Recently? Hrm.
Over the last few months, I'd probably choose Mistborn as the best one I've read, followed closely by The Baker's Boy, by JV Jones. If I look at the last year or so, I'd probably pick Anathem.
Mistborn and Anathem are good for nearly opposite reasons. Mistborn moves fast and feels very action-packed. Anathem moves slowly. I've read several reviews that specifically disliked the book for that reason, but the world was so well realized that I didn't care. It was funny, though . . . the first half of the book, where he was building the world and describing it? It took me so far into the world that I was slightly disappointed when the actual plot started!
Worst? Oh, this one is easy. As She Climbed Across the Table, by Jonathan Lethem.
I've never read a published "science fiction" book with as much ridiculous technobabble. Lethem was obviously just making things up as he went along, assuming that the science didn't matter. In a way, it didn't. The plot wasn't influenced by the technobabble, really. But still . . . even if it's unimportant, hearing someone say "The M particles are repelling the L particles" or something just really breaks suspension of disbelief. The scientists in the book all acted bizarre and absolutely unscientific. The macguffin of the book is a stable black hole that some researchers at a university create. They name it Lack. For a few weeks, they are incredibly interested in Lack. But as it stymies their precious attempts to figure it out, they eventually stop caring. Lack is left just floating above a table in an obscure room in the science department.
The book was also some sort of anti-science fantasy. Like I mentioned above, when Lack did not seem to behave rationally, the scientists almost immediately gave up. They couldn't find a logical way to explain its actions, so they threw up their hands and left. This is possibly the most bizarre description of scientists I've ever seen: they discovered a black holel; it eats some things that are dropped into it, while letting others pass through; they cannot figure out what lets some things fall 'into' the black hole, and what lets other things pass through un-touched. The reaction? GET ANGRY AND LEAVE. One scientist actually calls it an "abomination against science" or something like that. When a literature professor states his intent to 'read' Lack like a text, using symbolism and metaphors, the scientist who created Lack becomes so threatened and insecure he runs out of the room to vomit.
Every character in the book was flat and incredibly unbelievable. These two autistic guys are written as if by someone who read an article in Reader's Digest about the condition. The scientists are all obsessed with logic and when something seems to go against logic, they decide it's safer to pretend that thing does not exist, and ignore it completely. The Gender Studies professor that appears in a single scene goes on and on about how women allow themselves to be dominated by men by even speaking the language, and that spoken language is, at its root, a tool to control women.
The main character cannot see a single thing, talk to a single person, or think a single thought without going on a bizarre, pages-long poetic rambling about what whatever-he's-talking-about symbolizes. He's also possibly the most moping, emo protagonist I've seen since high school.
The ending, interestingly enough, was really, really good.
But not good enough to suffer through the rest of the book for. Not good enough at all.
::whew:: I had to get that off my chest.
