[polishgenius]

Just gonna go with a general spec-fic list (and I did go by the one-book-per-rating idea, because it makes more sense, even though there are works - Long Price, New Sun, Hitchhiker's Guide - that miss out as a result):

1. The Scar
2. The Gone-Away World
3. The Master and Margarita
4. Memories of Ice
5. Vellum
6. Night Watch (Pratchett)
7. Look to Windward
8. Thunderer
9. Chasm City
10. The Lord of the Rings

Quote

Night Watch or The Thief of Time are probably universally considered his best books. Of the two, I prefer the emotional resonance of Night Watch and actually would slot it in my top 10 list. It's a phenomenal book.

Night Watch for sure, but Thief of Time? I've never seen it rated especially higher than the pack. Small Gods is the one I seem to usually see rec'd, though my personal favourites (behind NW) are Hat Full of Sky and the non-Discworld Nation.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 26 June 2012 - 09:15 PM

[Baco Xtath]

My favorite Pratchett's (Discworld)

1. Moving Pictures
2. Small Gods
3. Witches Abroad
4. Mort
5. Soul Music
6. Night Watch
7. Interesting Times
8. Lords and Ladies
9. Sourcery
10. Hogfather

[amphibian]

1) The Scar (China Mieville)
2) Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace)
3) Dune (Frank Herbert)
4) A Fire in the Sun (George Alec Effinger)
5) Shalimar the Clown (Salman Rushdie)
6) Chasm City (Alistair Reynolds)
7) Blade of Tyshalle (Matthew dragonfucknuts Stover)
8) Woken Furies (Richard Morgan)
9) Night Watch (Terry Pratchett)
10) Matilda (Roald Dahl)

I feel like I'm being sexist as hell for not having any women on here, but I just can't put a single Diana Wynn Jones book or a single Ursula LeGuin book up here. Their collective bodies of work are better than some of the men here, but I didn't connect as strongly to a single book - even if I like their collectives more.

[worry]

IIRC, there was a thread for best SERIES like a year ago (or bumped a year ago)? And I'm sure there's been multiple favorite authors threads over the years. But I don't know if there was a best body of work type thread (at least in my short time here), especially confined to spec. fiction or genre work.

This post has been edited by worrywort: 27 June 2012 - 03:32 AM

[amphibian]

Ursula LeGuin and DWJ beat the Rodeo's Pants off most of the authors on my list if you go by collective works.

I recently just finished Elizabeth Bear's Jenny Casey books and they were terrific, but none of the three has the freestanding brilliance that The Scar did, despite it being the second of a loosely connected trilogy.

I think thus far, the very best women authors have created more diverse, emotion/thought-provoking and interesting books than all but a handful of the men - which is awesome because women have been greatly underrepresented in terms of literary output for quite a while now. It's all in the brain - if you got a hot brain that can spit fire again and again, you get my money and my praise.

Madeleine L'Engel also deserves mentioning here for a stellar body of work - but A Wrinkle in Time isn't on the level of these others.

This post has been edited by amphibian: 29 June 2012 - 06:15 PM

[worry]

Yah, I've read four (I think) Le Guin books and they're fantastic, but I need to add DWJ to my pile. I know the Howl's movie must be substantially different from the book, as is Miyazaki's tendency, but it does hint that she's more on the playful end of fantasy? Not necessarily Pratchett level meta, but towards that end of the spectrum? And that's good to hear about Elizabeth Bear, cuz a friend of mine wants us to mini-book club Range of Ghosts this summer. I had no idea she was such an accomplished author already though, what with the glut (not necessarily unwelcome, despite the stinkers) of young adult fantasy.

To be honest, while I've read plenty of fantasy compared to the average person, my list is dwarfed by a lot of folks on here so I want to do a bit of catch-up before I ever make one of these lists.

[D'rek]

worrywort, on 27 June 2012 - 03:31 AM, said:

IIRC, there was a thread for best SERIES like a year ago (or bumped a year ago)? And I'm sure there's been multiple favorite authors threads over the years. But I don't know if there was a best body of work type thread (at least in my short time here), especially confined to spec. fiction or genre work.

The Must Reads torunament I ran a while back included both series and indivudal novels, though the top 5 all ended up being series. It was fantasy only, though...

[Eddie Dean]

I'll throw my series in together:

1. Malazan
2. Dresden Files
3. Dark Tower
4. Harry Potter (Fuck you!)
5. Kingkiller Chronicles
6. Black Company
7. Song of Ice and Fire
8. Gentleman Bastards
9. First Law Triilogy
10. Lord of the Rings

Runners up would be anything by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, Way of Kings, etc) and the Wheel of Time.

[Abyss]

If we were going series lady-author Celia Friedman's COLDFIRE trilo would likely be on my top 10 list. I can't quite decide if Rowlings HP would be there tho'.

[Tattersail_]

worrywort, on 21 June 2012 - 01:03 AM, said:

My entire worldview has been rocked from its foundations.

The E.T ride in Universal Studios shows a story of how ET had to get back to his dying planet so he could use his healing touch to save it. Good ride.

