kerovon

You may want to look into Walter Jon Williams' Dread Empire's fall series. One of the nice things about it is that he seems to have some knowledge of physics, and dosen't take improbable leaps of unexplained technology, like anti-gravity and faster than light travel. He does throw in wormholes to allow intersystem travel, but for intrasystem travel physics works. It makes for some interesting and slightly more plausible battles. Another good author is C. S. Friedman.

I'd like to add my opinion on the debate over Eddings. For a long time, his books were some of my favorite fantasy books. Admittedly, they were also the first fantasy novels I independently read (I was something like 7 or 8 at the time), and that probably causes me to feel nostalgia for them. Now that I've read much more widely, I can still occasionally enjoy them, but they are no longer towards the top of my list. I will say that the Belgariad were good, even now. &nb

Zelazny's Amber chronicels are awesome. I might be biased though, because my dad read them to me as a bed time story when I was 5. The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb, and the follow up Tawny Man triology where both really good, though i didn't like her other series. Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series has a great idea, but it does lag towards the middle, However, the last book released did improve in quality. I think Brandon Sanderson is finishing the last bo

This brings back memories of Master of Magic. I remember going through it, creating a translation key for the runes in the spellbook, and then at the start of each game checking to see if I got the really good spells.