Who is eskoviak and Where did I come From?
eskoviak is the clever name for Ed Skoviak. I am an IT professional who happens to speak and understand techno-geek; now I have the title "Technical Consultant." I work for a Fortune 100 Company in the systems area; I am primarily responsible for our four web applications. But I am a closet programmer (Java, VB and C++) who is always looking for more ways to solve the basic problem--how to say "Hello World".How to get this started? Hm...well maybe if we discuss the state of
the genre (god, how boring...). Well, I do count myself among the many
fans of The Wheel of Time (TWOT) series by Robert Jordan (remember,
I told you I spent many hours in hotel rooms?). There are quite a few home
pages dedicated to this; click 
for more information. How do you feel about book 8, The Path of
Daggers? It seems a little slow to me. I am not sure the
it was worth the wait. Also see The
Green Eggs Report.
My main interest is the fantasy side of SF&F. This was probably fueled by my maternal Aunt and Uncle, who bought me Tolkein's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy when I was young. I devoured these books, and have re-read them with pleasure several times since. I particularly enjoy one of the final episodes in The Return of The King, "The Scouring of the Shire."
I also count Terry Brooks' Shannara series and Landover books as a must read. The magic in Shannara is interesting, although not as complex as saidin and saidir in the WOT series. Brook's latest, The Druid-King of Shannara is a prequel to the series and provides a lot of background for the stories later told.
And of course one must mention the grandfather of SF, Robert A. Heinlein. This man, who has been productive for what, sixty years, has written such a broad spectrum of science fiction. I said above that I tend towards fantasy, but I have not yet read a Heinlien that I could put down. Some notable titles are Podkayne of Mars, Farnham's Freehold, and The Cat Who Walked Through Walls. Not to mention the adaptation of Starship Troopers, which was very good.
I am also an avid mystery fan. I plan my Monday nights around A&E 's Poirot and lately Sherlock Holmes, starring Jeremy Brett, who is the quintesential Holmes. David Suchet does a wonderful job as Poirot, too. I have long toyed with the though of combining Holmes and Nero Wolfe to produce a nineties detective who can "use the little gray cells."