The best fiction I've ever read is...

[Grizl' Bjorn]

Tell us what the best fiction you've ever read is and include a little mini essay on why it is the best you've ever read.

A simple exercise, but I don't think I've seen it done before with the second part. Full disclosure, if interesting patterns emerge in what people say I'm thinking of writing an essay on it. I'll chuck my own response in once/if the thread fills up with a few response.

[Lethologica]

Never? Huh.

[LokeyITP]

Caveats: the single best thing is probably something really short and does everything it wants to do well. Of course there's the problem of the first thing you see in a genre being the best for you and so on.

The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson, 3 door stoppers of historical fiction set mostly in Europe about 1670-1720 that follow the exploits of a gaggle of great characters (real and fictional) among the wars and discoveries (real, anachronistic and some fantasy) of that era.

I really enjoy Stephenson's indulgences in his works, but they're not strictly needed (where he'll generally talk about something he's currently interested in through the characters for a few pages i.e. Leibniz and Fatio at WolfenEtwasButtelSchloss talking about spatial transformations). I could certainly have said Cryptonomicon or The Diamond Age (Hunger Games done way better in half the words) for some of the same reasons too...Stephenson has a lot of really good characters of types that don't usually get to shine.

[veti]

Tell us what the best fiction you've ever read is and include a little mini essay on why it is the best you've ever read.

Ever? I've read a heck of a lot of good fiction in that time. Not easy to pick any one book or series as "the best".

Honourable mentions should go to... well, I started listing books here, but there's just too many, so I'll skip it.

If I have to pick just one work, I'll go with Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost. It's a historical novel set in the (currently trendy) setting of 17th-century England, which tells the story of a murder, investigation, trial and punishment from four different points of view. I like the way one's perception of "truth" changes through the book. The first narrator is likable enough, but seemingly naive; the second is an utter scumbag, but he lets drop nuggets of information that make you view the first in a different light; the third, another deeply unsympathetic git, demonstrates quite convincingly that the first was a liar and the second a lunatic; and the fourth - explains how everything the first three told you was kinda true as far as it went, but really none of them even suspected the most interesting part of the story.

I've always respected authors who can convincingly take on the voice of a narrator from a historical setting (something Stephenson never quite pulls off, in my opinion), and to see one do it four times in one book is quite a feat.

[Killer Angel]

Caveats: the single best thing is probably something really short and does everything it wants to do well.

Then we're probably talking about Fredric Brown. :smallwink:

[Aotrs Commander]

If we define "best" as "has the greatest single influence on my life and unlife" then it is unquestionable Stewart Cowley's Terran Trade Authority Handbook: Spacecraft 2000-2100AD.

It is, in essence, a Jane's guide" to spacecraft, written as a sort of future history from some unspecified point in the future. It is basically an art-book of pictures of starships that Stewart Cowley wove an entire background and story from, just in the entries about each spacecraft, primarily the history of a war between Earth and their Alpha Centauri allies against Proxima Centauri, pieced together through the lens of the descriptions of the starships. It is done without any human (at al) characterisation (there are maybe, like three people mentioned by name in the entire book), concrete proof that you don't need human (or equivilent) characters to tell a good story. (The last few entries, about mysterious aliens wrecks, never fails to evoke a chill.) It's basically pure world-building and it is brilliant.

Both the art and the premise burned straight into my hindbrain since I first saw it as child (it was my Dad's book originally). It lead to a childhood full of drawings of spacecraft, often with the details of their size and weapons loads and performance and design history (and not just spacecraft - aliens animals as well got the same treatment). It lead to a great deal of LEGO starfighters. It contributed greatly to my massive starship obsession. It lead to the way I write all my world-building documentation, essentially "in character" from the point of some unspecified latter-day scholar looking back. It lead, even, directly to my present day job1.

(The Nomad Freighter (https://www.shapeways.com/product/J3VHVHMFD/ssa302-nomad-class-freighter)) is directly inspired from this image...
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IksUsdjVlt4/Tmgdtke8JNI/AAAAAAAAHIE/Md_TTo6Y7Hc/s1600/01-Cam117Gunship.jpg
...of the first ship in the book to be described (the entire SSA fleet is a loving homage to Spacecraft, in fact). It is, in fact, the reason all of my sci-fi models have a fluff description like they do. (Basically, I never stopped drawing spacecraft and writing about them, now my drawing is just in 3D...!



1Which I should probably be working on now instead of typing this, but nevermind...!

[GloatingSwine]

Conservative estimate I read one book a week. Asking me which is the "best" is like asking which is the best brick in my house. It's not a question with a coherent answer.

[Mx.Silver]

Tell us what the best fiction you've ever read is and include a little mini essay on why it is the best you've ever read.

A simple exercise, but I don't think I've seen it done before with the second part.

I suspect that's because if you approach fiction in a manner that prompts you to come-up with mini-essays you're probably not thinking about fiction in terms of 'the single best thing ever'.
Heck, if you're giving any significant level of thought to it, the question of what 'best' would even mean in this context is something that could take an entire essay to resolve in and of itself, assuming it could be reasonably resolved at all.

