The Harry Potter main series, for which I have a major case of nostalgia. I’ll happily and accurately slag JKR off for being a dimwit with terribly stupid opinions, who would need to be both smarter and more committed to make her “make it up as you go along” worldbuilding make any sort of sense at all. Which, bluntly, it doesn’t.

But considering how much of a turnip she is, parts of her worldbuilding is strangely compelling while others fail basic self-consistency.

The Percy Jackson series. You can tell Riordan likes taking his liberties, and there’s a lot of Americanism mixed in with the Greek way of thinking that is supposed to come from tales of Greek gods, but it says something that I like it better than the actual legends from Greek culture.

We are Legion (We are Bob). It’s probably the most fun I’ve had reading science fiction. It’s not a masterpiece, but damn is it entertaining! The whole series is pretty great, and there’s another book coming any month now.

Oh man, that’s a lot of what I read.

Maybe the ‘My Teacher Is An Alien’ series by Bruce Coville, the ‘Blood Oath’ series by Christopher Farnsworth, and the Serpentwar Series by Raymond Feist.

I liked the Dresden Files. Just campy magic gumshoe stuff.

Also a fan of Lamb and Blood Sucking Fiends. Good reads, but not any big huge life shaking moments like other books. But I remember loving the style.

The Phantom Tollbooth

It’s an amazing book, but no one would consider it a masterpiece.

Villains by Necessity by Eve Forward. After the ultimate triumph of good over evil, a group of villains save the world from good. It’s a total inversion of the standard fantasy trope. Highly recommend it for any fantasy fan, doubly so for Dragonlance fans.

The Long Earth series

The sword of Shannara

Oh sweet I get to vent about The August Few: Amygdala by Sam Fennah.

So Sam is primarily a youtuber, he makes animations with these very unique and somewhat disturbing characters and over time he made a bit of a narrative using them, eventually he made it into a 1000 page book. As one might expect looking at his animations this book is very weird, it’s got some extremely interesting and alien worldbuilding which challenges the reader a lot. As a piece of art this book is incredibly effective in that it makes the reader reflect on it’s far reaching themes, but as a book I really kinda hate it.

At the core of the book is the question of what the ideal society is, but only one option is ever really presented, what I can only describe as anarcho-dawinism. When one character opposes this state and proposes the possibility of a kinder and more inclusive society she is betrayed, hung from a balcony over a crowd, she orgasms while choking to death, and “When the body was lowered, it was groped, defiled, spat upon, split.” This is not presented as a bad thing, simply as the people rejecting her idea, the language used is very “marketplace of ideas.”

At the start of the book Sam tries to disavow himself of what he wrote in an author’s note, part of which reads: “The views of the characters are not the views of the author. This book is not a promotion of ideas, but an exploration of ideas.” Sam did not need to make the characters orgasm when they died, he did not need to make them reproduce via necrophilic rape, he did not need to make every characters a literal baby eating cannibal, and he did not need to present social-darwinism as an ideal society, but he did, he choose to write these things.

I hate this book, I read it over a year ago and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, it is a great piece of art.

My favorite book is Galactic Pot-Healer by Philip K Dick. Objectively, it’s not even his best book, but it’s the one I personally connect with most strongly. It’s lovely and heartbreaking and funny and very quotable.

george rr martin’s wildcard series

its actually written by many authors so the quality/styles fluctuate. no real ending either as its more an episodic alternate reality. feels like its missing cohesion.

The Redemption of Althalus. Genre - fantasy. I don’t know why it holds such a dear place in my heart, though I read it the first time as a kid.

My kid is devouring the wings of fire series.

For me I’d say the Children of Man series by Elizabeth C. Mock. I hadn’t read Wheel of Time before starting Children of Man. Now that I have I see a lot of Wheel of Time influence, so in that genre Children of Man isn’t really groundbreaking.

That said though, I still really enjoy the characters and the story, and am anxiously waiting for the release of the 4th (and final) book.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind. I read it years ago and still remember how gripping it was, not sure how well the movie has aged, but it was a fantastic book.