me?
I like a good war story like "Black Hawk Down" or somehing someting history fiction or not like "The Adventures of Huckle Berry Fin"
also the Harry Potter series, a book called "I am David", and one I just read, "The Road."

I'm meaning to join the RNIB library here in Britain myself because there are some fantasy and sci fi books I want to read. I particularly want to try out the Dune books, and a friend of mine recommended the Pern books from Anne McCaffrey. I also hope the RNIB will get Neuromancer because I want to look at that, it is quite possible since they have its sequel in its series so they might be persuaded to do the first book in daisy.

So far though a lot of my reading has been the Discworld series, though someone let me listen to the Cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy which was interesting. I've also read a little fiction on the internet too, with www.magespace.net having some good fiction based on the Shadowrun roleplaying game.

Then there is the glory of audio novels, with the Falcon Banner sadly seeming stalled right now... thanks for telling me about that Dark. The same friend who recommended the Pern series of books also pointed me to a guy podcasting horror/sci fi novels, www.scottsigler.com though language and so on means not recommended for younger listeners. His current novel Nocturnal alternately and frequently makes me wince and laugh my socks off, especially with how good he has got at doing the voices.

As I've said Cx2, despite the Rnib's many problems, ---- nnot the least with sending books out of order, they are unfortunately the largest producer in the uk, so we just have to grin and bear it.

Last time the only neuromancer novel they'd done was count zero, ---- the second in the series. This I'm afraid is fairly typical of the rnib, ---- though they claime they are now changing policy, ---- and in fairness they have just finished the Dark tower by steven king (which I'm deffinately looking forward to reading the last three books of).

While the pern books have their moments, and are worth reading, for me they suffer far too much from the character safety problem. Everything can build to the point of a huge conflict, then it's fixed before anything goes too wrong.

the only one imho that really doesn't have this problem is the first dragonsdawn, about the landing on the planet and enginearing of the dragons, ---- but sinse the Rnib have only ever done that first book of the first chronicals, I'm not sure how it goes after that.

As to online stuff, thanks a lot for the horror link there Cx2. I've already mentioned the secret world chronicals on http://www.secretworldchronicle.com/

The only good super hero fiction I know. One of the writers of that has produced a novel called the blood baths, also available as audio, ----  a sort of roman esque fantasy with vampires, which was fun if rather too fond of courtizans. (as with the secret world chronicals, explicite content there).

I really like the falcon banner and Byran chroncials from darker projects, ---- and the Doctor who stuff is surprisingly good (if a litle heavy on the in jokes and references that only serious fans would get), But Darker projects does sometimes slightly frustrates me in the way they start loads of random series and don't continue with what they're doing, particularly as their starting even more new series off right now.

If they decide to drop a series, imho they should say so, and not just leave things hanging and go on to produce other stuff.

Saying that though, when they do go for a series it does come out well. I've considdered doing some voice acting with them myself, but I'm not sure on the work load and I am horribly busy at the moment with the production I'm doing.

Ah I know that feeling, ---- both of those feelings actually, I was obsessed with dragons myself at one point (in particular the flight of dragons film), and stil have a soft spot for them, ---- there's one sitting on the back of my settee right now ;D.

Wish I had been around for this subject when it first popped up.  But since I wasn't,

Books that are flowered down with so much unnecessary detail are automatically off the list, which is why the Harry Potter books got my atention right away when I first read them.  By the second chapter, I was hooked and couldn't stop reading because I needed to know what would happen next.  this could have horrible impact on books in later time, as now that I think about the Harry Potter series as a whole, all I ever see anymore is inconsistency, some fairly sloppy writing around the fourth book and later, and illogical deaths that need not have taken place and were written senselessly in my oppinion, sort of as an after thought, though I know many fans will disagree with me on this, so lets move on.

a friend of mine had me read the Twilight saga, possibly one of the most boring experiences in my life from beginning to end, but I wanted to say that I had read it and be able to discuss it truthfully rather than a subject where I simpy heard about it from other people and threw in my poor judgement.  I can honestly say that this series held nothing of interest, making vampires out to be these sexy creatures with romantic sides to them, and showcasing stereotypical teenage behavior at its highest levels.  I remember waiting around for some four chapters before thinking to myself, so, uh, why has nothing happened yet?  it took that long before any true action took place.  The first two chapters are seriously about the girl moving somehwre she clearly didn't want to be and how miserable she was about it, and that, my friends, is what I mean when I say that too much detail can just kill a book for me.