[Clertar]

Two trilogies:

The Lord of the Rings

Elias Canetti's biographical trilogy

[Pronounceable]

The single best thing I've ever read is a japanese visual novel called When Seagulls Cry (Umineko no naku koro ni). If it was an actual book, it'd be an 8 volume series (english translation is rougly twice as long as LotR). Visual novels in general have a great advantage over ordinary books because they come with their own soundtrack (and sometimes voice acting), except most of them don't really do much with that. Umineko does.

It's also somewhat impossible to define what exactly it is. It starts off as an ordinary mystery: a bunch of people trapped on an island by a typhoon, a murder, claims of the supernatural, etc. But then it steadily goes crazier (and cooler), becoming much more than a simple whodunnit. Sadly it can't be explained further without massively spoiling parts of it. Also I don't know how Umineko would hold up as just books, incredible music (and voice acting) is an integral part of the experience, as are the useful bits it can have due to being a computer program instead of just writing on pages.

Maybe this is cheating, as just words can't compete fairly with words plus music, but I don't care.

[LokeyITP]

If I have to pick just one work, I'll go with Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost. It's a historical novel set in the (currently trendy) setting of 17th-century England, which tells the story of a murder, investigation, trial and punishment from four different points of view. I like the way one's perception of "truth" changes through the book.
So something like The Brothers Karamazov? (While the Kaufmann translation has really, really good prose, there's a book that could stand to lose a few hundred pages.) Sounds like something I should check out.

[Mx.Silver]

Visual novels in general have a great advantage over ordinary books because they come with their own soundtrack (and sometimes voice acting)
I wouldn't say that's an advantage any more than them having pictures is an advantage. Simply a differentiating factor.

[Killer Angel]

If we define "best" as "has the greatest single influence on my life and unlife" then it is unquestionable Stewart Cowley's Terran Trade Authority Handbook: Spacecraft 2000-2100AD

Totally love it. Yeah, the thing got an influence also on me.
But if we go for heavy influence, I could name "Lucky Starr and the moons of Jupiter", by Asimov. I was 10 years old, and it opened a Whole new universe.

[Wookieetank]

I'm gonna throw in for House of Leaves, it is the single most intriguing book I've read. This thing has more layers than a taco bean dip. Trying to figure out which bits are real, which bits are made up by the characters, which characters are real for that matter make for quite the trip. It's not a book for the faint of heart, took me a solid month to get through reading it most every day.

[cobaltstarfire]

I don't read as much as I used to, but I've read a lot, and I couldn't pick out a "best" of the bunch.

But I've found the past couple of years that YA fantasy is often way more interesting to read than a lot of what I've tried that isn't YA. I'm not sure what it is, there's just something more free and interesting about them. Also I can read them in a couple of hours, which is good because usually once I start reading a book I can't put it down. (one exception to this general leaning towards YA fantasy is the super natural subgenre, I don't like it as much. Though I'm not sure if it's just that the reader for the audiobook I tried just sounded like a smarmy asshat, or if I don't like the genre, or maybe the character...it was Percy Jackson)


I suppose if I narrowed the books down to just stuff I've had to read because a class required it of me, it'd probably be a toss up between Enders Game, The Bean Trees, and Their Eyes Were Watching God.

[Mx.Silver]

But I've found the past couple of years that YA fantasy is often way more interesting to read than a lot of what I've tried that isn't YA. I'm not sure what it is, there's just something more free and interesting about them. Also I can read them in a couple of hours, which is good because usually once I start reading a book I can't put it down.
This might have something to do with YA being somewhat separate from 'traditional' fantasy, and therefore more accepting of breaks from the standard model of that genre, where a lot of a lot of fantasy literature has been stagnating for decades. For instance, no one expects that a YA fantasy novel should be at least in the 600-800 page mark (quite the reverse, if anything). Gives it a little more room to breath.
By contrast, the 'supernatural' are of the YA fantasy world has been stuck in a rather narrow set of boundaries for a while now (possibly due to pressure to find 'The Next Harry Potter/Twilight'.

[danzibr]

The single best thing I've ever read is a japanese visual novel called When Seagulls Cry (Umineko no naku koro ni). If it was an actual book, it'd be an 8 volume series (english translation is rougly twice as long as LotR). Visual novels in general have a great advantage over ordinary books because they come with their own soundtrack (and sometimes voice acting), except most of them don't really do much with that. Umineko does.

It's also somewhat impossible to define what exactly it is. It starts off as an ordinary mystery: a bunch of people trapped on an island by a typhoon, a murder, claims of the supernatural, etc. But then it steadily goes crazier (and cooler), becoming much more than a simple whodunnit. Sadly it can't be explained further without massively spoiling parts of it. Also I don't know how Umineko would hold up as just books, incredible music (and voice acting) is an integral part of the experience, as are the useful bits it can have due to being a computer program instead of just writing on pages.

