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Mosi Mynn

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The Book of Lost Tales, Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien

The Worm Ouroboros, Eddison

Vision of the Future, Zahn

Arthurian Romances, Chrétien

Le Morte Darthur, Malory

A Storm of Swords, Martin

The Last Battle, Lewis

A Princess of Mars, Burroughs

The Dying Earth, Vance

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  • 2 weeks later...

1 - Dangerous Liaisons (Choderlos de Laclos)

2 - Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)

3 - The Silmarillon (Tolkien)

4 - Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)

5 - The Giver (Lois Lowry)

6 - The Power and the Glory (Graham Greene)

7 - Memoirs of Hadrien (Marguerite Yourcenar)

8 - Do androïds dream of electronic sheeps? (Philip K Dick)

9 - Charmed Life (Diana Wynne Jones)

10 - The Scar (Bruce Lowery)

And so many more: HP, LOTR, Hyperion, all Flaubert and Maupassant novels and short stories, all XIXth century Russian novelists...

No need to divide the ranking between fantasy, science-fiction and "classic": the single criteria is the writting. If you are engulfed in the story by each word, each sentence, each paragraph, each chapter, all perfectly built and matching like Russian dolls, with vivid and poetic and efficient descriptions and dialogues, you're reading a good book! No matter if it's the story of an elf conquering the galaxy because of some prophecy or the story of the daily life of a shy handmaiden in a Scottish manor.

 

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LOTR.  Tolkien

Hyperion.  Simmons

A Confederacy of Dunces.  Toole

The Library at Mount Char.  Hawkins

The Demolished Man.  Bester

The Stars My Destination.  Bester

How The Light Gets In.  Penny

A Storm of Swords.  Martin

Lions of Al-Rassan.  Kay

Lord of the Silver Bow.  Gemmell

 

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this is a nearly impossible ask

best therefore to canalize the consequent decalogues into respectable subgenres, for instance, the top ten erotic literature shall be the priapeia, the kama sutra, aretino's ragionamenti, rochester's sodom, cleland's memoirs of a woman of pleasure, de sade's 120 days of sodom, sacher-masoch's venus in furs, krafft-ebing's psychopathia sexualis, genet's lady of the flowers, ballard's crash,

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@Quinze I forgot A Confederacy of Dunces, the kind of novel even our distant descendants will find sharp and accurate...

@sologdin I like the term of "respectable subgenres" :-D And I'd like that book reviewers bear in mind that there is no non-respectable subgenres...

I read all Sade's books (unwillingly!) and excepted Philosophy in the Boudoir that was vaguely funny, I found the other rather boring, especially 120 Days of Sodom (unfinished story with gruesome descriptions, at least Juliette/Justine were well writted and genuinely erotic). I acknowledge I missed the point of the ramping revolt against everything, (including eroticism itself? At least what eroticism was supposed to be in late XVIII century?) that runs throughout this book, but I would not call it an erotic novel.

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10 hours ago, sologdin said:

this is a nearly impossible ask

best therefore to canalize the consequent decalogues into respectable subgenres, for instance, the top ten erotic literature shall be the priapeia, the kama sutra, aretino's ragionamenti, rochester's sodom, cleland's memoirs of a woman of pleasure, de sade's 120 days of sodom, sacher-masoch's venus in furs, krafft-ebing's psychopathia sexualis, genet's lady of the flowers, ballard's crash,

Where's 'The Wise Man's Fear' on this list of top ten erotic novels? I call BS.

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the appropriate sublist would be 'top ten erotic epic fantasy serial novels,': dunno if rothfuss for sex ninjas & virgin training via faerie can be on there, or the fat pink masts and myrish swamps in martin.  maybe lillith's brood for the radical alterity of the sex acts (which are reminiscent of the aliens in the gods themselves). RSB on the ground floor, of course, as an update of the chaste tolkien setting by merging it with de sade. malory states that we're in the 'lusty month of may,' but doesn't deliver anything remotely pornographic.  i wish milton could be on this sublist; he has great descriptions of angels and demons and adam & eve, pre- and post-lapsarian.

