This is kind of a difficult question. I have read many books with many worlds.
The first thing to consider is basic everyday quality of life. I don't want to be transported back to the dark ages because I like baths and toilet paper. I also like electricity and modern medicine. So Middle Earth and Narnia are out, along with Damar, Pern, the Cosmere, the six Duchies, Prydain, Ingary and the Nine Worlds, and The Old Kingdom. I think The House is out as well, as their strike rate on modern conveniences is sporadic at best. Basically 90% of fantasy is now ruled out.
Next let's look at the environmental dangers. I am not interested in a place where I must maintain constant vigilance lest I be eaten by a large savage beastie. This rules out historical fiction. Also most of Neil Gaiman's works if we're being honest. I don't want a place where the government is openly willing to kill me, so no PanEm, no Community, no Big Brother; basically no dystopian fiction of any sort.
Now I've narrowed the field quite a lot, here are my list of top runners, either because they met the conditions above, or I am interested enough in the pros to put up with the cons.
The Discworld
Dictionopolis
Enderverse
Meg Murray O'Keefe's universe
Lyra's Oxford
The Discworld I think would be so much fun to live in, but only if I was a witch or wealthy. I don't think the every day peasantry has a great experience. So while it survived the purge of medieval worlds, I think it fails on economic disparity and the likelihood I wouldn't be end up one of those peasants.
Dictionopolis and the Kindgom of Words (I would not likely spend much time in the Kingdom of Numbers) frankly sounds delightful. I would enjoy the heck out of that place, and since they battle the Demons at the end and push them back into the Mountains of Ignorance, I think I would be relatively safe.
The Enderverse. Clearly this one wins on technological advancement. Thanks to Peter and the Buggers, it is also offers a unified humanity. AND there are the Buggers and the Piggies, two fascinating, intricate, evolved societies I could learn about. Of course, it's not as unified as one would hope, and humanity is still pretty terrified of things it doesn't understand....but thanks to Jane, instantaneous travel is now possible, which I think will resolve a lot of issues. So...this one is tempting.
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| as there is no good picture for this one, you get a picture of Phteven instead. |
Meg's world is essentially the world we live in today, but with the accepted fact that there are worlds and even dimensions beyond ours, and beings we can't necessarily fathom. But on the other hand, not being Charles Wallace or one of his siblings, I don't think I'd likely get to take part in any of those aspects, so maybe not this one....as beautiful and amazing as it may be.
Lastly, we have Lyra's Oxford (technically the whole world, but that seemed the most succinct name). This world is technologically only a generation or so behind our own. They have cars and plumbing and electricity. There's the Magisterium, but I get the impression that most normal people don't really engage with it much. Plus, by the end of the series, the Magesterium has suffered somewhat of a serious blow. In addition to the technological achievements, they have open and understood magic. They also have witches and the panserbjørn. And most of all, they have daemons. The animal representation of a part of your soul, your lifelong companion and friend. Your daemon which shapeshifts in your youth and then eventually settles on a form which represents some aspect of you. If you read those books and didn't long for your own daemon then you were lying to yourself.
In the end, I think Lyra's Oxford wins. Dictionopolis and the Enderverse are strong runners up, but I want to live in a world with magic and armored bears and witches. I want a world where they have a broader conception of what is and isn't possible. And I definitely want my own daemon.
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