I gave up on the Wheel of Time; there again was something that one could slog through and fall asleep to and wake up to later and realize they hadn't missed much.

One of my friends who is a big fan of Steven King says even he has a way of detailing too meticulously those things which in the end really don't matter to the reader as was the case with Dream Catcher and Salem's Lot, and just a bit further  along, you can see Dean Koontz with just about every book he has ever written.

Another thing that slightly annoys me is that a few of these writers are absolutely predictable.  Steven King: there was a handicapped character who knew more than anyone else in this book, and his/her handycap was everything enhancing about this character and the main reason for this book.  Dean Koontz:  it was a sunny day with many wonderful, beautiful things going on, and then there was evil.

so, with that much criticism, what does that leave?

Interestingly enough, the list of books that I do like is quite a long one, and quite a few authors who I have criticised for their works are not completely horrible just because of the points I have brought up.  I tend to give everything at least one shot before calling it quits, and though some authors have caused me to make general assumptions with their work, I will never say that I know what their next book is going to be like, which is why Pet Cemitary and Dream Catcher are still good books, and though I will never enhoy the HP series as I did when I first read it, it has its place.  other works include The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Lord of the flies, Island of the blue Dolphins, Anthem, Fahrenheit 451, the Old  Man and the Sea, the Three Musketeers, and many many more I won't mention for the sake of keeping this readable.

While I enjoy the wheel of time, I doubt anyone in their right mind who has read it would deny that the thing drags like nobody's business, especially the farther in you get.
And I've only completed book 5... I'm told the grinding to a halt gets worse for the next four or so!

But I still want to keep reading it, whenever I get the chance to get the next one. And the next one... and the next one... heck, even non-stop reading this would probably take a month to finish.

I suddenly want to reread Sherlock Holmes stories, now.

@Nocturnus: You echoed my thoughts completely regarding the twilight saga; I finally read it after my friends were exclaiming over how "good" it was; but I gave up after the 6th hour as I fell asleep. Agreed on the harry potter series; I've read so many fanfictions that are far better than the original works.

I do love the wheel of time but I really couldn't take the dragginess of the series and I stopped at book 9: winter's heart. Maybe I'll go back to it someday; hope that book 10 onwards isn't so horribly draggy.

@bcs993: Yes, I have indeed read the Dresden Files up to book 5 but gave up on it. I hate the main character's vampire girlfriend for some reason and it is pretty slow-moving and pretty predictable after a while.

Having said that though, Jim Butcher writes another complete, 6-book series entitled Codex Alera and in my opinion, it is far better than his Dresden Files series. If you like something like The Inheritence Cycle by Cristopher Paolini, you'll probably love Codex Alera as well. Its one of my favourite series of all time

Aside from fantasy, I enjoy scifi as well. Though I've read so many scifi books, the series that comes to my mind immediately is the lost fleet by John G. Hemry, who writes under the sudoname Jack Camble. Has anyone heard of it?

The harry potter books deffently took a turn around the fourth or fifth book. I deffently think the lord of the rings was written alot better. You know, lots of back storry for those who want it and danger was usually around the corner.

I've gone through the Lord of the Rings, the whole thing out of academic interest more than anything. I have to say it was rather slow and tended to drag, taking forever for the slightest things to happen. It feels more like a cross between fantasy and "high literature". Charles Dickens with elves and orcs.

True, in the Lost Fleet series when the formations contact each other all hell breaks loose. That's actually an interesting part of the fights, all Gyri can do is try and set up the movements to bring the ships together in the way that gives the Alliance fleet the best possible outcome then cross his fingers while the ships flash past each other and the computers control the weapons firing. Long periods of thought and stress split up by instants of sheer terror.

I actually didn't finish the Return of the King. I was less than three quarters of the way through the book and they've already defeated Sauron, with the book being split into 4 sections called "books" I was unable to finish the third knowing that the major plot line had already been resolved. I couldn't stand something like 15 chapters of everyone fawning over the valiant heroes.

Of course while Lord of the Rings was quite unique when it first came out the genre has been explored so much more since then and I can't help but feel that LotR is just very vanilla. Not to mention that the world only really has one problem in Sauron, even if there was the wizard I forget the name of trying to set up shop as well. Saruman?

@robla: I might give it a try but please tell me first, is it as draggy as the wheel of time? I don't want to fall asleep again while reading a series as draggy as WoT.