Ruin Explorer
Legend
It's unfortunate that @Whizbang Dustyboots perfectly reasonable request auto-excludes The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, because even though it's a single book/narrative, it's four volumes, otherwise that'd be a lock in. I don't think any single one of the volumes is quite strong enough by itself though, not even The Shadow of the Torturer.
On the basis of a single book, I'd have to agree with a lot of people here that it's A Wizard of Earthsea by LeGuin, if we're really talking pure quality.
However, if we're talking what speaks to us personally most, I'd go with Imajica by Clive Barker, which is a fantasy novel rather than his usual fantasy-horror, and is just an amazing journey and decades before its time, really.
Tigana is extremely close though.
Also Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, is also a very strong contender for me because it single-handedly got me interested in fantasy again, and really, even in reading a lot again. I was flying to the US in, I think 2002, and as I was heading towards the gate I realized I hadn't brought anything to read for an 8+ hour flight (possibly even 11+, I can't remember if I was heading in to NYC or LA, I think we visited both that trip), so I stopped at an airport bookshop, and Perdido Street Station in softback was on a rotating book rack thing, and I thought "Hmmm, the blurb sounds okay, it has an airship on and it's real thick so no way I'll finish it, I guess I might as well", and I picked it, some other novel I forget, and a couple of magazines up. I started reading Perdido and didn't stop for the entire flight, and even after I'd landed and met up with people I just wanted to go to the hotel and keep reading it! Talk about unputdownable! (I also insisted on visiting a lot of bookshops that holiday and buying an awful lot of weird fantasy novels!) It's very hard to re-read knowing where it goes, though.
I've read almost all the books mentioned, I note, and it's a curious thing that I'd say 80%+ of those mentioned are absolutely top-tier stuff, and the rest contains very painfully mid or really clumsy books with nothing to say. But most of them are readable at least and I shall avoid any name-and-shame thread derail! Just assume whatever book you mentioned is in that 80%!
On the basis of a single book, I'd have to agree with a lot of people here that it's A Wizard of Earthsea by LeGuin, if we're really talking pure quality.
However, if we're talking what speaks to us personally most, I'd go with Imajica by Clive Barker, which is a fantasy novel rather than his usual fantasy-horror, and is just an amazing journey and decades before its time, really.
Tigana is extremely close though.
Also Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, is also a very strong contender for me because it single-handedly got me interested in fantasy again, and really, even in reading a lot again. I was flying to the US in, I think 2002, and as I was heading towards the gate I realized I hadn't brought anything to read for an 8+ hour flight (possibly even 11+, I can't remember if I was heading in to NYC or LA, I think we visited both that trip), so I stopped at an airport bookshop, and Perdido Street Station in softback was on a rotating book rack thing, and I thought "Hmmm, the blurb sounds okay, it has an airship on and it's real thick so no way I'll finish it, I guess I might as well", and I picked it, some other novel I forget, and a couple of magazines up. I started reading Perdido and didn't stop for the entire flight, and even after I'd landed and met up with people I just wanted to go to the hotel and keep reading it! Talk about unputdownable! (I also insisted on visiting a lot of bookshops that holiday and buying an awful lot of weird fantasy novels!) It's very hard to re-read knowing where it goes, though.
I've read almost all the books mentioned, I note, and it's a curious thing that I'd say 80%+ of those mentioned are absolutely top-tier stuff, and the rest contains very painfully mid or really clumsy books with nothing to say. But most of them are readable at least and I shall avoid any name-and-shame thread derail! Just assume whatever book you mentioned is in that 80%!
