Oh man, I have to narrow it down?! Grin.
I think my favorite so far is this last Wretched Earth by Victor Milan--well written, good social commentary (without detracting from the story) shown in how the characters respond to their world based on their own experiences and different worlds, very good conflict and turnarounds (no easy straight run), all the companions got to fight and be cunning and be their very coolest selves, the dialogue was superb, the rotties were a perfect take on zombies, and rather than descend into just a horror novel focused on the creepy dudes it stayed focused on the Companions and how they dealt with rotties and a ville civil war. I thought the characters were really captured superbly (dialogue, body language, relationship, hang ups, desriptions, how they responded to stuff, etc) and I thought the team of them really showed through, but not at the expense of them as individuals. It was very cool to see the ladies take an equal share of cleverness and battle as the gentlemen this time--and I liked the humor woven in. Mildred's baseball bat fight and Ryan's shovel were perfect.
This topic post is a perfect excuse to go back in and reread the books.
