In sci Fi/Fantasy the answer is unquestionably Jim Butcher's Small Favor.

The Dresden Files series are like literary crack for me, and they just keep getting better and better as the characters deepen.

In non scifi/fantasy, and while I haven't 100% finished it yet (I've got <100 pages to go though, so I'll be *shocked* if it disappoints) I have been positively blown away by The Skull Mantra. Elliot really seems to have made a thorough study of Tibetan and Chinese culture which shows through in the prose, and the mystery is rich, complex and thus far incredibly satisfying.

Shannon, Glad to help. You can see that it's the same author writing both series, but they are each unique in their own right.

I agree mlady_rebecca. The Black Jewels series is one of my favorites and I re-read it frequently. I really liked Sebastian/Belladonna as well, but it is very different. The series that contained the House of Gaian is decent, but not nearly as good as the other two.

I'm really torn between Tanya Huff's Confederation of Valor books, especially the third one, The Heart of Valor. Also, Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series is excellent, much better than his Dresden books, although those are getting better too.

Best Overall: The Search for Modern China
Best SF: Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep
Best Fantasy: Le Morte D'Arthur

Glad to hear another endorsement for Butcher's Codex series - I really really didn't like the Dresden Files book, but a friend recommended the Codex ones so I thought I'd give it a try. Storm Front was such a disappointment for me!

Funnest: Hunter's Run.
Edgiest: City at the End of Time

Shannon wrote: "Glad to hear another endorsement for Butcher's Codex series - I really really didn't like the Dresden Files book, but a friend recommended the Codex ones so I thought I'd give it a try. Storm Front..."

They get better, somewhat. Like a lot of such books, the story has to get more and more complicated, even though it doesn't always make sense. That's one of the things I liked about the Confederation of Valor series, the main character got so powerful that she ultimately left, since she didn't fit in where she was anymore. I expect to see more of her as a free agent, though. Both series are cases of stories that go where the suthors didn't expect, I think. The Codex Alera books started out excellent and have stayed that way, in spite of the fact that so many key plot points turn out to be predictable. The story's so well done you don't really mind, and in some ways, Butcher must have realized that most of the readers must have figured it out, the way he foreshadows.

I'd have to say it's a toss up between The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and Princeps Fury by Jim Butcher. Glad to see I'm in good company, too! :D

I haven't read Princep's Fury yet, so for me it would be Rothfuss.

How could I have possible forgotten that I really do have a favorite book this year? It's Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. Hands down, that's the best book I've read this year.

I don't think I read any books that were published in 2008 but there are two books that I enjoyed more than any of the others I read this year.

Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore

Hi everyone...for me it would have to be Butcher's Furies series. Once I got past seeing Harry Dresden as the lead, they really pulled me in.

Definitely the Mistborn books. I guess technically the only one published this year was Hero of Ages, but I think I read all three of them for the first time this year. It has the best and most coherent system of magic that I've ever read, but it also has a plot and characters! :) (Instead of being one of those books that is so enthralled with its own universe that it doesn't bother to have a plot.)