I like Beauty much better than Rose Daughter. I like The Blue Sword better than The Hero and the Crown. I love Spindle's End like crazy.

Forgotten Beasts of Eld is one of my most favorite books of all time. That's by McKinley. The Riddle-Master of Hed series was a disappointment to me when I first read it, but when I read it five years later it was immensely satisfying. I had to grow up to appreciate the ending.

re: Vokosigan A Civil Campaign is even funnier after having read most of the previous books, so you understand the underpinnings of the assumptions going on. And Cordelia is one of the most magnificent characters ever. She is every bit the match to Miles' Dad and is rightfully respected.

I don't tend to read a ton of SF/F, but love me some Vorkosigans.

I am definitely a fan of the Chalion books, and being a romance-lover, adored the Cordelia books more than the Miles ones in the Vorkosigan-verse. But I liked the Miles ones too. I am not, however, a big fan of the Sharing Knife ones. I read the first two or three and haven't bothered to seek out if there are more by now.

There's two - The Blue Sword, which she wrote first, and The Hero and the Crown, which is about the mythology in The Blue Sword and is set centuries before it.

Total love, yes!

I love McKinley's older stuff, but didn't much like Spindle's End, and strongly disliked Dragonhaven. I'm a bit 'eh' on Sunshine: I'm bored with vampires.

Forgotten Beasts of Eld is one of my most favorite books of all time. That's by McKinley. The Riddle-Master of Hed series was a disappointment to me when I first read it, but when I read it five years later it was immensely satisfying. I had to grow up to appreciate the ending.

Actually, that's Patricia McKillip, who is by many objective measures a far better writer than McKinley. Their styles aren't very similar: McKillip is far more poetic, and she's never gone back to the fairly-mainstream storytelling she did in the Riddlemaster sequence.

If I had to choose, I'd take McKillip over McKinley, even though I have great fondness for the Damar novels.

Oh, duh, you're reight, the Mc names messed me up. And the cat in my arms is screwng up my typing.

I loved Sunshine and wish she'd write another book in that world.

My Dad is now reading Bujold, and has informed me that I Will Be Reading Them Soon. I think he likes them.

I want a book of Sunshine's recipes. I was practically drooling over the descriptions.

I think he likes them.

They do have a broad appeal: they're very character-based, but there is also smart sciencey world-building, tricky politics, and exciting battle sequences. And moral dilemmas.

And butter bugs.