have to write quick before the link expires! Erikson's Malazan series - excellent - in my opinion much better than Jordan's WOT. WOT started very well but (IMO

have to write quick before the link expires! Erikson's Malazan series - excellent - in my opinion much better than Jordan's WOT. WOT started very well but (IMO) degenerated into cloned characters with nothing ever significant happening. Each Erikson book can more or less stand alone, however the intra and inter plots are suitably intertwined and complex. Reapers Gale did waver a little, one or two new characters are too similar to other ones (a constant issue for me in WOT - the characters seemed so similar that i could never remember who did what) But the characters are believable and the archae/anthrop - ology expertise of Erikson is very evident. Patrick Rothfuss' first book, The Name of the wind, was a great start to a new series. These two (modern fantasy) authors are the only ones i trust currently to give me a good read - in comparison to sci fi, fantasy seems (again IMO) to be in a bit of a rut.