Best of the Best: Vorkosigan Saga

 To continue from fantasy to SciFi recommendations: My greatest "discovery" of the last years was the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. It is a series that is mostly military SciFi and mostly following the exploits of Miles Vorkosigan, who is the scion of a noble house, crippled by poison before birth, and also an utter rascal.

What makes the somewhat standard storylines work is Bujold's streamlined writing and a genuinely funny main character who bluffs his way from challenge to challenge. I am not through with the whole series yet, but do take a bite every 1-2 months with another book that I devour in 1-2 evenings.

Stay Epic!

Best of the Best: Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere

 Of the reading I did in recent years, the nerdy centre has been Brandon Sanderson's oevre. His fantasy-that-is-close-to-SciFi style and worldbuilding is not for everybody, but it has me in its grip.

While he came to wider attention with his Mistborn series and by finishing Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan's untimely death, I consider his Stormlight Archive series to be my favourite. It combines an alien world with great character development, and it is currently at the halfway point of five out of ten books. His original fantasy stories are all connected in a greater "Cosmere", which enriches reading depth. I have recently finishes reading the last story part of the Cosmere, and even with Sanderson's driven writing speed (we are talking about a guy who wrote four extra books during the pandemic) it leaves me wanting for more.

Stay epic!

Best of the Best: The Dominions series

There is a series of fantasy strategy games that unites Spartan graphics, ultra-detailed mechanics and absolutely everything of myths, legends and fantasy lore into a single game: Dominions.

Currently at Dominions 6, it is the game for people who want to dig into fantasy warfare campaigns with micro- and macro-management and many opportunities for role playing.

Multiplayer mode and extensive mods (including randomized and a full-blown Forgotten Realms mod) on top of incredible customisation allow for incredible replayability. Sure, it is not an easy game to get into. But it tries to give lots of information on what is going on. Mostly.

If you enjoy old-school gaming and fantasy, give it a try.