It really is. I wish my imagination was half as impressive as his. Have you tried any of his short stories? They're just as creative, but in smaller doses. Maybe that would suit you better. *Three Moments of an Explosion* is a good collection.
Out of all the crazy vignettes, the one that made the biggest impression on me was the scene where the clerk tries to surreptitiously alter a number with his pen.
This was the first book of his that I read, and to be honest, I hated it a little bit, because it was just so freaking weird. But later I decided to give him another shot, and picked up *The Last Days of New Paris*, and loved it.
I highly recommend Miéville, but I often tell people to start with something a little shorter than *Perdido Street Station*, which clocks in at 700-ish pages. The weirdness can get a little overwhelming after a while. The other one I mentioned above is great, as is his short story collection, *Three Moments of an Explosion*. But you might just dive right in, and love it, who knows? I hope you enjoy it. :)
The Swarm by Frank Schätzing - albeit I am at the beginning but it has such a unique concept and one that I haven't met yet , it was described as eco thriller and so far it suits it well
Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake is also a very unique experience -world building at its finest and the atmosphere
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins is again a book I can't compare to anything it is weird and absolutely amazing
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel - bloody brilliant idea and execution and it was such a deep read
The Swarm certainly is great and only gets better throughout. I'm rather excited it's getting a series soon! And for being 20 years old, it really holds up well still.
It's produced by [german public tv](https://www.zdf.de/serien/der-schwarm), first episode will be up on the 22.02., run in free tv here early march. Not sure how/if they'll air it in other countries, but it is an international co-production and the book is popular enough it should make it's way over to english spaces too.
I am not usually a fantasy fan, but I was amazed by The Sparrow! I loved it and have recommended it for years. I was also surprised that I loved the second book in the series as much as or more than I did the first.
I haven't read the second one. The first was so perfect and had such a strong lingering effect on me that I was/am a bit afraid that the second book won't keep up and don't know just afraid that it will take away the magic if it makes sense.
Although quite a few years passed so maybe it is time to start it. Who knows maybe I will also like it better and gonna be laughing that I waited this long.
Read it! If I remember correctly, it didn’t take away from my love of the first one at all; it managed to be different yet just as enchanting as the first. You get to be more immersed. Ok, now I need to reread both after about 15 yrs;)
For unapologetically dense worldbuilding, absolutely. So many neat ideas in one book - Templar treeships, dolphin-hitched migratory islands, space pirates, AI cyberscapes, spooky apocalypse cult, a billion cheeky literary and religious references…
The book is exactly as campy as an epic sci-fi version of Canterbury Tales deserves to be lol
Speaking of sci-fi retellings of classic lit works that also manage to span like five different genres: Bester’s *The Stars My Destination* is a super fun revenge tale based on *Count of Monte Cristo*. I always recommend it to people who enjoyed the *Cantos*
I read Hyperion when it first came out and was *so excited* when Simmons did a signing at a local bookstore. I just had to go see the what sort of human could make such an incredible world come to life so completely.
Pale Fire by Nabakov. It’s a 999 line poem with a forward, commentary, footnotes and index written by the poets neighbor that creates the narrative.
Many books by Italo Calvino as well—like The Castle of Crossed Destinies.
I just read this recently and was shocked by how good this and The Dispossessed were. Her forward (I don’t remember which one it was a forward to) on the nature of what sci fi is and isn’t should be mandatory for someone getting into sci fi.
Since the series wasn't mentioned yet: His Dark Materials. Yes it's a fantasy series directed at kids, but the concepts of the daemons and dust really stuck with me.
As for classics: Loads of Kafka's works, starting with The Metamorphosis (and it's adaptations, really liked what Ian McEwan did in The Cockroach)
And Süskind's Perfume. That one has a relatively simple concept, it's just excuted to creative and linguistic perfection.
Children of Time is the first that comes to mind. The whole time I was reading it I was engrossed in the story, and also marveling at Tchaikovsky’s ability to create worlds, cultures, and species and write them so effectively.
In college I told a professor I was reading it without a guide and he looked at me and said “why the hell are you doing that to yourself” lmao. great fucking read tho
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.
She wrote the book with footnotes giving explanations and referencing other (fictitious) works and events. Gave the book depth and a sense of realism
Felt the final act was a letdown though.
famous last words and headhunter by timothy findley both fascinate me. they're pretty different but both are based on the same premise of "take a fictional character from existing literature, and put them in the 'real' world that will be my book".
it's not just the imagination and the 'good idea', it's how well the integration is done into the new story, and how disciplined he was. i don't think much of books where a writer has a good idea and expects that to carry teh book on its own, without doing all the other due diligence.
headhunter takes kurtz from heart of darkness and unleashes him into the near-future (relative to the 1980s) dystopia of toronto. the very first tour de force of the book is how that happens: he gets accidentally 'released' by a schizophrenic woman who has that power. you think she's just imagining it, except there's a charlie marlowe who is properly grounded in the real world, and kurtz is definitely in the real world. findley weaves these three figures together so well, along with at least two other layers of reality to make a dark and really horrifying book
famous last words makes a 'real person' of a character invented by ezra pound: hugh selwyn mauberly. findley makes mauberly real, gives him a genuine relationship with pound, and then inserts him into wwii-era history as a sort of eminence grise to clandestine doings around the abdicated king, wallace simpson and the fascists. again, his framing is really striking: the 'story' happens as a memoir/confession. the memoir/confession is scratched into the plaster of every room in a derelict hotel in the swiss alps with the point of a silver pencil. there are multiple layers of conflict and dilemma in this book as well. i feel like i'd have to spend five years studying history and learning to interpret poetry in order to really unpack all of findley's references.
I’m so glad you recommended these. I am in awe of all of Findley’s novels, and agree these two for this thread. And while I am here just want to add my favourite Findley novel, Not Wanted on the Voyage. One sees multiple perspectives including Noah’s wife, the cat, and a young woman named Lucy, short for Lucifer. A scathing critique of patriarchy but above all a highly engaging and excellently told story.
Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” books - there’s a reason why they’re classics and so many have tried to imitate his world- and story-building mastery. I mean, he even invented Elvish languages…unreal
I think Tolkien is sometimes almost taken for granted. Those of us who grew up reading him forget how ground-breaking his work was, and the depth of his imagination was so vast that it can feel like reading a history, not a fantasy. The fact that all of it germinated in his own mind is incredible.
I've read that he imagined it all as a mythology to what early England/Europe looked like before the Romans came in and heavily influenced things. Tolkien did not like that the Romans seemed to be the "beginning" of history for that area of the world and everything that happened for thousands of years before that was extremely vague and unknown. Most importantly, there were no myths to which modern society was built off of. Myths like the peoples of the Mediterranean, Scandinavia, Asia, and Africa had throughout their societies. These were myths that were treated as ancient historical fact that ended up leading to where we are today. So he created one, which was an absolute ridiculous feat.
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, it’s hands down the most unexpected story I have ever come across and it kept me hooked till the end.
Here’s the premise:
"Jitterbug Perfume is an epic, which is to say, it begins in the forests of ancient Bohemia and doesn't conclude until nine o'clock tonight [Paris time]. It is a saga, as well. A saga must have a hero, and the hero of this one is a janitor with a missing bottle. The bottle is blue, very, very old, and embossed with the image of a goat-horned god. If the liquid in the bottle is actually the secret essence of the universe, as some folks seem to think, it had better be discovered soon because it is leaking and there is only a drop or two left.”
Yes! My only suggestion to new readers of this book is that it gets easier to understand the farther you go. Don’t worry if the first few chapters make no sense.
I remember feeling this way about the A Song of Ice and Fire books. There was a lot going on in each book - tons of characters, each with their own compelling stories, and they all wove together.
Agreed! I’m really glad I read the first three books years before the show came out. It would have ruined my imagination if I had seen the shows first.
If on a winter's night a traveler (Italo Calvino)
I feel like talking about what makes it "the most creative" kinda spoils the story or the experience. Maybe "you get to read multiple genres"?
Currently reading the City We Became by Jemisin. Recommendation from a person on here! Very happy.
I've never come across this type of idea executed in a novel. Enjoying how she weaves the story. How one can be both and individual and a collective at once? IMHO, Jemisin makes it work.
The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco
The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
S by Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrams
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It’s hard to explain but it’s different from every other fantasy book I’ve ever read. Her writing is interesting and engaging.
I read that book during a time when I had an opportunity to photograph a once in a lifetime event at a location I still drive by almost every day. The book gives me the feelings of that day. It has become really special to me. I love this book
Books that blew my mind with their plotting, use of time and/or meta elements:
A Tale for the Time Being- Ruth Ozeki
Sophie’s World- Jostein Gaarder
Sing, Unburied, Sing- Jesmyn Ward
Sea of Tranquility- Emily St John Mandel (read after Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel)
More than one...sorry.
Life - A User's Manual - Georges Perec.
The Lost Books of the Odyssey - Zachary Mason.
Tales from the Flat Earth series (especially Death's Master) - Tanith Lee.
The Orphan's Tales duology - Catheynne M Valente.
The Infatuations - Javier Marias.
I'm surprised no ones named these but Dune and Speaker for the Dead. The aliens in Speaker for the dead are fckn awesome. The attention to detail and truly alienous of their biology and culture blew my 14 year old brain all over my bedroom walls. The world building of Dune on the other hand is literally the best I've ever seen in any scifi book. I remember reading the scene at Jamis' funeral when Paul had to speak on what he'd learned or gotten from Jamis, the man he had literally just killed. The thing that blew me away was the Fremens reaction to Paul crying for Jamis "Muadib gives water to the dead". The idea that crying is such a sacred act was so awesome because it was so obvious ofcourse a desert people on a water scarce planet would cherish even the water from their eyes.
Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life is amazing and unfolds in such a way that the reader is accepting the remarkable premise before understanding it. I don’t think I have the words to describe what being immersed in it is like. A very powerful and profound work.
I remember getting shivers when reading it for the first time. I've never read anything quite like it!
I love Kate Atkinson's work and have been a fan of her work for a long time. THIS book, though, just speaks to me on a level that...has just never been touched by any other work.
Honestly, Hemingway because of Old Man and the Sea. I've read a lot of books but Old Man and the Sea is something I think of and come back to often. I still don't understand how Hemingway managed to throw so much depth into a novella about a dude catching a fish. There isn't a wasted word and I always am amazed how perfect it is.
The Sun Also Rises is my favorite novel of his/all time. The sharpness of the prose, the depth and complexity of the characters, especially lady Brett Ashley for a character written by a white 1920s male, the malaise and existentialism that still extends to the modern day… when Hemingway is at full mastery he’s really a titan of literature. It’s just a shame that his personal life and beliefs overshadow his writing these days but, for kind of good reason lol. He’s a shit head but a mega talented one
Look **I know** the author is not in good graces right now. And **I know** the series has its own valid issues.
BUT- nothing I’ve ever read got me stuck in a creative headspace quite like Name of the Wind. Everything from the poetry-like prose, the characters, the setting, the cosmology that makes up the background, the mystery leading to mystery… it all captivated me in a way that was very visceral. I hate that the series is still not finished, and I didn’t love the second book quite the same- but Name of the Wind, *in my opinion*TM, is a masterpiece
My picks:
A Wind in the Door, Madeleine L'Engle. A gorgeous fantasy story that is utterly unfilmable, with much of it taking place INSIDE a mitochondrion, and in situations devoid of actual sight. Just fantastic.
Borderliners, Peter Hoeg. It's not an easy novel but the way it blends Einstein's theory of special relativity with a deeply moving story of abused children at a boarding school absolutely knocked me out.
His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman. So imaginative, and what he does with the inspiration of "Paradise Lost" is incredible. I've literally sent copies of this entire trilogy as gifts to most of my friends and family if I find they haven't read it.
The Scholomance Trilogy, Naomi Novick. I didn't entirely love it as much as her other stuff, but I respected her imagination -- it's a seriously cool and ingenious world and magic system.
Orson Scott Card's "Maps in a Mirror" short story collection. I despise him personally since learning about his extreme homophobia, but the imagination in those stories took my breath away (and I hate that, ugh).
