>>>>>>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.
>>>>>
>>>>>I've recently read "Gun, with occasional music" (or vice versa?), which is a perfect mix of SF and detective genre.
>>>>
>>>>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).
>>
>>To the best of my knowledge, Jasper Fforde (however it's pronounced) is a countryman of yours. For some reason, the most imaginatively 'off the wall' sort of writers seem to come from your neck of the woods. Adams, Holt, Fforde, Pratchett.
>>
>>In case you're not familiar with Holt, here is the synopsis from the Wiki of his first book "Expecting Someone Taller"
>>
>>The story involves Malcolm Fisher, a hapless auction clerk in modern-day England, who runs over a badger one night. The badger turns out to be the giant Ingolf, brother of Fafnir, and Fisher becomes the new owner of the Ring of the Nibelung and the Tarnhelm, and, thereby, ruler of the world. However, Wotan, king of the gods, still wants the ring, as do others, and Fisher finds himself pursued by numerous characters from Wagner's opera, and romantically entangled, first, with one of the Rhinemaidens, and later, with one of the Valkyries.
>>
>>
>>Here's part of the synopsis from Amazon on Fforde's "The Eyre Affair"
>>
>>Pirouetting on the boundaries between sci-fi, the crime thriller and intertextual whimsy, Jasper Fforde's outrageous The Eyre Affair puts you on the wrong footing even on its dedication page, which proudly announces that the book conforms to Crimean War economy standard.
>>
>>[ snip... ]
>>
>>Fforde is endlessly inventive: his heroine's utter unconcern about the strangeness of the world she inhabits keeps the reader perpetually double-taking as minor certainties of history, literature and cuisine go soggy in the corner of our eye. The audacity of the premise and its working out provides sudden leaps of understanding, many of them accompanied by wild fits of the giggles. This is a peculiarly promising first novel. --Roz Kaveney
>>
>
>Sorry Al but that sounds like a load of baloney to me :-)

But high quality and very tasty baloney.

Hmmm... let's see how the blurb reads for HHGTTG:

The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy: One Thursday lunchtime the Earth gets demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. For Arthur, who has just had his house demolished, this is too much. Sadly, the weekends just begun.The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: When all issues of space, time, matter and the nature of being are resolved, only one question remains: Where shall we have dinner? The Restaurant at the End of the Universe provides the ultimate gastronomic experience and, for once, there is no morning after.Life, the Universe and Everything: In consequence of a number of stunning catastrophes, Arthur Dent is surprised to find himself living in a hideously miserable cave on prehistoric Earth. And then, just as he thinks that things cannot possibly get any worse, they suddenly do.So-long, and Thanks for all the Fish: Arthur Dents sense of reality is in its dickiest state when he suddenly finds the girl of his dreams. They go in search of Gods Final Message and, in a dramatic break with tradition, actually find it.

I guess that's the trouble with short synopses. They all read like baloney. ;)