Rapaire: My opinions on Camus and Sartre are precisely opposite. I had to read "L'Etranger", in French, and it just about drove me nuts. The characters are lifeless, and the language is boring. That is the point, I know that, but it doesn't make it good reading.
However, I read "Les Jeux sont Faits", also in French, and loved it to bits. Who can't love a bureaucratic afterlife? And the plot is speedy and entertaining.
Piers Anthony is alright, I went through a phase of reading him like crazy. Aside from the insanity of the Xanth series, I quite enjoyed "Split Infinity" but I have never been able to quite track down the second book in that series.
On Terry Goodkind--> I got to book six of the Sword of Truth before getting fed up. I do enjoy certain parts of that series (and I love the end of the first book), but it got tiresome and repetitive. And yeah, his writing of women isn't great.
Flash Company: Wow, I don't think I've ever met someone who didn't like Pullman's Dark Materials... why not?

Cheers, Seiri.