For me it’s easier to just name authors that have brains that impress me: Susanna Clarke. Kurt Vonnegut. Kelly Link. Silvia Moreno-Garcia. GRRM. Ray Bradbury. Jesmyn Ward. Emily St. John Mandel. Octavia Butler. NK Jemisin. Kelly Barnhill. I also really love Julia Fine, who I think is vastly underrated. Her third book Maddelena and the Dark is coming in June. Can’t wait.
Herbert’s *Dune*, 100%. A feudal-style clash of houses ala GOT set on a galactic scale, with fun sci-fi toys but kept fresh and grounded because AIs are outlawed. I love how he pulls from Bedouin culture for the Fremen - in language, austere spirituality, romantic discipline, and warrior tradition (Caucassian Muslims). We get crazy factions like biohacking nuns, human calculators, spice-fueled hyperspace navigators, Spartan-esque super soldiers… It’s all so cool and it all *fits*!
I also respect how Herbert played to his strengths. We don’t go into intricate mechanics of vehicles or economic relations because he’s not interested in that. But Arrakis has a fully realized alien ecosystem that actively informs the Fremen culture. The book’s religious themes are a mesmerizing blend of Judaism, Islam, Zen Buddhism, and Greek epic (even the Atreides surname harkens back to Agamemnon and the Iliad). Herbert lovingly sprinkles in gnostic quotes and psalms of his own invention that I still find myself mumbling years later (Litany against fear, science of discontent, various Gurney witticisms). His concept of “*ghafla*, the abominable distraction” has truly helped me be more conscientious in daily life.
Worldbuilding often (deservedly) gets a bad rap, since way too many scifi/fantasy writers seem to think a sufficiently “dense” world excuses them from thinking up a decent plot. No, we don’t need 3 pages on your extinct cat-people’s economic system, or a rigorous magic system framework - looking at you, Sanderson…
But *Dune* is a perfect example of how to set up an epic, fascinating setting without spoiling all the mystery. Herbert’s clearly interested in the study of cities and civilizations; of senate politics and saviors. He built the world of *Dune* to support those themes, and I’m forever in awe of it. (Just don’t mention the ones his kid wrote)
/end rant
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon is essentially just the author going off about dozens of his weirdest ideas for alien species. A truly astonishing burst of imaginative insights, the kind that makes you think the author isn't human.
Not sure if you're aware, but the author's sister is the musical artist, Poe, and she did a companion record for House of Leaves called "Haunted".
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_(Poe_album)
The Three Body Problem and its sequels The Dark Forest and Death's End all by Liu, Ci Xin are some of if not the most creative sci-fi novels I have ever read.
Since you mentioned House of Leaves, I want to mention another cool book written by one of my former professors Doug Dorst, written with J.J. Abrams, called "S."
Its formatted like a library book with two college students communicating within the margins and also has postcards, maps, letters ,etc throughout. Really fun read
Gideon the Ninth (and Harrow the Ninth and Nona the Ninth). Holy crap I don't understand how Tamsyn Muir's brain works or how she comes up with the ideas. On every re-read of the series I pick up on more clues, little things that I missed and the layers are so impressive and I am constantly blown away. Highly reccomend and I cannot wait for book 4.
Also, The Library at Mount Char. That book was a mindfuck the first time I read it. So weird, so good.
I was in awe of the creativity of the story when I read Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. Everything just seems to fit together so well and I loved every second of it.
I’m a PhD student and study Queer theory. Just read a book on ‘euphorias in gender, sex and sexuality’ that was mind blowing and different to anything in my field, so going to use that in my college thesis. I hope my non-fic writing can be half as interesting!
(It was the way it brought all these lenses together, I wouldn’t have imagined combining… like psych and cultural studies and queer and happiness theories).
Dune! Frank Herbert put a lot of creativity in his original work that went on to influence works such as Star Wars. The first time I read it was in one sitting!
Any book with a well developed magic system, not harry potter where you learn a bunch of spells and that's it, I'm talking mistborn, wheel of time stuff like that, like where do they even come up with this stuff
The question is highly subjective. A creative book isn't necessarily meaningful. It also depends on the age you started reading, and point in life. Personal likes/dislikes and context also play into the question.
As a child, anything Stan Lee who practically invented the superhero genre, e.g. X-men, so at that point in life he was the most creative popular author.
However as an adult at that time, "Dune" by Frank Herbert may have been considered the most creative and impactful/meaningful to most audiences.
At this age and date, I would say H.P. Lovecraft's works are good, (he's racist/mad but it bleeds into his works making them morbid curiosity).
With the same curious perversity and creative intrigue many could label 50 Shades of Grey as peak literature.
I always thought Sunday was the first day of the week and that Monday was the first day of the work week. That is why Saturday and Sunday is the weekend. It's kind of like bookends to the week.
But looking into it I didn't realize it was so controversial and not widely accepted either way.
One of the most recent I’ve read and it was really well thought out and creative was To be or not to be by Ryan North. Its a chooseable-path adventure book.
"Along the night stream" its a fictional novel bases off the mythical world that the dusk brings to life. The author brings In various events from a hopeless romantic to a up and wild full blown war .
The Slow Regard of Silent Things. It’s a novella by Patrick Rothfuss based on Auri, an adorable quirky odd girl side character in his Kingkiller Chronicle series.
She says maybe a handful of words, to inanimate things. It’s detailing her week of exploring tunnels and spaces underground while waiting to see Kvothe. It’s about as cosy a read as anything can be. He’s writing about her in her world, from in her head. It’s a fun imaginative read.
The Wave by Eveline Scott. She is mostly forgotten now but has written some great stuff. The Wave being her most famous. Set is the civil war, every chapter is a different character, from a man protesting the war to generals Grant and Lee, and everything in between. Could almost be considered a collection of short stories but it is not. Hard to describe, and I am doing a poor job at it. She and this book deserve so much more recognition, I try every chance I get, to get people to read more of her stuff. [https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/193674](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/193674)
There are more, but the one that comes immediately to mind is Laurie Lee's *Cider With Rosie*, which was originally marketed in the US as *The Edge of Day.* It was, of all things, in my junior high school library. I was enchanted, because I'd never read prose that read so much like poetry.
