Mogworld, by Yahtzee. I know someone else has already put that, but it's true. The character's are so funny, and Jim is more or less me. A bit of a selfish dickhead. :D

Virginia Woolf's The Waves.

Very clever, very boring, yet somehow I couldn't help but get drawn into it despite how very much it seemed to want to keep me out. It was a very confused 'wow...'

The theme here seems to be fiction so im going to go out on a limb here but the book i just finished reading is The Real Lincoln. I always knew Lincoln was a dick but this just added a whole lot of evidence. He had declared hiself a dictator and was given almost as much power as Hitler, and completely rewrote the constitution at the end of the war.

Also Hunger Games, yeah that was a good book second and third not so much but still.

Many moments of story writing unexpectedness and an ending that I just didn't expect to play out as it did made me go wow in Brent Weeks' trilogy Night Angel trilogy.

The Name of the Wind. GREAT book

The Handmaid's Tale. It's absolutely amazing to see how a book from the Eighties draws so many parallels to what is happening in the world today. It's so much of a WOW factor that it's actually quite frightening.

Amtrak Wars by Patrick Tilley. I'm fairly certain that, by the 5th book, one of the main characters is something like a quadruple agent and stabbing himself in the back.

The series "Kingkiller Chronicle" by Patrick Rothfuss. Absolutely amazing books. Unrivaled.

Most recent would definitely be A Game of Thrones, I have read the first two books and will start the third this weekend. While I liked A Clash of Kings I think the first book is more shocking because I didn't expect all the twists that occurred in the first book. Looking forward to a storm of sword though.

Frostbite3789:
On book 3 of A Song of Fire and Ice and all I can think is "WOW! George, you sure hate happiness!"

That would be the second to last book that made me go 'WOW!'

Last book to make me go 'WOW!'? Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It takes a while to get going, but when it gets going you will be gripped right until the end. I recommend this to anyone who likes their violence brutal and their characters flawed. Really is a masterpiece.

Belaam:
I really love Steven Brust's Taltos books. So much fun stuff and cross-referencing. Each stands as its own book, but can often be read out of order. Fun framing devices, like in one book, each chapter starts with directions to a cleaner as to what stains, rips, etc. in the protagonist's clothes need to be fixed and in the final chapter, he has to dress up to go to court. They aren't particularly deep, by and large, but fun little stories.

The WOW factor for me comes from in-universe jokes and the like. Like how in-universe, the number 17 is a mystical number. Then about five books in, I realize all the Taltos books have 17 chapters. Or when you later find out something important about a secondary character, realizing that it was foreshadowed in almost every book proceeding it. The only book in the series I don't love is Teckla (in which the protagonist gets a divorce - written as the author did so as well), which is obviously kinda depressing. Start with Jhereg or Taltos if you give it a whirl.

Great series, never noticed the 17 chapter thing though, that's awesome.

Anything written by Brandon Sanderson. I started off reading The Way of Kings in his new Stormlight Archives series and now im going through the Mistborn series while I wait for him to finish the other one. The really cool thing is that all the series he's written are linked together rather subtly even though every series is set in a different world. Really though I just like the way that he can not only be rather witty but never fails to surprise you just when you think you've figured everything out.

The last book I read was Hunger Games and I did really enjoy it.
I made the mistake of then going to see the movie (Which was perfectly alright by its own merits) but a failure as an adaptation.
I don't understand why people adapt things if they're just going to change all the important stuff. I mean: Kids brutally kill each other in a reality show setting. Is a broad enough idea that you can make your own movie out of it with out using the framework of another story. Especially if you're going to change all the important character beats.

Oh wait money.

Was this thread supposed to be about books? Hunger Games then!
I read it over the course of like 18 hours, so it held my attention really well.
I don't usually go for the whole first person narration thing, but I enjoyed it here.
And this is one of the few books I've heard of, that's in first person and doesn't break POV. So I appreciated that.
The thing I really liked about it was that it uses the (Disclaimer: I'm about to use movie words, because I don't know the book word equivalencies, So I'm still talking about the book here) It uses the scripting instead of the acting to get character personalities and motivation across. Most books will have a pretty standard line and use "She said, she yelled, she hissed etc" to let you know how the character's feeling. But in Hunger Games you can tell a lot about the characters by the words they say. It makes for a far more interesting read than relying on implied inflection on the part of the author.

Finished Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear about a month ago, both were pretty impressive. Currently re-reading Snow Crash. I'd forgotten how friggin awesome that book is. It's like someone took everything cool in the entire world and then turned it into a book.

I started reading the A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) books about a a month and a half ago, and I just finished A Dance With Dragons, and WOW pretty much sums up the entire series so far.
Also someone on the thread said that George hates happiness and I lol'd. It is very true.

A Game of Thrones, particularly A Storm of Swords, kept me reading. Other than that, the third graphic novel of the Unwritten series was fantastic. And the Hunger Games, of course. Can't forget those.

It wasn't a book, it was an essay titled "Driving off the Map" by James Clinton Howell. It's awesome.

But for books: What's the Matter with Kansas by Thomas Frank.

The Deed of Paksenarrion - Elizabeth Moon. Seem kind of boring but then you read it. And I did go "WOW, this is some great stuff!". It's a really amazing book(or three books) that keeps getting better all way through.

I would say that the last book that made me say wow was the original Malazan series by Steven Erikson - I just really liked the epic scope of the books and the awesome universe that he co-created. I also read one of the Dragon Age books recently, which i found surprisingly good (its the one set immediately before Origins, but I can't remember its name).

geK0:
I was reading it at my sisters apartment while babysitting my nephews, but she lost it while moving out so I never got to finish it.

What I read of the book was quite good though! It's a historical fiction set during the 100 year war; the main character is an English bowman.

