Not strictly limited to fantasy or science fiction, either. Whether it’s historical fiction or horror or whatever else, what book (or series) have you read that did the best job of building a world and transporting you into it as you continued along?
For me, it’s Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon. It’s one of my favorite books, and I really felt like I was along for the ride with Archy and Nat and their friends/family around Oakland. Detail is one of Chabon’s strongest abilities in his work, and this one was no exception.
by Neckties-Over-Bows
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I thought Mario de Andrade did a wonderful job of building the Brazilian Amazon into an “otherworld” in his novel Macunaima: The Hero Without Any Character. He takes a place that actually exists, but makes it fantastical by using characters from Amazonian mythology and setting scenes in sacred locations. The Engel translation does a phenomenal job of explaining these different people and places in the footnotes.
Piranesi. Felt like the world was the main character of the book.
I really enjoyed Gentleman Bastards by Scott Lynch. He did such a lush deep dive into Camorr and the other cities I could actually feel like I was there.
The Expanse and The Dagger and the Coin series by Daniel Abraham. Loved the world building in both. I think its a combination of prose, research and description that really sells them for me. I wish there had been more of Dagger, it feels like there was so much to explore there.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. I just feel like I’m in Nagasaki
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I can smell the ocean reading this book.
Also Dune and Lord of the Rings lol
The Expanse series has amazing world(s) building, it really does feel thought through how humans would live in space and the mechanics and the divisions and the cultures
Aubrey and Maturin series by Patrick O’Brien – enormous completeness and complexity in a historical period with period-accurate characters, sensibilities, places, etc.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, lovely fjords
NK Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons – some of the best multi world/galaxy building I have ever read, feels like you always have a good grasp on where you are and what the world around you looks/feels like.
Neuromancer by William Gibson – a cyberpunk slum of a world that feels like a futuristic representation of any major city in the world, so as far fiction as it is it somehow feels quite grounded.
Will Wight’s Cradle series. The labyrinth alone is a piece of work.
The Master and Commander series by Patrick O’Brian really captures 1800s British naval world.
The Year of Intelligent Tigers is a fantastic Doctor Who book that immerses you in the alien world of Hitchemus contrasting the humans’ city of music to the wilderness of the Tigers, both cultures being developed and contrasted.
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. Had just the right amount of explanation about the world without info dumping. Visceral.
Railsea by China Melville and The Mortal Engines by Phillip Reeve
Gormenghast
Anthony Ryan has a few book series out there, they are all excellently done. He was a history professor I believe, so his books are grounded in the past, makes the fantasy feel very authentic.
I have always enjoyed Peter F. Hamilton’s worldbuilding, whether it’s part of the Confederation universe in The Night’s Dawn Trilogy, or stand alone works like The Mandel Files. His other novels have a Commonwealth Universe that feels similar yet different to the other universes he created, but it’s all deeply immersive. I’ve always enjoyed getting lost in them.
I remember reading a couple Harry Turtledove novels years ago and I enjoyed them. They are in the alternate history genre and although I can’t remember the titles I read, I enjoyed the worldbuilding and characters involved in the storytelling all the same.
I’m reading the king killer chronicles by Rothfuss right now and that world feels so real and well crafted! I’m about halfway through the wise man’s fear and the world is practically palpable.
I don’t know if he’ll ever finish the trilogy, but I knew that going in. I’m enthralled by these books.
City of Stairs trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett really sucked me into the world. I started reading his Foundryside trilogy recently which is also good. Doesn’t draw me in quite as much as City of Stairs, but still good.
Easily, most anything by Brandon Sanderson.
Especially though, Stormlight Archive.
It’s still Lord of the Rings for me – Tolkien not only created several new languages for his characters, he wrote furnished them with an entire creation story, amongst other things.
The Dispossessed by Ursula K LeGuin sets up such an interesting world that examines what a successful anarchist society could actually look like, without advocating that it is better or worse than the capitalist society it orbits (it’s on the moon while the main society is on the planet). Really rich world building for both societies.