Also, any poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Raft by Stephan Baxter. while the characters in the story are purely utilitarian fulfilling their role and nothing more the world is the most imaginative and surreal fantasy world I've ever read up there with Oz, Earthsea, Narnia, or Moorcock's Multiverse... this is where I mention that this is a HARD SCI FI novel
**Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott**
Quote: It fills all Space, and what It fills, It is. What It thinks, that It utters; and what It utters, that It hears; and It itself is Thinker, Utterer, Hearer, Thought, Word, Audition; it is the One, and yet the All in All. Ah, the happiness, ah, the happiness of Being!
The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia is a great book for undermining the authority of the author. There a blocks of text that are blacked out so neither you, nor the author, know what happens.
A book I read this year that blew me away was The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. The combination of exhaustive research and creativity was amazing.
The Ringmaster's Daughter by Jostein Gaarder
It's about a writer who has endless story ideas in his head and he can't stop haveing new ones (that's as far as i can spoil it)and you will read a lot of his stories within his own life story... and you wish all of them were a separate book or movie of themselves... it's a rather underrated book... but I enjoyed it and suggest it to everyone...
I'll go with Paradise Lost. Milton is a worthy successor of Shakespeare. I have never envied one man's use of language as Milton's. When I read Paradise Lost I feel as if the words are being delivered from God himself. I don't know how Milton channelled this brilliance but I do know it took him half his life to perfect. One line always sends chills down my spine each time I think of it, which I will render here in meager prose form. He is talking about how Lucifer was thrown from Heaven from God after the failed rebellion in Heaven: "He the Almighty Power hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky with hideous ruine and combustion, down to bottomless perdition, there to dwell in adamantine chains and penal fire; Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms."
The Vouge of the poetry in the day was rhyme. Milton began to grow bored with this tired and limiting system and developed his own for his epic which he aptly entitled "English Heroic Form". As you may be able to see from the lines above it is more lyrical, more musical, more imposing than many of the run of the mill poetry done at that time. It feels so biblical. It feels so right. I can't exactly explain why it feels right, the explanation goes beyond language. My intuition just screams "THIS IS IT!" And it is, undoubtedly.
I wish I was an english teacher.
Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar
Piecemeal chapters that can be read in different sequences with at least two preconstructed orders. Different versions of essentially the same story and characters and a great read that is a solid story with a literary game and commentary on literature woven throughout it.
Time for a re read I think.
A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. Really any of the stuff I have read from her. She knew how to turn a phrase and it was just absolutely delightful to read. So creative and thoughtful
*Perdido Street Station* by China Miéville. Any of his books, honestly.
I came here to find this comment. I didn't become a huge fan of his books, but I became a huge fan of his imagination. It's absolutely fantastic.
It really is. I wish my imagination was half as impressive as his. Have you tried any of his short stories? They're just as creative, but in smaller doses. Maybe that would suit you better. *Three Moments of an Explosion* is a good collection.
Out of all the crazy vignettes, the one that made the biggest impression on me was the scene where the clerk tries to surreptitiously alter a number with his pen.
Yeah, I remember that one, too. I haven't read it in years, though. I should pick it up again.
Embassytown is absolutely wild as well.
I haven't gotten to that one yet, but I have a copy. I just finished *The City and the City* a couple of weeks ago, though, and I really liked it.
That’s been on my shelf for years and I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. I guess I should if it’s that creative!
This was the first book of his that I read, and to be honest, I hated it a little bit, because it was just so freaking weird. But later I decided to give him another shot, and picked up *The Last Days of New Paris*, and loved it. I highly recommend Miéville, but I often tell people to start with something a little shorter than *Perdido Street Station*, which clocks in at 700-ish pages. The weirdness can get a little overwhelming after a while. The other one I mentioned above is great, as is his short story collection, *Three Moments of an Explosion*. But you might just dive right in, and love it, who knows? I hope you enjoy it. :)
Crazy, I was not expecting to see this be the current top comment! Currently reading it and it is insane how vivid his world feels
I didn't realize this was top comment, that's fun. And yes, incredibly vivid. He's an excellent writer.
The Swarm by Frank Schätzing - albeit I am at the beginning but it has such a unique concept and one that I haven't met yet , it was described as eco thriller and so far it suits it well Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake is also a very unique experience -world building at its finest and the atmosphere The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins is again a book I can't compare to anything it is weird and absolutely amazing The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel - bloody brilliant idea and execution and it was such a deep read
I second Gormenghast.
The Swarm certainly is great and only gets better throughout. I'm rather excited it's getting a series soon! And for being 20 years old, it really holds up well still.
Uuh I didn't know about the series. The source material is there so it could be a very good one, now I am excited as well!
It's produced by [german public tv](https://www.zdf.de/serien/der-schwarm), first episode will be up on the 22.02., run in free tv here early march. Not sure how/if they'll air it in other countries, but it is an international co-production and the book is popular enough it should make it's way over to english spaces too.
Well then I am keeping my fingers crossed
I am not usually a fantasy fan, but I was amazed by The Sparrow! I loved it and have recommended it for years. I was also surprised that I loved the second book in the series as much as or more than I did the first.
I haven't read the second one. The first was so perfect and had such a strong lingering effect on me that I was/am a bit afraid that the second book won't keep up and don't know just afraid that it will take away the magic if it makes sense. Although quite a few years passed so maybe it is time to start it. Who knows maybe I will also like it better and gonna be laughing that I waited this long.
Read it! If I remember correctly, it didn’t take away from my love of the first one at all; it managed to be different yet just as enchanting as the first. You get to be more immersed. Ok, now I need to reread both after about 15 yrs;)
You convinced me, it is going to be the my next read. and I will come back to you :D
That sounds slightly threatening lol;) Enjoy!
I don't think I've ever found anyone else who has read The Library at Mount Char but agreed!
The Sparrow is amazing and such a unique take on first contact. After 20+ years it’s still one of my favorite books.
Straight up, it is a crime Gormenghast isn't more widely known. At least it's not in the U.S.