You should definitely go out and buy the rest of the original trilogy and then buy the fourth book about Agincourt as well (which they are also making into a movie)- you won't regret it. :D

Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. It's so incredibly dark, not because the violence is excruciatingly detailed, which it can be and can sometimes not be, but because he holds nothing back it feels so real, the entire book is just a fever dream of insanity, slaughter, starvation, and moving descriptions of wilderness. It's utterly fantastic.

It's been a while since a book really amazed me. Probably IT by Stephen King. That was two years ago... Damn I loved that book. The Girl With The Dragon tattoo was pretty good too.

Well of Echos Quartet by Ian Irvine, it really was an amazing piece of fantasy,I highly recomend it.

DoPo:
Well, I'm halfway through it, but John Dies At the End by David Wong is really wow-worthy. That guy does not disappoint. I love him on Cracked, so I bought the book mainly because he wrote it. Man, that's good. It's a "comedy horror" genre and it manages to mix them well. Spooky, unnatural, frightning horrific on even a Stephen King scale, while still managing to be entertaining and fun at times.

Defiantly this, this is awesome. Also, the squeal to this book is coming out in October.

Mogworld.
You can't insult it here or Yahtzee will personally burn your house down (pretty sure he said that at some point)

Sokarred:

DoPo:
Well, I'm halfway through it, but John Dies At the End by David Wong is really wow-worthy. That guy does not disappoint. I love him on Cracked, so I bought the book mainly because he wrote it. Man, that's good. It's a "comedy horror" genre and it manages to mix them well. Spooky, unnatural, frightning horrific on even a Stephen King scale, while still managing to be entertaining and fun at times.

Defiantly this, this is awesome. Also, the squeal to this book is coming out in October.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I'll even pre-order it, but that would be after I move to my new place in July.

Metro 2033. Glukhovksy does an outstanding job of creating such a bleak, crushingly oppressive and horrifying atmosphere. It really is so much better than the game.

Durgiun:
1984 for obvious reasons.

Also The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett. Damn, a fantasy setting that does not involve angels, Hellspawn, elves, orcs or dwarves? Jesus Christ, that surprised me. Also, the book is incredibly easy to read, but what sold me was the description of the demons' (Corelings is the official term, but I like demons better) ferocity and how it payed off tenfold when one was encountered. None of that Mary-Sue bullshit where a character isn't in danger. In The Painted Man, they are. They fucking are. And you'll feel it. The only person who could better portray the danger would be Stephen King, ffs.

For a second I had no idea what you were talking about except that I recognized Peter Brett's name... Then you mentioned corelings and I was like "Oh!! The Warded Man!! Right!! Stupid different titles/different countries shenanigans."

So now I have to wonder how much modern fantasy you do read. You know a lot of the best authors are breaking out of the whole Christian/Tolkien/Arthur shtick right? If you have already read these and didn't like them forgive me but I have some suggestions...

Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Dresden Files OR Codex Alera both by Jim Butcher

The Black Company by Glen Cook (The original trilogy is the best. It goes downhill from there...)

The Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks

The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson

The Godspeaker trilogy by Karen Miller

The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb

Camarii:
The Deed of Paksenarrion - Elizabeth Moon. Seem kind of boring but then you read it. And I did go "WOW, this is some great stuff!". It's a really amazing book(or three books) that keeps getting better all way through.

That trilogy COMPLETELY surprised me. It started out kinda "Hey this is typical if fun." and then just got Awesome.

The only book that made me go wow was Ulyseus, and that was years ago.

I guess I'm hard to please.

The Legion of the Damned WH40kbook by Rob Sanders but the WOW is incomplete. For me it was "WOW this is absolutely terrible!). There was a massive plot point that was just forgotten about, they didn't actually explain anything about the Legion of the Damned at all (not to mention they only showed up for about 5 pages at the end), and some of the lines were absolutely horrible. There was one part where one of the Space Marine's serfs are talking among-st themselves and one of them literally says if HE were a space marine he would have done way better. The ordinary human whose job is basically slave without the title actually says this. The whole book is just horrible. If you see it on store shelves AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

i tried to read a song of ice and fire, but i watched the series first so i couldn't get into it. just saying cuz so many people say its so good, which it probably is, i just can't manage to get into it.

jakko12345:
Metro 2033. Glukhovksy does an outstanding job of creating such a bleak, crushingly oppressive and horrifying atmosphere. It really is so much better than the game.

and yeah same, metro was great

dragonswarrior:

Durgiun:
1984 for obvious reasons.

Also The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett. Damn, a fantasy setting that does not involve angels, Hellspawn, elves, orcs or dwarves? Jesus Christ, that surprised me. Also, the book is incredibly easy to read, but what sold me was the description of the demons' (Corelings is the official term, but I like demons better) ferocity and how it payed off tenfold when one was encountered. None of that Mary-Sue bullshit where a character isn't in danger. In The Painted Man, they are. They fucking are. And you'll feel it. The only person who could better portray the danger would be Stephen King, ffs.

For a second I had no idea what you were talking about except that I recognized Peter Brett's name... Then you mentioned corelings and I was like "Oh!! The Warded Man!! Right!! Stupid different titles/different countries shenanigans."

So now I have to wonder how much modern fantasy you do read. You know a lot of the best authors are breaking out of the whole Christian/Tolkien/Arthur shtick right? If you have already read these and didn't like them forgive me but I have some suggestions...

Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Dresden Files OR Codex Alera both by Jim Butcher

The Black Company by Glen Cook (The original trilogy is the best. It goes downhill from there...)

The Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks

The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson

The Godspeaker trilogy by Karen Miller

The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb

I have been thinking of giving Jim Butcher a try. Thanks for the list, maybe this will get me back into fantasy proper.