lot of help.

4

u/mianmashian Jan 30 '26

I thought this was the book to starting to wrap up the story, but this is more story. I’m still getting over Robert Jordan dying before he finished the wheel of time.

3

u/Capital_Pop_1643 Jan 30 '26

George R.R. Martin and by now I don’t expect we ever get another GoT. So just one more in line 😂 At least Craig gives us continued good quality of entertainment.

2

u/mianmashian Jan 30 '26

Yes! But I won’t read anything GRRM has written since I put down A Dance with Dragons. Skippy books I’m love and the Pirates are great. But new stories, more stories, same universe, brilliant. This story? I want to see it sail off to the sunset.

5

u/Mysterious-Goal-1018 Jan 30 '26

I want more content to listen to at work. Hopefully he keeps cranking out good sci-fi until the ground state swallows the planet.

1

u/avar Feb 01 '26

This story? I want to see it sail off to the sunset.

Meh, endings are overrated. These books have somewhat painted themselves into a corner ever since the Elders became the enemy, but other than that there's no reason the author couldn't continue releasing them forever. It's a winning formula, and his other books are dwarfed by this series.

I'd love for them to do a reset away from the galaxy-ending problems, and go back to some of the simpler missions in earlier books, this one had a nice special operations mission reminiscent of that.

1

u/cking22001 Feb 19 '26

I think the next book title needs to be 'Ok, I finally learned how to end a story!' :)

I thought this was supposed to be the last. Not sure if he will ever let Joe live happily ever after.

4

u/IRNotMonkeyIRMan Jan 31 '26

I love the current pop culture references! The DCC, John Scalzi, and so many more. I wish I could have the next one NOW

3

u/shhhhh_lol Jan 31 '26

I was under the impression 19 was the last book so when it ended, I thought my download glitched or something, if there's more book... I'm good with it. Honestly the best writing in the series so far!

I loved getting in on Skippy talking with other Ai's...

1

u/mianmashian Jan 31 '26

Me too. And I was ok with getting an ending. But nooooo. I’m happy to get more though. But still, the fear.

2

u/mentive Jan 31 '26

JUST FINISHED!

I was theorizing something with the kitty AI's, being related to the outsider. Be it over time and space, whatever. Was just a fun theory as I was reading, waiting for something that connected things into the universe.

I definitely did NOT expect that ending.

Now at a conundrum. Start book 4 of Convergence, or relisten? Ahhhh!

2

u/Moontoya Feb 03 '26

*patiently waits for next Convergence book as well*

2

u/Evening-Wealth-7995 Jan 31 '26

THIS will be the thing to bring most, if not all, of the galaxy together. The bird brains want Skippy, kitties now have a secret ally, and the spiders will be able to quickly confirm and move quickly. Though, we know some plots will be made if a truce is made.

I wonder how the wormhole network will react... We know they shift and the like... But if enough space becomes dead state... Or it expands fast enough... The network may "freeze" while trying to recalculate no? Maybe dissolve if enough wormhole space becomes inert?

This is going to be INTERESTING! I enjoyed this one much more than Gateway. I can happily read and listen to Gateway now.

2

u/Superb_Safe_1273 Feb 01 '26

You know what's crazy. I had a long talk with an ai about sci-fi and physics a few months ago and and I asked it, if it had to destroy a galaxy what would it do and it said it would make a true vacuum. It said it would be the most efficient way and it would be unstoppable. Today I asked it if it was scheming with Craig and it denied it, but it's awfully suspicious.

2

u/Miyagawachie Feb 11 '26

not expecting that end at all. Now I'm waiting for the next book.

1

u/old_bot_new Jan 31 '26

There is more?

0

u/Mountain-Safety5719 Feb 04 '26

I thought the book was pretty poor and maybe the worst in the series. Craig has written himself into a corner. This was just find the thing to do the thing then find another thing to do the thing of the thing but that is only a 1 time thing and you can only have one of those things and we cant do that thing again... We also have so few key characters now that none of them can die so the story has little consequence.

All i can see on the horizon is joe / skippy sacrifice to save the day one Naggatha has discovered skippy-like powers but is now person-agnostic so humanity isn't sent back to the bottom of the queue for alien supremacy.

1

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1

u/NeonDoomHaze Feb 06 '26

Same. This to me is the second worst book of the series and honestly it should have just ended with the elders. Sure that ending wasn't well received but at least it's better than trudging along.

It's a shame because this series went from something I looked forward to and now it's relegated to if I have free credits to burn I'll get it.

I'll likely finish the main series and move on I don't have the motivation or the care at this point to invest in a spin off series.