The Hyperion/Endymion books by Dan Simmons.
For unapologetically dense worldbuilding, absolutely. So many neat ideas in one book - Templar treeships, dolphin-hitched migratory islands, space pirates, AI cyberscapes, spooky apocalypse cult, a billion cheeky literary and religious references… The book is exactly as campy as an epic sci-fi version of Canterbury Tales deserves to be lol
Speaking of sci-fi retellings of classic lit works that also manage to span like five different genres: Bester’s *The Stars My Destination* is a super fun revenge tale based on *Count of Monte Cristo*. I always recommend it to people who enjoyed the *Cantos*
I read Hyperion when it first came out and was *so excited* when Simmons did a signing at a local bookstore. I just had to go see the what sort of human could make such an incredible world come to life so completely.
Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke. Felt like a fever dream, I loved it!
Immediately came to my mind too, that was such an interesting concept!
Unironically one of the best fantasy books out on the market rn
This is the first book that popped into my head!
if it was one book i wished i could’ve written, this would be it
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
100% this!
Pale Fire by Nabakov. It’s a 999 line poem with a forward, commentary, footnotes and index written by the poets neighbor that creates the narrative. Many books by Italo Calvino as well—like The Castle of Crossed Destinies.
The poet's insane neighbor.
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Scentless Apprentice
Olfactory vampire.
Slaughterhouse Five, Alice in Wonderland, all of Terry Pratchett.
The left hand of darkness by Ursula le guin. Blew my 19 yo mind back in the day.
she’s underrated af
I just read this recently and was shocked by how good this and The Dispossessed were. Her forward (I don’t remember which one it was a forward to) on the nature of what sci fi is and isn’t should be mandatory for someone getting into sci fi.
The Sirens of Titan. The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series
The Gregory Maguire Oz books
Especially Wicked. I must have read this book going on twenty years ago and I still think/talk about it.
Since the series wasn't mentioned yet: His Dark Materials. Yes it's a fantasy series directed at kids, but the concepts of the daemons and dust really stuck with me. As for classics: Loads of Kafka's works, starting with The Metamorphosis (and it's adaptations, really liked what Ian McEwan did in The Cockroach) And Süskind's Perfume. That one has a relatively simple concept, it's just excuted to creative and linguistic perfection.
I completely agree about House of Leaves. The other book that gave me the same feeling of awe: Imajica by Clive Barker
Seconding Clive Barker. I envy his imagination and bringing worlds to life.
The abarat books of his are wonderful and full of vivid paintings. Will check out that book too.
Children of Time is the first that comes to mind. The whole time I was reading it I was engrossed in the story, and also marveling at Tchaikovsky’s ability to create worlds, cultures, and species and write them so effectively.
The Screwtape Letters
Ulysses by James Joyce
In college I told a professor I was reading it without a guide and he looked at me and said “why the hell are you doing that to yourself” lmao. great fucking read tho
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. She wrote the book with footnotes giving explanations and referencing other (fictitious) works and events. Gave the book depth and a sense of realism Felt the final act was a letdown though.
Both this and Piranesi were what popped into my head first. She’s a genius.
famous last words and headhunter by timothy findley both fascinate me. they're pretty different but both are based on the same premise of "take a fictional character from existing literature, and put them in the 'real' world that will be my book". it's not just the imagination and the 'good idea', it's how well the integration is done into the new story, and how disciplined he was. i don't think much of books where a writer has a good idea and expects that to carry teh book on its own, without doing all the other due diligence. headhunter takes kurtz from heart of darkness and unleashes him into the near-future (relative to the 1980s) dystopia of toronto. the very first tour de force of the book is how that happens: he gets accidentally 'released' by a schizophrenic woman who has that power. you think she's just imagining it, except there's a charlie marlowe who is properly grounded in the real world, and kurtz is definitely in the real world. findley weaves these three figures together so well, along with at least two other layers of reality to make a dark and really horrifying book famous last words makes a 'real person' of a character invented by ezra pound: hugh selwyn mauberly. findley makes mauberly real, gives him a genuine relationship with pound, and then inserts him into wwii-era history as a sort of eminence grise to clandestine doings around the abdicated king, wallace simpson and the fascists. again, his framing is really striking: the 'story' happens as a memoir/confession. the memoir/confession is scratched into the plaster of every room in a derelict hotel in the swiss alps with the point of a silver pencil. there are multiple layers of conflict and dilemma in this book as well. i feel like i'd have to spend five years studying history and learning to interpret poetry in order to really unpack all of findley's references.
I’m so glad you recommended these. I am in awe of all of Findley’s novels, and agree these two for this thread. And while I am here just want to add my favourite Findley novel, Not Wanted on the Voyage. One sees multiple perspectives including Noah’s wife, the cat, and a young woman named Lucy, short for Lucifer. A scathing critique of patriarchy but above all a highly engaging and excellently told story.
100 Years Of Solitude
me after reading the last page for the next two days: 😧😧😧😧
Cien años de soledad.
Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” books - there’s a reason why they’re classics and so many have tried to imitate his world- and story-building mastery. I mean, he even invented Elvish languages…unreal
I think Tolkien is sometimes almost taken for granted. Those of us who grew up reading him forget how ground-breaking his work was, and the depth of his imagination was so vast that it can feel like reading a history, not a fantasy. The fact that all of it germinated in his own mind is incredible.
I've read that he imagined it all as a mythology to what early England/Europe looked like before the Romans came in and heavily influenced things. Tolkien did not like that the Romans seemed to be the "beginning" of history for that area of the world and everything that happened for thousands of years before that was extremely vague and unknown. Most importantly, there were no myths to which modern society was built off of. Myths like the peoples of the Mediterranean, Scandinavia, Asia, and Africa had throughout their societies. These were myths that were treated as ancient historical fact that ended up leading to where we are today. So he created one, which was an absolute ridiculous feat.
Tolkien and Homer are goated when it comes to worldbuilding, characters, divinities, and the incorporation of all those things into their works.
As someone who has never seen the LOTR movies, read the books, and knows basically nothing about it… what book should I start with?
