The Greatest Ever

[Psychonaut]

The Question: What are, in your opinion, the single greatest works of contemporary fiction in both video and print media?

The Rules: Only one answer per category; none of this, "oh I couldn't decide between these 800,000,000 movies that I'll now list" crap. A work that was distributed as multi-part, but conceived as a single (meta)story would count, but not a serial based work with no singular plotline. So, while a film series like Lord of the Rings, or an OVA series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OVA), or a comic series with a predefined limit would count, a standard TV series, an ex post facto film series, or standard comic/book series would not. Also, for contemporaryness, we'll say since the turn of the century; that way everyone doesn't feel compelled to just list classic books.

My Answers:
I'll go with Gaiman's Sandman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandman_%28Vertigo%29) for print. Such writing! Such telling of tales! Such depth!
And, The Shining (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shining_%28film%29) for film. I've said it before and I'll say it again: this is, IMO, the film. There is not one facet of it that does not exude perfection.

[Óttar]

Aztec by Gary Jennings in the Fiction department. He researched this book for 10 years. Brilliant.

http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n1/n5405.jpg

[Svipdag]

Novel: "Joseph and his Brothers" by Thomas Mann

Cinema: "Gone With the Wind"

[Stygian Cellarius]

Contemporary fiction (text): The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v633/Casen/NameoftheWind.jpg

I didn't get into Fiction for a long time. I thought it was a waste of time, when I could be reading something useful like philosophy (I almost laughed at that one myself). I began with Tolkien and fell in love immediately. I thought no contemporary author could touch what I had read in Tolkien's works, but I was wrong. I found a few that were in league with Tolkien. One of them is Patrick Rothfuss, who has only written one book, The Name of the Wind. And what a masterpiece this is. Perfect, brilliant. Do not die before you read this book. A very hard book to put down. I was actually sad when I finished reading it because I knew the fantasy and adventure I was immersed in was over :(

However, there is a sequel to come out that is a year or two overdue. I cannot wait!

Contemporary fiction (video): Lord of the Rings, of course. :)

[Debaser11]

I'm a geek.

These are probably subject to change.

Off the top of my head:

Print: Kentaro Miura's Berserk
Film: Ridley Scott's Bladerunner

[SwordoftheVistula]

Print: Harry Turtledove's Timeline 191 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline-191) I think qualifies as a 'series', so I'll have to go with Atlas Shrugged for best single book.

Film: I hate to be a copycat, but I'll have to give it to Lord of the Rings

[Lithium]

Movie : http://www.lovefilm.com/lovefilm/images/products/7/96157-large.jpg
Novel : http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/mists-of-avalon.jpg

[Autobahn]

As, you may have already figured out, I am an avid "Science Fiction Geek". In my opinion the best fim of all-time is the 1951 version of "The Day The Earth Stood Still". In my opinion, the greatest novel of all-time is "Solaris"(1962) by Stanisław Lem.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3f/Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still_1951.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still_(1951_film)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d1/SolarisNovel.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_(novel)

[Aramis]

Print:
I like the The Dark Tower series of Stephen King, especially the comic adaptation.
Jae Lee and Richard Isanove provided us with illustrations that strike as powerful at first, yet slowly taking you into a firm grip of inner tranquility.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/darktowercomic1.jpg

http://www.liljas-library.com/img/other/dt_comic_2.jpg

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/images/users/uploads/9043/jaeleeDarkTower.jpg

http://images.tfaw.com/tfaw2007/blog/dtower.jpg

http://www.thedarktower.com/gallery/data/565/LRH3.jpg

[Eldritch]

The best novel written in the 21st Century is Peter Watts' Blindsight (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight_(science_fiction_novel)).

And the best film would be Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374546/).

As for the 20th Century, well, the choices are obviously quite a bit harder but ...

Print: Alan Moore's Swamp Thing sequence (http://comics.ign.com/articles/677/677753p1.html); film: Dersu Uzala (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071411/).

[Beorn]

Hard decision in which to make, but my choice was swayed by the accompanying soundtrack of Misery Loves Co (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misery_Loves_Co.) - Kiss your boots (especially this track (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa1fXOG0tWI)) whilst I read it as a child.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e0/Adventures_Cyclops_Phoenix_01_cover.jpg

The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Cyclops_and_Phoenix)



To this day I cannot read or hear the other without thinking of the other ... if you know what I mean.

My choice for a film is just as hard, but looking upon it realistically, I'd say the film that always pops into my head is the film Legend (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_%28film%29).


http://www.wired.com/geekdad/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/legend_rep.jpg


As a young child it was everything a fantasist such as myself could wish for in a movie and more.

[manu]

book: The Master and Margarita
film: Someone's flew over the cuckoo's nest.

[Ulex]

Greatest novel: Sult (hunger) by Knut Hamsun.

http://www.familia-antikvariat.no/bilder/sult%201409.jpg

I found this paperback edition with the cover missing in a ship's library many years ago. Not knowing anything about the author I began to read it. I was held in complete captivity for 6 hours. I was climbing the highest literate mountain, one could ever imagine; always risking to slip and break my neck.

