Count me in--I'd buy that book. Then again, I'll buy anything FPW writes.

I don't remember the specifics on this, but.. The Otherness doesn't really feed on human misery does it? It's Rasalom that grows stronger with that. The Otherness doesn't care what happens to Rasalom after the humans are gone and he has no more misery to strengthen him.

I do seem to remember worry from Rasalom at certain points of the series that The Otherness will abandon him when he's fulfilled his purpose, but toward the end, he knows the big change is coming and it would be illogical for him to abandon his course at that point.

My impression has always been that the Otherness and and the Ally are only in it for the real estate and don't give a rat's ass about the stuff living on it as long as the stuff living on it keeps said real estate from falling into the "wrong" hands (or whatever those appendages are). Then again both "entities" have been shown to be consistently rather stupid, though the Ally more so than the Otherness.