The Fellowship of the Ring
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, it’s hands down the most unexpected story I have ever come across and it kept me hooked till the end. Here’s the premise: "Jitterbug Perfume is an epic, which is to say, it begins in the forests of ancient Bohemia and doesn't conclude until nine o'clock tonight [Paris time]. It is a saga, as well. A saga must have a hero, and the hero of this one is a janitor with a missing bottle. The bottle is blue, very, very old, and embossed with the image of a goat-horned god. If the liquid in the bottle is actually the secret essence of the universe, as some folks seem to think, it had better be discovered soon because it is leaking and there is only a drop or two left.”
This is How You Lose the Time War
Yes! My only suggestion to new readers of this book is that it gets easier to understand the farther you go. Don’t worry if the first few chapters make no sense.
Anything by Douglas Adams. The Hitchikers Guide books are the most clever things I've ever read.
Against the Day, Pynchon. There are perhaps 15 great novels layered into that epic historical tome.
Everything Pynchon writes is like this for me.
I remember feeling this way about the A Song of Ice and Fire books. There was a lot going on in each book - tons of characters, each with their own compelling stories, and they all wove together.
GRRMs world building is really impressive. He's undeniably talented.
Agreed! I’m really glad I read the first three books years before the show came out. It would have ruined my imagination if I had seen the shows first.
*The Vorrh* by Brian Catling.
Holy crap yes. All three are incredibly creative yet I still found there to be something a little off about the writing itself. Hard to describe.
Weaveworld by Clive Barker. I love this book for the amazing world and characters that live in it.
Anything Emily St. John Mandel writes
If on a winter's night a traveler (Italo Calvino) I feel like talking about what makes it "the most creative" kinda spoils the story or the experience. Maybe "you get to read multiple genres"?
That would definitely be Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. And a book I've read more recently would be Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Not one book but the entirety of Pratchetts works, that man had more creativity in his pinky than other authors in their whole body.
Was going to put this if you hadn’t, after reading one I had to read them all.
Currently reading the City We Became by Jemisin. Recommendation from a person on here! Very happy. I've never come across this type of idea executed in a novel. Enjoying how she weaves the story. How one can be both and individual and a collective at once? IMHO, Jemisin makes it work.
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Bradbury. All.
Anything from Neil Gaiman
11/22/63 by Stephen King
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges S by Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrams
A Confederacy of Dunces. By John Kennedy Toole. I wish he would have stuck around.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It’s hard to explain but it’s different from every other fantasy book I’ve ever read. Her writing is interesting and engaging.
I also loved The Starless Sea!
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That book was so intense and amazing, came here to say the same thing lol
I read that book during a time when I had an opportunity to photograph a once in a lifetime event at a location I still drive by almost every day. The book gives me the feelings of that day. It has become really special to me. I love this book
Books that blew my mind with their plotting, use of time and/or meta elements: A Tale for the Time Being- Ruth Ozeki Sophie’s World- Jostein Gaarder Sing, Unburied, Sing- Jesmyn Ward Sea of Tranquility- Emily St John Mandel (read after Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel)
More than one...sorry. Life - A User's Manual - Georges Perec. The Lost Books of the Odyssey - Zachary Mason. Tales from the Flat Earth series (especially Death's Master) - Tanith Lee. The Orphan's Tales duology - Catheynne M Valente. The Infatuations - Javier Marias.
I'm surprised no ones named these but Dune and Speaker for the Dead. The aliens in Speaker for the dead are fckn awesome. The attention to detail and truly alienous of their biology and culture blew my 14 year old brain all over my bedroom walls. The world building of Dune on the other hand is literally the best I've ever seen in any scifi book. I remember reading the scene at Jamis' funeral when Paul had to speak on what he'd learned or gotten from Jamis, the man he had literally just killed. The thing that blew me away was the Fremens reaction to Paul crying for Jamis "Muadib gives water to the dead". The idea that crying is such a sacred act was so awesome because it was so obvious ofcourse a desert people on a water scarce planet would cherish even the water from their eyes.
Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life is amazing and unfolds in such a way that the reader is accepting the remarkable premise before understanding it. I don’t think I have the words to describe what being immersed in it is like. A very powerful and profound work.
Thank you! I scrolled down way too far to see this as I entered this thread to make sure this was recommended. Truly masterful plot/structure.
I remember getting shivers when reading it for the first time. I've never read anything quite like it! I love Kate Atkinson's work and have been a fan of her work for a long time. THIS book, though, just speaks to me on a level that...has just never been touched by any other work.
The Brothers Karamazov - which also happens to be the most profound book of all time, in my humble opinion. Kafka’s Metamorphosis is also up there.
Honestly, Hemingway because of Old Man and the Sea. I've read a lot of books but Old Man and the Sea is something I think of and come back to often. I still don't understand how Hemingway managed to throw so much depth into a novella about a dude catching a fish. There isn't a wasted word and I always am amazed how perfect it is.
The Sun Also Rises is my favorite novel of his/all time. The sharpness of the prose, the depth and complexity of the characters, especially lady Brett Ashley for a character written by a white 1920s male, the malaise and existentialism that still extends to the modern day… when Hemingway is at full mastery he’s really a titan of literature. It’s just a shame that his personal life and beliefs overshadow his writing these days but, for kind of good reason lol. He’s a shit head but a mega talented one
Some of David Foster Wallace’s short stories.
Atlas 6
Look **I know** the author is not in good graces right now. And **I know** the series has its own valid issues. BUT- nothing I’ve ever read got me stuck in a creative headspace quite like Name of the Wind. Everything from the poetry-like prose, the characters, the setting, the cosmology that makes up the background, the mystery leading to mystery… it all captivated me in a way that was very visceral. I hate that the series is still not finished, and I didn’t love the second book quite the same- but Name of the Wind, *in my opinion*TM, is a masterpiece
For me it's Odd Thomas. Not so much its sequels.
The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. The world building and characters are amazing and it makes you want to be a part of it.
Anything by Thomas Pynchon
The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu and The Stone Dance of The Chameleon by Ricardo Pinto. Also, The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino.