Greatest movie: Excalibur.

http://www.axiom.tv/images/videos/excalibur_dvd.jpg

I don't know why, I like this movie, really. Motion pictures are not my style.

[Stygian Cellarius]

My choice for a film is just as hard, but looking upon it realistically, I'd say the film that always pops into my head is the film Legend (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_%28film%29).


http://www.wired.com/geekdad/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/legend_rep.jpg


As a young child it was everything a fantasist such as myself could wish for in a movie and more.



Bloomin' Fairies! I was going to post Legend as well (for those that don't know, "Bloomin' Fairies" is a movie quote, I had to point that out because it's gay as hell to say otherwise). What a perfect film. I can never get tired of watching that one. Did you see the extended version? The scene with Honeythorn Gump and his crew "partying" in the woods is much longer, but the soundtrack is different is nowhere near as good as the Tangerine Dream version (I own the CD and it is wonderful). The extended scenes in themselves are very cool though.

When I was in my late teens I wanted to get a tattoo of the Swamp Witch and Blix. The artist that designed them was on-point.

[Liffrea]

I’m deliberately leaving Tolkien out.

For fiction I would choose Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood:


Deep within the wildwood lies a place of myth and mystery, from which few return, and none remain unchanged. Ryhope Wood may look like a three-mile-square fenced-in wood in rural Herefordshire on the outside, but inside, it is a primeval, intricate labyrinth of trees, impossibly huge, unforgettable . . . and stronger than time itself. Stephen Huxley has already lost his father to the mysteries of Ryhope Wood. On his return from the Second World War, he finds his brother, Christopher, is also in thrall to the mysterious wood, wherein lies a realm where mythic archetypes grow flesh and blood, where love and beauty haunt your dreams, and in promises of freedom lies the sanctuary of insanity . . .

For film:

Beowulf and Grendel(2005)

It is a low budget film, I like it because it was deliberately made to avoid CGI and special effects, which have their place but I prefer to watch acting. Fair enough the acting in this isn’t great, the dialogue is pretty bad if you expect a Shakespearian rendition, fuck is used probably every other sentence, but these are supposed to be warriors, literate discourse isn’t normally considered a virtue amongst men who spill brains for a living.

It’s also pretty far removed from the word of the poem, the real reason I like it is that, even though this is so, it is near perfect in spirit. In the film Butler (plays Beowulf) has little fear in accepting his ultimate death, those who know the poem well know that this acceptance of death and defeat is the central part of the epic, in Old English literature you probably don’t come as close to Ragnarok as you do in the text of Beowulf, this is captured reasonably well in the film.

[Monolith]

http://goodbyebluesky.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/2001_A_Space_odyssey.gif

[Eldritch]

For fiction I would choose Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood:


Fantastic novel, it's a pity that none of the sequels measure up.

[Aramis]

As for film:

I'm not much into fiction, so I'll say the Star Wars series:

http://www.blam1.com/StarWars/images/StarWarsLDMenu.jpg

Always have been keen on the idea of Jedi's and Sith alike.

http://www.theanglocatholic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/the_life_and_legend_of_obi_wan_kenobi.jpg

[Brynhild]

I'm a Hitchcock fan and my favourite would be Psycho. Norman Bates was a real creepy character. I have read many great books. The ones that have grabbed me in recent times were the Templar trilogy of Brethren, Crusade and Requiem by Robyn Young.

[Groenewolf]

Hard decision in which to make, but my choice was swayed by the accompanying soundtrack of Misery Loves Co (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misery_Loves_Co.) - Kiss your boots (especially this track (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa1fXOG0tWI)) whilst I read it as a child.

[CENTER]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e0/Adventures_Cyclops_Phoenix_01_cover.jpg

To great wisher of a long term Logan-Jean relationship to be pleased about that cover:coffee: . ;)

[RoyBatty]

http://www.athensexchange.com/img/articles/608/bladeRunner.jpg

The book, the film, the soundtrack.... can't think of much which tops this. Whilst I don't necessarily claim this to be "the ultimate" it's definitely up there towards the top of my list.

[Gamera]

Book (it's simply amazing, I always recommend everyone to read it):

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41nNXo1vwvL.jpg

[Eldritch]

Book (it's simply amazing, I always recommend everyone to read it):

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41nNXo1vwvL.jpg

That book is a literary masterpiece, nothing less. It's almost criminal how little known it is in the Anglosphere.

[RoyBatty]

There's a recent Russian TV series version of it :)

[Gamera]

That book is a literary masterpiece, nothing less. It's almost criminal how little known it is in the Anglosphere.

Indeed, and not only in the Anglosphere. I've always been surprised on how underrated it is. To find the Spanish version of it, I had to search in 5 different bookstores until I found it... spent a whole day looking for it. Was worth the search, though.