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For my money the best book 1 and 6 (considered together) is Strange Aeons, and getting into why is spoiler territory. But the beginning and the end is the highlight of the AP.
The best book 6 considered individually I think is Hell's Rebels, which is easily the darkest thing Paizo has ever published, but it works.
The best book 1 might be Burnt Offerings.
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My personal favorite combo of book one and six in an AP would be Iron Gods, and then Hell's Rebels and Strange Aeons and then Carrion Crown.
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For 1e:
Book 1: Both Serpent's Skull and Wrath of the Righteous I find to be stellar. Both do a great job of throwing you into the action in ways that really exemplify the theme of the book. Strange Aeons might be up there too, but I'm not as much into the horror/eldritch genres.
Book 6: Kingmaker -- while it always feels unconnected/a little forced for its inclusion in the AP, when judged alone, its very good. The otherworldly fey, the connections to the story book, it all just works. Now hopefully all the work they've put into the 2e port helps make it fit with the AP better.
For 2e:
Doesn't feel like we've had enough to really identify standouts, but ...
Book 1: Strength of Thousands I think wins for what we have so far. Like my picks for 1e, this once nails it theme, and it subgame/mini system feels much more integrated than the cirucs, or stronghold repairs, etc.
Book 6: Age of Ashes -- The lore, the history, the personalities or the npcs, the environments for final gauntlet, all of that really worked for me.
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Despite my issues with some of the later books, Book 1 of Serpent's Skull is one of my favourite adventures I've run in Pathfinder. It does an excellent job of providing a reason for the PCs to be working together without either those first few sessions of trying to figure out what the vibe is like in a party that already knew each other before the game started, or the somewhat-forced feeling people have when the PCs are forced together by plot in a way that doesn't feel super natural. It's a fun sandbox with a lot of interesting things happening on the island - and it probably didn't hurt that it was the first thing I ran and for a group of all-new players, so a bunch of nostalgia in there too. I've not read the volume in some time, and with the excellent content in the Mwangi Expanse book I'd highly encourage people to make use of it for PCs were I to run it in PF2.
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Best book 1 overall? Wrath of the Righteous had the best book 1 adventure of any AP I've played. Epic start to a mythic adventure. It felt epic, it played epic. I loved Book 1 of Wrath of the Righteous. It was absolutely a great first module. Story was great. Just an amazing start to that AP.
Best ending book? Giantslayer had a pretty cool ending book.
Most fun I've ever had running an AP module. Book 5 of Kingmaker: War of the River Kings. I turned that into a Game of Thrones style adventure. Lots of back and forth intrigue. I built out the opposing group carefully. It was an epic multi-session, many hour battle between The River Kings at the end of it. I built it up over multiple modules. I really built up the drama. All the PCs were invested in the kingdom, had laid roots, some had families, and that was the most fun module to run because it involved so much combat and non-combat.
Out of the PF2 APs? Probably Abomination Vaults or Agents of Edgewatch. Abom Vaults was a fun opening exploration of a old school style dungeon. Agents 1 had a great final chapter with a vile villain.
But nothing beats the first book of Wrath of the Righteous. They really hit that one out of the park.
Honorable Mention:
1st Book of Carrion Crown. That was a pretty cool opening adventure.
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Book 1: Serpent's Skull
Excellent survival/exploration, really allows for role-play among PCs and NPCs, and generates good party cohesion.
Book 5 of Kingmaker
Best first AP volumes: Strange Aeons, War for the Crown, Abomination Vaults, Strength of Thousands
Best final AP volumes: Hell's Rebels, Age of Ashes, Fists of the Ruby Phoenix, Blood Lords
If I had to pick one...
Book 1: Serpent's Skull
Book 6: Age of Ashes
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I'd rank Strange Aeons 1st book as the best of 1E, and book 6 just had plenty of good stuff. Return of the Runelords I found book 1 solid enough and Book 6 gets big credit from me for delivering well on epic scale. I didn't think the evil and dark themes really came through in Hell's rebels book 6, and book 1 didn't really pull me in well either. I've been avoiding reading Tyrant's grasp in the hopes I'd get to play it.
Hell's Rebels' middle volumes are really the standouts to me.
Honestly most of the 1st volumes are pretty great, even in the less favored ones such as Second Darkness and Serpent's Skull.
As for the last volume, my favorite is Iron Gods followed by Return of the Runelords.
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Honestly most of the 1st volumes are pretty great, even in the less favored ones such as Second Darkness and Serpent's Skull.
As for the last volume, my favorite is Iron Gods followed by Return of the Runelords.
My understanding of second darkness is that the first volume is well liked, the second also, and it's everything afterward that's... controversial to say the least. Encouraging you to make a party of citizens of riddleport with actual stakes in the city, to then completely abandon it afterward just didn't go over well with most player, and pushing them toward being criminals at first to expect them to be selfless savior to protect people they don't know was a weird change of motivation. Also, module three had the double combo of abandonning your city for good (never go back in the AP), and meeting the "stuck up elves" you are supposed to ally with, so it was probably a big turn off for lots of player.
As for serpent's skull, I think it's first module often considered the best one ever. It only start rolling down hill when you get out of the island.
But now that I think about it, you're probably on to something, because I don't remember any real "bad" first module. Most of them are either great, or at worse "okay". I think not having to carry the expectation of previous modules help. Quite a few badly rated AP are so because the first few modules set up expectation to then completely disregard them afterward. But you can't betray expectation when you're the one supposed to set them up.
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But now that I think about it, you're probably on to something, because I don't remember any real "bad" first module. Most of them are either great, or at worse "okay". I think not having to carry the expectation of previous modules help. Quite a few badly rated AP are so because the first few modules set up expectation to then completely disregard them afterward. But you can't betray expectation when you're the one supposed to set them up.
I believe The Bastards of Erebus for Council of Thieves caught as much or even more flack as Second Darkness' "bait and switch" (Riddleport crime lords to elven allies/save the world) for the opening scene. It was very easy for the PCs to think the AP was about leading an anti-Thrune "resistance" (which came later in Hell's Rebels) to overthrow the infernal Cheliax regime; especially if the GM oversells the end of Janiven's speech. Instead, the Council of Thieves is more about saving Westcrown from a rebellious element within the thieves' guild.
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I believe The Bastards of Erebus for Council of Thieves caught as much or even more flack as Second Darkness' "bait and switch" (Riddleport crime lords to elven allies/save the world) for the opening scene. It was very easy for the PCs to think the AP was about leading an anti-Thrune "resistance" (which came later in Hell's Rebels) to overthrow the infernal Cheliax regime; especially if the GM oversells the end of Janiven's speech. Instead, the Council of Thieves is more about saving Westcrown from a rebellious element within the thieves' guild.
Ending the shadow beast plague is a blow against Thrune rule, however.