[Kruppe's snacky cakes]

Speaking of lady authors, I can't believe I neglected to include Connie Willis in my sci-fi list. Doomsday Book is a work of genius.

[Sebastian White]

Solidsnape, on 20 August 2011 - 12:58 PM, said:

Or,

1. The bible
2. Ikea Catalouge
3. Spot
4. Billy blue hat
5. The Koran
6. A to Z (of my local area)
7. Yellow pages
8. Radio times (don't really need it with sky+)
9. Pizza menu
10. The Gruffalo.


Hope you enjoy.

I have to say, yellow pages - damn "fine" and good to see some multiculturism in there Snape... mind I think Allah would have something to say about him appearing only 5th!

[Alrin]

10. The One Tree (Donaldson)
9. A Canticle for Leibowitz (Miller)
8. The Warrior-Prophet (Bakker)
7. Shriek: An Afterword (VanderMeer)
6. Black Man (Morgan)
5. Deadhouse gates (Erikson)
4. Caine's Law (Stover)
3. The Scar (Mieville)
2. The Book of the New Sun (Wolfe)
1. Blade of Tyshalle (Stover)

Note: It's simply impossible for me to rank the New Sun sequence individually. Sue me.

[Morgoth]

It's nice to see I'm not the only one who would put VanderMeer in the top 10. Although it would be City of Saints and Madmen for me.

[Alrin]

I rate Saints and Madmen pretty highly, but Shriek was just far too meta not to adore.

[joshbhoy]

my top ten fantasy and science fiction books/series in no particular order.

Malazan - Steven Erikson
ASOIF - George RR Martin
Dune - Frank Herbert
Crown of Stars series - Kate Elliott
The Culture Series - Ian M Banks (had to get a fellow Scotsman in there)
Riftwar cycle and subsequent books - Raymond E Feist (although the books after the Serpent War saga are not as good, they are still fun reads.)
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Phillip K Dick (just a fantastic author and his best book in my opinion)
Lyonesse - Jack Vance
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman (just a fantastic book)
Anything by Arthur C Clarke (really cant pick one of his books)

[Bantato_2ch]

• The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss
• Ptolemy's Gate - Jonathan Stroud
• Memories of Ice - Dude, Really?
• Abhorsen - Garth Nix
• Lord Sunday - Garth Nix
• Deadhouse Gates - C'mon, Seriously
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
• Sabriel - Garth Nix
• Gardens of the Moon - *Facepalm*
• The Ring of Solomon - Jonathan Stroud

Honorable Mention:

• The Last Olympian - Rick Riordan
• Sir Thursday - Garth Nix

[atreatiseconcerning]

"Using a more "traditional" definition of sci-fi/fantasy:

1. Dune - Frank Herbert
2. Storm of Swords - George R R Martin
3. Solaris - Stanislaw Lem
4. Lord of Chaos - Robert Jordan
5. Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula Le Guin
6. A Clash of Kings - George R R Martin
7. Shadow Rising - Robert Jordan
8. The Last Argument of Kings - Joe Abercrombie
9. Tales of Prix the Pilot - Stanislaw Lem
10. Stone of Farewell - Tad Williams

Using a more liberal definition of sci-fi/fantasy:

1. Ada, or Ardor - Vladimir Nabokov
2. Dune - Frank Herbert
3. The Trial - Franz Kafka
4. Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
5. Storm of Swords - George R R Martin
6. Solaris - Stanislaw Lem
7. The Illiad
8. Lord of Chaos - Robert Jordan
9. The Left hand of Darkness - Ursula Le Guin
10. Operation Shylock - Phillip Roth

[D'iversify]

Let's see (in no particular order):

Dying of the Light - George RR Martin
Children of Dune - Frank Herbert
Time Out of Joint - Philip K Dick
The Darkness that Comes Before - R Scott Bakker
The Farthest Shore - Ursula Le Guin
The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
Memories of Ice - Steven Erikson (or Toll the Hounds)
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Titus Groan or Gormenghast - Mervyn Peak
A Wheel of Time book is somewhere in there too.
And second Donaldson's One Tree

Edit: Baudolino - Umberto Eco!

This post has been edited by D'iversify: 04 December 2012 - 11:31 AM

[Nevyn]

Top 10
1. Kingkiller Chronicles, Patrick Rothfuss (but if you haven't started reading it yet, wait until book 3 is out, because he takes FOREVER, especially if you're used to SE)
2. Deverrry series, Katharine Kerr
3. Tales of the King's Blades, Dave Duncan
4. Malazan Books , SE and ICE
5. The Seventh Sword, Dave Duncan
6. The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch (I put this book there as a standalone, as I felt the second book fell off)
7. Hunters Haunt, Dave Duncan
8. A Man of His Word, Dave Duncan
9. The Night Angel trilogy, Brent Weeks
10. LOTR, JRR Tolkien

Yes, I'm aware that half my list is Dave Duncan. He gets to cheat on the criteria compared to some others because he has so many completely unrelated series of books, all awesome. While some authors have filled out one imaginary world and told all their stories within, Duncan spends far less time in each, but constantly comes up with a new one that is completely different from what's been done before. That being said, all of the Duncan books in those 4 spots would take less time than half of MBotF or the Deverry series.