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Not an easy choice!
I've not read all of these, but without thinking too hard about I reckon:

Cradlegrave
Meltdown Man
Hookjaw

Necronauts just missing out.

Deal. I'll set myself online for it as well.

I've just finished part 2 of the Apex Masterwork research and it's asking me to defeat 30 Team Rocket guys which is a drag..!

Hurray!
Idly reading about Scorpion Swamp this morning and it's written by a Steve Jackson but not the Steve Jackson...
I also found the art from the book on sale here, along with the art from the Fighting Fantasy roleplaying book: https://duncan183.wixsite.com/fantasy-art
Bit dear for me, but I must admit I was tempted.

[Scorpion Swamp]

Scorpion Swamp

Again haven't done a detailed writeup on this one as I'm not sure if anyone else is still playing and I don't want to spoil things too much.

I found this one pretty easy, in that I completed it at first try. It's pretty unique (I think) in FF in that it has three seperate missions you can undertake, giving you three possible ways to tackle it. I chose to do the mission for the good wizard and after I used both my spells of friendship early, charming a hunky wolf-themed wizard and an angry unicorn, my plan of taking the left hand path where able backfired nastily by forcing me into three horrible fights - the third of which was a repeat of the first - which would have almost certainly killed me had I not been rocking maximum stats.
After that I got a lift with an eagle, chatted with more friendly wizards, friendly bandits, friendly rangers and friendly giants before picking up the magic berry I had been sent to find and making my way back via a different route (avoiding an enemy that battered me earlier). My only real issue was the combat - after my bad start I had a number of fights with low skill high stamina things, and then a surprisingly tough encounter with an evil bloke eating cheese.

Given I'd mapped out a good chunk of the place I went back and tried the evil mission, which essentially involves killing a load of wizards, but it was less fun and the ending kind of chastises you for being a dick.

Overall - I remember not being too into this book and it was better than I remembered, but it's not a classic. Having three choices of mission is a good one, meaning you can play it three times: it actively encourages you to map the swamp and it's the first book to give you the option of going back to areas you've already been to, with a mechanic in place to stop you encountering things twice like you do in Forest of Doom. This means you can wander around to your hearts content, and most hazards don't respawn and you can't ever end up down the wrong path. It makes it all much closer to a classic RPG and that's all a very good thing, and it allows you to explore the setting thoroughly.

On the downside, and this might seem petty, it's kind of lacking in atmosphere. The prelude bigs up the swamp as some kind of awful place where none come out alive but it never really comes across as this, especially as a lot of the encounters I met were pretty friendly, chatty types. I think the modular nature of the map and the varaible quests - being able to wander about at will - also removes some of the story aspects from the book: a lot of the encounters felt rather self contained.

Art is by Duncan Smith and it's really good, mainly monsters and characters, although it's more generic in tone than some of the quite twisted and interesting images from the earlier books.

Not a bad one but ranks low when compared to most of the first seven. Next up is Caverns of the Snow Witch which I have never, ever played so looking forward to that.

Works for me. Midday tomorrow for virtual gift exchange?

That's a really good plan. I've been a bit slack with gifts the last couple of days as the rocket special research has been giving me loads of uneeded berries which has me near-constantly over my item limit, but I can remedy that.
I'm generally good for any time if we want to try and schedule this..

[Lawless]

Lawless please Colin

[Wireheads]

Sorry guys, got to vote Wireheads
The concept for Mayflies is great, but we've seen no story from it yet!

[Dredd]

My copy finally rocked up this morning. Broadly agree with what's already been said on the thread especially regarding Dredd: it's pretty good, and it looks stunning, but it's nothing special storywise just yet.

Kingmaker has been a weird one. There's been a massive shift in the status quo and advancement of the plot, which is cool, but given the slower pace of the previous two series this one has felt really rushed. Ichnar, for example, returned, possessed the duke, was immediately defeated and has now respawned with a new crazy hat all in twelve episodes, and the 'quest' of reuniting the races against the aliens that drove the earlier tales was accomplished off-panel by Ablard and Tycho whilst Crixus and Yarrow were having a chat. As a big fan of the previous series this one has been less a disappointment than a frustration, which is a shame as I think Leigh Gallagher has done some of his best work on it.
The appeal was always seeing D&D monsters fighting aliens which it looks like we're still getting, so we'll see what the next part brings I suppose.

Fiends tops it this week for me. Great art, great tale and those chicken footprints in the snow leading to the final page reveal was just perfect.

It is totally Alan Moore Online Video Wizard School and it is glorious.

Really good description! My wife is doing this and it's brilliant.
I really hope it's filmed in his actial house rather than a studio.

[Strontium Dog]

Strontium Dog
This one is a bit of a foregone conclusion!

[Nikolai Dante]

Nikolai Dante

[Sin/Dex]

Sin/Dex for me. I've just lost all interest.
The Order is definitely losing me - I think it's got time to turn it around, but I'd also like to see it conclude on a high, even if it returns later in a different form.
Deadworld could do with a bit of tightening of focus imo, but I hope it has a long time left.

Ha! I did it over a couple of days home working during quiet moments. Definitely map it as it makes it loads easier - I downloaded the maps from the authors website and made notes on it: puzzle and item locations and where to definitely avoid as there's a couple of insta-death rooms. Thanks for posting about it here as I'd never have heard of it otherwise!

I'd like to play the next one, but I have about 18 more FF books to go through first. I might pick it up when I've done another 4 or 5.

1. Kingmaker
2. Hook Jaw
3. Feral & Foe

Vex just misses out. I also really really like Saphir.