Top Ten Tuesday: Vivid Worlds

I've taken a little break from posting a Top Ten list, feeling somehow uninspired or unable to come up with decent lists suddenly! What's up with that? But this week's prompt from The Broke and the Bookish is about favorite vivid worlds, where vivid, to me, means unforgettable! Colorful! Detailed! And just plain cool.

At first I thought this would mean most of the worlds I would think of would be in fantasy books, but then I realized that I also felt it pertained to worlds from history. So I've divided my list into two sections as you will see.

Ten Favorite Vivid Worlds

From Fantasy

1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: fantasy worlds on which all others are based
2. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson: fascinating fantasy world
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: a now very familiar dystopian world
4. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling: a now very familiar fantasy world!
5. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell: a science fiction world that is insanely gripping

From History

6. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: Regency time period
7. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck: The Dust Bowl and Great Depression
8. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Germany in WWII
9. Katherine by Anya Seton: Tudor times
10. The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye: vibrant India

Ah... once again... it turns out that the list contains some of my all time favorite books. Funny how that happens, yes?

What would be on your list?