Yep, historical fiction, a genre I wasn't really into until I read the Baroque Cycle and then I fell in love with it reading the first of McCullough's "Masters of Rome" series (starts with The First Man in Rome). I enjoyed them, and you do get to learn a lot about the Roman Republic as well.

I wouldn't call Lynch's books great, but they sure as heck were fun.

Well, I enjoyed this series, although it is in many ways an idea Weber stole from himself. Weber's "Empire from the Ashes" series has a planet in it that is very very much the same as the world of "Safehold" (the setting for Off Armageddon Reed). I realize that Weber wanted to explore more ideas with this concept, but it felt kinda cheesy at first that he stole a whole setting from himself.

I've read all of his published stuff so far (books at least). I like him. The Takeshi Kovacs really hooked me.

Yes, the 2nd book in the sequel trilogy to the "Commonwealth Saga" started with Pandora's Star. I loved the duology, and am really enjoying the trilogy.

I am starting to think that Scholes is the best new writer that I have read in the past 5 years or so. I really like his series a lot.

I think this might have been the first book of his that I've read, and I enjoyed it. I wouldn't put it in the list of top books of the year though.

I read this series at the recommendation of a buddy who is big into military SF. I was surprised when it turned out to not be in that genre. At first I wasn't sure I liked Flynn's writing, but as I progressed thru the series (4 books) I really started liking it. It is a pretty cool "future history" in the style of Heinlein, and I really enjoyed the developement of all the main characters, as well as the language and slang evolved throughout the series. The series is a bit dated tech-wise, with some gizmos and such that we take for granted nowadays being called different names, and that took a bit to get used to. But overall, I'd say that Flynn's series was one of my favorite groups of books for 2009.

I'm not a fan of Silverberg's writing. I enjoyed this one, but I don't know if I will actually bother reading any more of the Majipoor stuff.

no shit!!

I notice you really don't like Stross. I don't see why, as I personally have enjoyed all of his stuff I've read the last year or two (only discovered him a couple years ago). What is it about his stuff you don't like (or hate)? I'm curious.

Yeah, the Honor Harrington books get better I think. But of all of Weber's stuff I liked the Alicia deVries stuff much more (The "Fury" stuff). I kept picturing Olivia Wilde as Alicia!

I wouldn't call it great, but I'd still say the entire series is worth reading. The writing doesn't compare to her Paks books, but still quite enjoyable. Nice character work.

I loved this series when I first read it 20 someodd years or so ago(in my teens). I enjoyed it just as much this time around. And I still say that Paks is the PERFECT paladin; which is after all a big part of why Moon wrote the story. She was sick of seeing people consider paladins to be idiotic, and wanted to show how a paladin could be cool. Paks definitley was! I'm excited to find out that she is writing a 4th Paks novel. I'm thinking of rereading the prequel novels about Gird & Co. again soon.

I can totally see why you think that. I kinda agree. I was very disappointed since I'd read a bunch of his SF stuff and really liked it, but this book just wasn't as good as I was hoping. I'll give the rest of the series a chance though. Is the whole series written 1st person?

I read the first chapter online when it was first out, and skipped it when I read the book. Other than that, there was NO WAY I could skip around this book. I plowed through it in 2 days or so.