Maybe this is cheating, as just words can't compete fairly with words plus music, but I don't care.
Huh. I didn't know seagull was seacat in Japanese.

For me, I have no clue. Admittedly I haven't read that much, but off the top of my head, there's nothing that sticks out as best. I tend to read longer books.

[Legato Endless]

I wouldn't say that's an advantage any more than them having pictures is an advantage. Simply a differentiating factor.

Agreed, and I would go farther and state it is fact occasionally a limitation. The play with perspective and ambiguity of truth veto praises in their selection is much more difficult to fully embody in a work which offers more tangible details like visuals and music. The burden of a purely prose work to control all tactile information within the text is both a limitation and a powerful tool.

The Rashomon must offer an entire film to attempt to approach something a novel can easily accomplish without any effort whatsoever.

[DomaDoma]

Firestar by Michael Flynn. I wouldn't call it the best series - that would be Chronicles of Prydain, as the most clearly-planned, tied-together, bizarre-left-turn-less series I've ever read - but it's a pretty spiffing four-book series, too.

Basic premise: The heiress to a massive corporate conglomerate happens to witness the daylight shooting star over the Grand Tetons in 1972, and, exceedingly aware of the implications, develops a pathological fear of asteroids. She thus spends the next decades secretly commandeering said conglomerate to Do Something About It. The most intriguing aspect of this involves educational reforms, which we see applied to an assortment of variously screwed-up high school students as it changes their lives. Usually for the better, but all the same it, and everything else the CEO does, is nonetheless a massive conspiracy fueled by an irrational phobia, and she's got serious trust issues from all the years she's spent engineering this. This causes Problems.

However, the general upshot is that the future her conspiracy kick-starts is freaking awesome, and the book is chock-full of practical suggestions as to how it might be brought about.

Read it. Read it now.

[cobaltstarfire]

For instance, no one expects that a YA fantasy novel should be at least in the 600-800 page mark (quite the reverse, if anything). Gives it a little more room to breath.


That makes sense, I think Tamora Pierce for example was originally going to write adult fantasy, but what she was working on worked better as YA for a couple of reasons so that's the path she went down to get published. Though some of her more recent books are starting to hit that higher page count-now that the publisher knows she's a proven writer I guess, they aren't afraid to let her publish longer YA books. Though I think she's said that the success of the Harry Potter books which grew to become door stoppers by the end also gave her leverage on that front.

[Sam113097]

If I've got to choose one book, rather than a series, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho would be my choice.
It's a strange little book. The prose is short, simple, and, in places, reads like an old fable, but that is part of what makes it so enthralling.The real highlight of the books are its themes of destiny, mystery, and choice. It's very allegorical, even dreamlike, and that helps it tell its simple yet profound story.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Though I'm not sure if it's just that the reader for the audiobook I tried just sounded like a smarmy asshat, or if I don't like the genre, or maybe the character...it was Percy Jackson)

Percy is a very snarky guy. I found those books to be alright until the fifth one, at which point it managed to ride on the momentum of being the concluding novel, then Riordan's later series are just not even as good as that.


Best thing I've ever read would be Katawa Shoujo. Well, 2/5ths of Katawa Shoujo. Hell, I'll even say 3/5ths, even though I didn't particularly like that part it was still well-written in the end. It's five different stories. Lilly's and Rin's clearly stand at the top in terms of quality, with Emi's being the third, but the true brilliance of it is that each story is focused on characters with different personalities and written with different themes (though they ultimately share all the themes, it's just a matter of focus. One focuses on the effects that people have on others, one on distance and closeness to others, one on self-improvement, etc.). Pretty much anyone is going to like at least one of them. Also, it's free (http://www.katawa-shoujo.com).

[Peelee]

Short story - The Last Question by Isaac Asimov

When I first read it as a teenager, it was mind-blowing. Even now, it's pretty glorious in its elegance. It is short, simple, and brilliant. It serves as a fictional account of both past and future simultaenously, offering one of the best "what if" scenarios I've ever read.

Novel - Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

In short, it's the best damn action/adventure book I've read. There's no romantic subplot (I don't mind these, I just feel they are drastically overused, and that not every story needs one). The main heroes do not get by on superhuman feats of strength or intelligence, but just utilize their knowledge as best they can, and even then, they are flat-out terrified out of their minds. The cast is huge, and would have been overcrowded if the kill-count wasn't so high. There's no way to tell who will live and who will die, because they are fighting a wonderful foe - nature, in all its uncaring coldness, manifested in multiple forms: the hurricane, the dinosaurs, and even differing personalities and natures of different dinosaurs at that. There was no villain to defeat, no bad guy to kill, there was only survival and escape. Everyone's fate is dictated by how well they can utilize their purely academic knowledge and skills in life-or-death fieldwork. Even the experts, the ones most able to deal with the crisis, are completely out of their element. It's exhilarating.

Plus, ya know, dinosaurs.