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What is the best published story or stories you've ever read, watched, or heard?

Put some real thought into it. I wonder if there's anything out there that we don't already know about. A story that really changed the way you looked at something, or that affected you a lot more than you were expecting. Elfen Lied is prohibited on this list, since it would automatically make everything else look like suck.

Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consider_Phlebas

I'm kinda inferring the whole set of Culture novels, which are not so much a story, as a setting against which the author has written several books.

Imo the best sci-fi author writing atm, probably the best since Asamov, and his none sci-fi books are amongst my favourites too.