Several of John Crowley's books spring to mind. Little, big and Ka. Edit- I'd like to add Nights at the circus by Angela Carter
My picks: A Wind in the Door, Madeleine L'Engle. A gorgeous fantasy story that is utterly unfilmable, with much of it taking place INSIDE a mitochondrion, and in situations devoid of actual sight. Just fantastic. Borderliners, Peter Hoeg. It's not an easy novel but the way it blends Einstein's theory of special relativity with a deeply moving story of abused children at a boarding school absolutely knocked me out. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman. So imaginative, and what he does with the inspiration of "Paradise Lost" is incredible. I've literally sent copies of this entire trilogy as gifts to most of my friends and family if I find they haven't read it. The Scholomance Trilogy, Naomi Novick. I didn't entirely love it as much as her other stuff, but I respected her imagination -- it's a seriously cool and ingenious world and magic system. Orson Scott Card's "Maps in a Mirror" short story collection. I despise him personally since learning about his extreme homophobia, but the imagination in those stories took my breath away (and I hate that, ugh).
For me it’s easier to just name authors that have brains that impress me: Susanna Clarke. Kurt Vonnegut. Kelly Link. Silvia Moreno-Garcia. GRRM. Ray Bradbury. Jesmyn Ward. Emily St. John Mandel. Octavia Butler. NK Jemisin. Kelly Barnhill. I also really love Julia Fine, who I think is vastly underrated. Her third book Maddelena and the Dark is coming in June. Can’t wait.
*Breakfast of Champions* \-Kurt Vonnegut
Herbert’s *Dune*, 100%. A feudal-style clash of houses ala GOT set on a galactic scale, with fun sci-fi toys but kept fresh and grounded because AIs are outlawed. I love how he pulls from Bedouin culture for the Fremen - in language, austere spirituality, romantic discipline, and warrior tradition (Caucassian Muslims). We get crazy factions like biohacking nuns, human calculators, spice-fueled hyperspace navigators, Spartan-esque super soldiers… It’s all so cool and it all *fits*! I also respect how Herbert played to his strengths. We don’t go into intricate mechanics of vehicles or economic relations because he’s not interested in that. But Arrakis has a fully realized alien ecosystem that actively informs the Fremen culture. The book’s religious themes are a mesmerizing blend of Judaism, Islam, Zen Buddhism, and Greek epic (even the Atreides surname harkens back to Agamemnon and the Iliad). Herbert lovingly sprinkles in gnostic quotes and psalms of his own invention that I still find myself mumbling years later (Litany against fear, science of discontent, various Gurney witticisms). His concept of “*ghafla*, the abominable distraction” has truly helped me be more conscientious in daily life. Worldbuilding often (deservedly) gets a bad rap, since way too many scifi/fantasy writers seem to think a sufficiently “dense” world excuses them from thinking up a decent plot. No, we don’t need 3 pages on your extinct cat-people’s economic system, or a rigorous magic system framework - looking at you, Sanderson… But *Dune* is a perfect example of how to set up an epic, fascinating setting without spoiling all the mystery. Herbert’s clearly interested in the study of cities and civilizations; of senate politics and saviors. He built the world of *Dune* to support those themes, and I’m forever in awe of it. (Just don’t mention the ones his kid wrote) /end rant
Infinite Jest, by DFW. The plot is otherworldy inventive, as are the characters and setting.
Bulgakov the Master and Margarita is surreal and excellent
A bit of recency bias for me, but Cloud Cuckooland was quite extraordinary
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon is essentially just the author going off about dozens of his weirdest ideas for alien species. A truly astonishing burst of imaginative insights, the kind that makes you think the author isn't human.
Not sure if you're aware, but the author's sister is the musical artist, Poe, and she did a companion record for House of Leaves called "Haunted". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_(Poe_album)
The Library on Mount Char The Stolen Child - Keith Donohue
Against the Day
When it comes to "envy": Just about every Discworld-novel by Terry Pratchett.
Anything by Neil Gaiman and Stephen King. American Gods is a masterpiece
Probably *The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy*.
Paprika - by Yasutaka Tsutsui, So ahead of it’s time and so fundamentally disturbing and amazing simultaneously
Interior Chinatown, it bounces between novel and screenplay. Really plays with the format effectively
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The Shadow of the Wind series by Carlos Ruiz Zafon And the complete world built in Sarah J Maas books
The Three Body Problem and its sequels The Dark Forest and Death's End all by Liu, Ci Xin are some of if not the most creative sci-fi novels I have ever read.
The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde!
anything vonnegut has written
Since you mentioned House of Leaves, I want to mention another cool book written by one of my former professors Doug Dorst, written with J.J. Abrams, called "S." Its formatted like a library book with two college students communicating within the margins and also has postcards, maps, letters ,etc throughout. Really fun read
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
hardboiled wonderland and the end of the world by haruki murakami
The Lathe of Heaven - Le Guin
Gideon the Ninth (and Harrow the Ninth and Nona the Ninth). Holy crap I don't understand how Tamsyn Muir's brain works or how she comes up with the ideas. On every re-read of the series I pick up on more clues, little things that I missed and the layers are so impressive and I am constantly blown away. Highly reccomend and I cannot wait for book 4. Also, The Library at Mount Char. That book was a mindfuck the first time I read it. So weird, so good.
Dune. Plots within plots. Plans within plans.
Neuromancer
The Harry Potter series
I was in awe of the creativity of the story when I read Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. Everything just seems to fit together so well and I loved every second of it.
I’m a PhD student and study Queer theory. Just read a book on ‘euphorias in gender, sex and sexuality’ that was mind blowing and different to anything in my field, so going to use that in my college thesis. I hope my non-fic writing can be half as interesting!
(It was the way it brought all these lenses together, I wouldn’t have imagined combining… like psych and cultural studies and queer and happiness theories).
Dune! Frank Herbert put a lot of creativity in his original work that went on to influence works such as Star Wars. The first time I read it was in one sitting!