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  • 6 months later...

i know that we've done this a million times...i've participated.  regardless, i'm on the verge of amending the list, so i've decided to revisit.  i'm not ready to assign an order BUT, i will say that lamb: the gospel according to biff, christ's childhood pal is a clear #1 for me.  it's regional, contemplative and, above all, the epitome of poignant; i can't move it from #1.  if you haven't read this book and are even remotely acquainted with the christ 'myth', then what are you waiting for?

so, then...

1. lamb

2. use of weapons

3. the lies of locke lamorra

4. a storm of swords

5. altered carbon

after this though?  the water is very muddy.  these continue to hold up...so i can't just arbitrarily replace them.  I refuse to summon poster with the night circus :P , rajaniemi's the quantum thief wants to be a part of the group.  i've recently read the way of kings, and i wonder if sanderson doesn't own rigny's soul...additionally, the hod king is the apex predator of recent books read.

this was FUCKING difficult because i didn't include abercrombie or the lions of al-rassan (the greatest historical novel ever)

what has moved the order for you people recently?

why do we do this to one another?

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On 7/1/2019 at 4:21 PM, HelenaExMachina said:

I would have to cheat and include Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings as one single entry to make my list at all interesting (otherwise it would be Hobb Hobb and Hobb). Note these aren't necessarily based on some kind of objective criteria but my personal favourites or books which for one reason or another hold a special place for me. Not in order but a tough top 10:

The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien. My entry into the fantasy genre from which I have never looked back.

Realm of the Elderlings Robin Hobb. Utterly captivating with such beautiful characters and plot

Howards End E.M. Forster

Bleak House Charles Dickens

The Silmarillion JRR Tolkien/Christopher Tolkien

The Fifth Season N.K. Jemisin

Cloud Atlas David Mitchell

Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen

Harry Potter series J.K Rowling

Lord of the Flies William Golding

Not much to change. Not sure why i missed it at the time but i would add The Dagger and the Coin series by Daniel Abraham. I would swap out Bleak House for this.

And having reread now as an adult, I would add His Dark Materials plus the book of dust. I would swap Harry Potter for this.

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Despite OP saying regardless of genre, I find it more useful to ignore that. :P

* Has only completed series that I've read. 

Best Epic Fantasy: 1) Malazan, 2) Lord of the Rings 3) Wheel of Time

Best YA Fantasy: 1) Harry Potter, 2) Bartimaeus Quadrology 3) Eragorn

Best Steampunk: 1) Ketty Jay 2) 

Best Superhero Fantasy: 1) Chronicles of the Fid 2) Vicious 3) Soon I'll be Invincible

Best Urban Fantasy: 1) Divine Cities 2) Iron Druid 3) Nightside

Best Grimdark Fantasy: 1) First Law 2) Broken Empire 3) 

 

Will complete it later.

 

 

 

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I went so far as to make this nice and tidy in a table. I REGRET NOTHING.

 

1

S. Morgenstern, abridged by William Goldman

The Princess Bride, The ‘Good Parts’ Version

2

Jim Dodge

Not Fade Away

3

William Gibson

Distrust that Particular Flavour

4

Neal Stephenson

Cryptonomicon

5

Virgil

The Aeneid

6

A.S. Byatt

Possession

7

Glenda Guest

Siddon Rock

8

Matthew Stover

Heroes Die

9

Bill Flanagan

U2 at the End of the World

10

Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice

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On 2/19/2020 at 5:22 PM, HelenaExMachina said:

Not much to change. Not sure why i missed it at the time but i would add The Dagger and the Coin series by Daniel Abraham. I would swap out Bleak House for this.

And having reread now as an adult, I would add His Dark Materials plus the book of dust. I would swap Harry Potter for this.

We must Kung fu fight! I strongly dislike HDM. :p

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3 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

We must Kung fu fight! I strongly dislike HDM. :p

It holds up better on a re-read, although Lyra still seems to become regrettably more passive with the introduction of Will. Also, swapped my ranking to place Amber Souglass above Subtle Knife - though Northern Lights is easily still first, the book is lovely.

 However, the addition of La Belle Sauvage and The Secret Commonwealth have improved my opinion of the series quite a bit.

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