>>>After reading almost nothing but SF and Fantasy for too many years to remember, I finally shifted over to the mystery genre. Lots of good stuff, but I still drift back to the SF section in the book store now and then to see if Richard Morgan, David Weber or Elizabeth Moon have anything new to offer. I recently read Weber's Born in Fury, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's really space opera stuff, but he writes it very well.
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>>I've recently read "Gun, with occasional music" (or vice versa?), which is a perfect mix of SF and detective genre.
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>If you want a real hoot, pick up a copy of The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fford (not a typo). And then read the rest of the series. This guy is right up there with Douglas Adams and Tom Holt.

Actually "ff" is a typical Welsh spelling (not saying this applies here though. In Welsh, "f" is pronounced as "v", whereas "ff" is pronounced as, well, "f".
Hence we get the Welsh girls' name Ffion (Fiona).