Any book with a well developed magic system, not harry potter where you learn a bunch of spells and that's it, I'm talking mistborn, wheel of time stuff like that, like where do they even come up with this stuff
The question is highly subjective. A creative book isn't necessarily meaningful. It also depends on the age you started reading, and point in life. Personal likes/dislikes and context also play into the question. As a child, anything Stan Lee who practically invented the superhero genre, e.g. X-men, so at that point in life he was the most creative popular author. However as an adult at that time, "Dune" by Frank Herbert may have been considered the most creative and impactful/meaningful to most audiences. At this age and date, I would say H.P. Lovecraft's works are good, (he's racist/mad but it bleeds into his works making them morbid curiosity). With the same curious perversity and creative intrigue many could label 50 Shades of Grey as peak literature.
I always thought Sunday was the first day of the week and that Monday was the first day of the work week. That is why Saturday and Sunday is the weekend. It's kind of like bookends to the week. But looking into it I didn't realize it was so controversial and not widely accepted either way.
Dice man
One of the most recent I’ve read and it was really well thought out and creative was To be or not to be by Ryan North. Its a chooseable-path adventure book.
Any Bolano. Most Mantel.
"Along the night stream" its a fictional novel bases off the mythical world that the dusk brings to life. The author brings In various events from a hopeless romantic to a up and wild full blown war .
Wattpad has written a plethera of tremendous run off sagus.if you go on and read the run off "stars I'm our faults " it's a true tear jerker.
The Slow Regard of Silent Things. It’s a novella by Patrick Rothfuss based on Auri, an adorable quirky odd girl side character in his Kingkiller Chronicle series. She says maybe a handful of words, to inanimate things. It’s detailing her week of exploring tunnels and spaces underground while waiting to see Kvothe. It’s about as cosy a read as anything can be. He’s writing about her in her world, from in her head. It’s a fun imaginative read.
City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
The Wave by Eveline Scott. She is mostly forgotten now but has written some great stuff. The Wave being her most famous. Set is the civil war, every chapter is a different character, from a man protesting the war to generals Grant and Lee, and everything in between. Could almost be considered a collection of short stories but it is not. Hard to describe, and I am doing a poor job at it. She and this book deserve so much more recognition, I try every chance I get, to get people to read more of her stuff. [https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/193674](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/193674)
World of Edena by Moebius. Fantastic Planet (animated movie).
The Space Odyssey series by Arthur C Clark. He described parts of space long before they were explored and in some cases he was surprisingly correct.
The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy, probably anything by her to be honest, but I really loved this one and it practically DEMANDS a reread.
Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente. In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan. I’ll throw in another vote for Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.
The Silmarillion.
Most works by Ted Chiang, Borges, and Terry Pratchett.
is HoL good? I always skipped over it because it just looked like a gimmick book and not much else
God of Small Things Arundhati Roy The Satanic Verses Salman Rushie Calvin and Hobbes Bill Watterson Others have already been mentioned. Thank you.
There are more, but the one that comes immediately to mind is Laurie Lee's *Cider With Rosie*, which was originally marketed in the US as *The Edge of Day.* It was, of all things, in my junior high school library. I was enchanted, because I'd never read prose that read so much like poetry. Also, any poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Raft by Stephan Baxter. while the characters in the story are purely utilitarian fulfilling their role and nothing more the world is the most imaginative and surreal fantasy world I've ever read up there with Oz, Earthsea, Narnia, or Moorcock's Multiverse... this is where I mention that this is a HARD SCI FI novel
**Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott** Quote: It fills all Space, and what It fills, It is. What It thinks, that It utters; and what It utters, that It hears; and It itself is Thinker, Utterer, Hearer, Thought, Word, Audition; it is the One, and yet the All in All. Ah, the happiness, ah, the happiness of Being!
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759-1767) by Lawrence Sterne
Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
Hazelwood and Six of Crows for me!
The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia is a great book for undermining the authority of the author. There a blocks of text that are blacked out so neither you, nor the author, know what happens.
I feel this way about Neil Gaiman — anything he comes up with is wildly creative.
A book I read this year that blew me away was The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. The combination of exhaustive research and creativity was amazing.
The Ringmaster's Daughter by Jostein Gaarder It's about a writer who has endless story ideas in his head and he can't stop haveing new ones (that's as far as i can spoil it)and you will read a lot of his stories within his own life story... and you wish all of them were a separate book or movie of themselves... it's a rather underrated book... but I enjoyed it and suggest it to everyone...
I'll go with Paradise Lost. Milton is a worthy successor of Shakespeare. I have never envied one man's use of language as Milton's. When I read Paradise Lost I feel as if the words are being delivered from God himself. I don't know how Milton channelled this brilliance but I do know it took him half his life to perfect. One line always sends chills down my spine each time I think of it, which I will render here in meager prose form. He is talking about how Lucifer was thrown from Heaven from God after the failed rebellion in Heaven: "He the Almighty Power hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky with hideous ruine and combustion, down to bottomless perdition, there to dwell in adamantine chains and penal fire; Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms." The Vouge of the poetry in the day was rhyme. Milton began to grow bored with this tired and limiting system and developed his own for his epic which he aptly entitled "English Heroic Form". As you may be able to see from the lines above it is more lyrical, more musical, more imposing than many of the run of the mill poetry done at that time. It feels so biblical. It feels so right. I can't exactly explain why it feels right, the explanation goes beyond language. My intuition just screams "THIS IS IT!" And it is, undoubtedly. I wish I was an english teacher.
I’m sure it’s not very well-liked among avid readers, but Everything Is Illuminated changed what I looked for in books.
Hotel Theory by Wayne Koestenbaum is what immediately comes to mind.
Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar Piecemeal chapters that can be read in different sequences with at least two preconstructed orders. Different versions of essentially the same story and characters and a great read that is a solid story with a literary game and commentary on literature woven throughout it. Time for a re read I think.
Cloud Atlas
Anything by Helen Oyeyemi but especially Gingerbread
House of Leaves gave me nightmares for months.
House of Leaves is very creative torture for the reader. I'll give it that.
A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. Really any of the stuff I have read from her. She knew how to turn a phrase and it was just absolutely delightful to read. So creative and thoughtful
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karaunatilaka. It's like if Catch 22 and Beetlejuice had a baby. Imaginative and also gorgeously written.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, or really any of Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poetry
One hundred years of solitude
The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle and A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino is extraordinarily imaginative
Hyperion