Thank you very much. Looking forward to the Warrior Prophet reread.

The only game that I've played a lot and enjoyed were Heroes of Might and Magic. When I met my then-not-yet husband, we used to spend some time together, playing Heroes II on "hot-seat". And then, when I fell down with chicken pox (which at the age of 21 is a real nightmare), he lent me Heroes III, which helped me keep my sanity while locked for 3 weeks at my room and smelling like Soviet distillery (in case you don't know, the best topical treatment for chicken pox in adults is salicylic spirit - don't try it with kids, though). And then we bought ourselves a new computer so that I could play Heroes V.
But then I graduated, got to (up to three) jobs at the same time, so I quit playing computer games. Although last weekend my husband dearest got out a copy of Heroes three and we started playing it, for the old times' sake mostly.

Loved Heroes 2. Heroes 3 was probably the high point of the series. In both games my favorite thing was to raise an unstoppable skeleton horde withe the Necromancer faction.

I'm currently obsessed with Medieval 2. It's a medieval combat RTS that came out in 2006 I think, but I didn't pick it up until recently. Really fun game especially for a history fan like me. Unlike most RTS which are about winning by destroying all the enemy units, Medieval 2 takes the more historical approach of taking into account fatigue and morale. If you troops are tired, they'll move and fight sluggishly. If their morale breaks, their ranks will dissolve and they'll be easy prey for enemy cavalry.

Another thing I love is that formations and battlefield geography are really important. Do I form my spearmen into a hedgehog for all-around defense, or march them in a column for more speed? In a siege defense, do I stop the invaders at the wall breach or draw them into narrow alleys to ambush them? A lot of really fun decisions to make in this game.

The third one is also the most disturbing of the three. Lots of grimdark, lots of sadism and torture, very unsympathetic characters. If you enjoyed the Ramsay Bolton scenes in ASOIAF, you'll really enjoy this one.

The torture scenes in Rifters were too much for me. One of the few things I wish I could literally un-read. I loved the dystopian world setup in the first book (reminded me of the video game Syndicate) and the Fugitive-style chase plot of book #2, but because of very disturbing events in the third book I don't recommend the series to anyone I know.

Now Blindsight was awesome; I can't remember the last time I was so engrossed in a book. The central theme that consciousness could be an evolutionary dead end was something I had never before come across in scifi. Very very cool and original explanation for vampires. The high-suspense plot was excellently paced too, with unsettling reveals; the "Chinese box" sequence and the saccades reveal were very tense and scary.

Echopraxia was also good, but I think it suffered a bit since the protagonist (and by extension the reader) was intentionally kept in the dark for most of the book. No one ever told that guy anything useful. I seldom wish for more exposition in a novel but this one could have used a couple scenes where everyone sits down and just discusses what the fuck is currently going on. Also, the vampires went from being very cool and superhuman in a plausible way in the first book, to basically demigods in Echopraxia. The stuff they could pull off in this book just broke my suspension of disbelief and made them ridiculous instead of sinister.

Hi everyone, I jumped over from the Martin board ("Houndhelm" over there) . Please count me in for this reread.