Quote:
Originally Posted by taosaur
If I have to go with just one 'best,' I'd hesitate because it's such a recent work, but Anathem gets the nod both because of its inherent strengths and intricacies and because it contains and synthesizes virtually the whole of the genre (certainly most of the works mentioned in this thread) without strain or overreach (IMO).
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Hmm, when I said "best", I wasn't thinking of choosing only one (although it's obvious in hindsight that that's what it means, duh!). Rather, I was thinking of choosing books based on some kind of objective merits, rather than emotional ones. What I really wanted to see was people justifying what they thought was best by stating how they thought a book merited that distinction (just as you did when giving your choice).
As GlennD said, "best" can mean so many things. I wanted to see what were people's favourite criteria for best books, rather than just what their favourite books were.
For me, the "best" sci-fi books teach us something fundamental yet unexpected about ourselves, rather than just scratching some emotional itch. My previous choices ("War with the Newts", "Fiasco", "Omon Ra") did just that for me. The Foundation series by Asimov is among my favourites, but I'm skeptical that Seldon's calculus of people can actually work, so I don't think I learned anything new about us in those books. Based on that and my given criterion, I wouldn't rate that series as being among the "best" of sci-fi.
I'm sure others have different ideas of what constitutes "best", and I'm keen to find out what they are.
P.S. I think I'll be checking Anathem out after your description.
