Smersh

Originally Posted by Ironik

You know, this is an actual thing in voting, which is why there's so much back-room maneuvering to get ballots laid out so that a certain candidate's name is on the top of the list. People tend to chose the item at the top of the list rather than at the bottom. So if you're running for office, change your name to Alan Armstrong to always get voted in.

Originally Posted by Father Xmas

I little disappointed by the lack of Heinlein. I am glad that at least a few of the masters are represented.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville

You ask me to list the most influential authors in Science Fiction and PKD is on my list. But this was about individual works except in a few cases (series like Xanth, related works like Manifold) and no one particular PKD work stands out enough as among the most important or best works on most people's lists, including mine.

Collectively, PKD has probably influenced science fiction as much as people like Asimov, and more than even people like Heinlein. But that was by being prolific, unique, and insane. Unlike most of the greats and even the pretty-goods, PKD doesn't have a signature work or set of works. He has a signature style. It also doesn't help that his most well known works tend to be his short stories and not his novels, and most contemporary exposure to PKD are either his movie translations or compilation works.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville

They did suggest I apply for a powers team job once, but I'd have to move to California (probably along the same lines that they suggested to Doc Aeon to apply: no guarantee, but I suspect I would have had some nice recommendations if I did). They have good people on the powers team now anyway and I'm probably more useful to them on the outside.

And yeah, I can be a lot more critical, a lot more informative, and a lot more dissecting as an outsider than the devs can really be. Ghost Falcon and Positron can always disavow any knowledge of my actions.

Also, I cannot be a stealth Paragon employee because they have a policy that bars developers from commenting on the game anonymously. Technically, I believe I could comment on parts of the game I had nothing to do with anonymously although that is frowned upon, so given what I tend to comment on its possible I'm a Paragon employee, but only if I was the receptionist or the artist that makes the beep sound effect when you try to use a power that is recharging.

Originally Posted by Shard_Warrior

There were scientists who believed the moon was made of green cheese too. That doesn't make their belief true or correct.

Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino

Hmm, well e-readers aren't too overwhelmingly expensive nowadays...

Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino

Best of the EU, in my opinion, are the Zahn trilogy and the x-wing books - or, at least, they're my favorites. I, Jedi is also good, although you do have to deal with the blah-ness of the jedi academy books that overlap with the first half. And yeah, darksaber and crystal star were crap.

And if you liked Basilisk Station, you might want to do yourself a favor and pick up the hardcover of Mission of Honor, the most recent main storyline novel. A *very* nice thing Baen is doing is packing CDs full of ebooks into some of their hardcovers - explicitly marked 'you may copy and share this'. The CD should include every single previous book in the Honor universe, as well as a healthy selection of Weber's other work as well as that of some other Baen authors (who also have some pretty good stuff). It's a ridiculously good deal, especially since it'll fill you in on all 10 main storyline Honor books between Basilisk Station and Mission of Honor, as well as the first 4 short story anthologies and the 4 (so far) books in the two side branches of the story. It's definitely a hefty series by now, but they're very good in my opinion.

Originally Posted by Lobster

OK, I'm curious. How was Master of Five Magics sci-fi? Was Secret of the Sixth? Is this something to do with literary tech like plot structure and theme and other fancy words?!

Originally Posted by Freitag

I guess my biggest issue with the list is one of principle. There are so many great works of Science Fiction, and so many great works of Fantasty that have been written. The two are so often lumped together, but I personally think they're different. It might be better to have a Science Fiction 10/100 list, and a Fantasy 10/100 list. that would certainly have made picking easier for me.

~Freitag

Originally Posted by Muse to my Ears

Speaking from the stand point of my main being a sonic/sonic defender, I know what it's like to have gotten onto a team and then kicked off because I wasn't a "healer" or "useful".

/rad workes amazingly. I havent played it in quite some time, but /rad was great not only fo rlowbies, but missions with plus 4X8. it is a debuff because honestly...if you aren't hitting them...then you arent doing damage, which is the whole point. Dont take it personally.

Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino

Yay, the Zahn trilogy was on there. I enjoyed the star wars EU for quite a while (until the NJO, anyway), but I can't say I'd put any of them on a list of 'top 100' books - except the Zahn trilogy. Many of the other EU books were quite good, but none of them feel like 'star wars' as much as the Zahn trilogy.

There were some tough choices on there, even though I haven't actually read a lot of those - even for just the ones I had read it was tough to narrow it down. Especially since I felt I had to toss votes towards a couple of my favorite authors, even if I'm not sure their stuff really qualifies as 'top 10 ever' when stacked up alongside all those classics.

Rather surprised they chose 'Basilisk Station' to represent Weber's honorverse series. I suppose it's because you *really* can't jump into that series in the middle, but I definitely wouldn't call it the best of the bunch. I'm also surprised at the inclusion of the Silmarillion on that list - it's definitely interesting for a Tolkien fan, but it doesn't really compare with LotR in terms of influence or storytelling, in my opinion.

Originally Posted by ebon3

I'm sure, people either detest Bob Salvatore as a hack or cant stand his character but Drizzt's popularity is undeniable, especially after the "Dark Elf Trilogy. His popularity transcended D&D fans even, popular to the point that a travelogue more or less was printed for people who had never played D&D or messed around in the realms so that they could get a better idea of where the books were set.

Or not surprised that the Chronicles didn't make it? Honestly I would have expected them to show up before Drizzt and company. Dragonlance seemed to have as much appeal if not more than all the dark elf stuff.

Personally I never really read the core Dragonlance stuff other than Dragons of Spring Dawning, but I liked some of the other books like the trilogy focused on the twins as well as the book about Kaz.

Originally Posted by Reppu

Let's not lie here. Ice is a poor primary in this day and age. Defenses are still important, but Ice is the sole Defense set that sacrifices Resistance to everything but Cold damage. It's (minor) saving grace is having easily capped S/L/E defenses.

Ice also has notoriously low DDR, around 50%. This is crippling for a defense based set. Abuse of the hami-o glitch would be needed.

However, Ice can hold aggro really well, and it shares an HP Steroid with Invulnerability. But the lack of natural resistances, and piddling DDR, makes Ice show it's waning age in a day and age with sets like Willpower and Shield Defense which can be fine-tuned to make everything else look redundant. Not even to include the obvious juggernauts of Invulnerability and Dark Armor.

Is Ice Armor bad? No. But is it "amazing" or other claims people make in this thread? No. Like all Defense sets (not named Shield Defense), you'll feel weak until nearing the end of your career. and even then...

Ice does have one major thing going for it, that it and it's other stepchild-brother Dark Armor share! They're rare to see in the field. So, expect some awe for your persistence!

And most of all, enjoy it.

Originally Posted by ebon3

Huh, glad to see the "Legend of Drizzt" on there, and I may have over looked it, but I didn't see the Dragon Lance Chronicles on there which strikes me as odd that the chronicles didn't show up.

Most of my picks were fantasy in nature since I was a D&D junkie at the time I started reading novels

Originally Posted by Chyll

Nicely played.
I was proud that I at least recognized nearly all.

And was happier to know I owned or read many... but did not count, and I'm sure my total would be less than 111.

*tips hat*