John Varley is very good. His Gaen Trilogy is classic. (Titan, Wizard, Demon.) Also, I loved Steel Beach. Very very good, though perhaps not for the more puritanical.

http://www.varley.net/

Dan Simmons' Hyperion series is a 'must read'. I've recently finished his newest 'foray' into Science Fiction: Ilium and Olympos. These two books are incredibly ambitious, well-written (with the exception of some plot 'hiccups' at the end), and thoroughly enjoyable.

Aside from these books, I, too, have recently started reading Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn series. Hamilton's writing style is different--more erratic and 'omniscient'--but the sheer scope of his work is staggering and inventive enough to keep me reading.

You guys have given a very good list.

But there's one you guys haven't mentioned, Greg Egan!

Axiomatic, Permutation City, Quarantine, Distress, Diaspora etc.

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

Of the others already mentioned I like

Baxter ( Manifold series)
Asimov (Foundation and Robot series)
Vinge (Besides A Fire upon deep, you should also check out True names)
Card (Ender's Game/ Ender's Shadow and sequels)
Niven's (Ringworld, the sequels are not as good)

Some people find Pier's Anthony Phase trilogy (Apprentice Adept/ Blue Adept /Juxtaposition) entertaining. It's a blend of science and fantasy, as a guy moves between two parallel worlds , phaze (of magic) and Proton (of science).

Iain Banks' Culture series is just so/so for me. Ditto for the uplift series.

I bow down to Neil Stephenson; "Snow Crash" is great fun and intriguing social commentary, "Cryptonomicon" is a vast work about information theory, and his "Baroque Cycle" is incredibly ambitious (not to my taste, though).

I've just started reading "Ilium" by Dan Simmons and love it, the reimagining of "god powers" as nanotech is wonderful. I plan to read his other works also.

I would highly reccomend Jake Davis's "The Last Rangers."
It certainly not a space odyssey, in fact as I recall it has very little to do with space travel. But its a post apocalypse book (always brings out the Fallout fan in me) about the last Texas Rangers taking down crime syndicates. Its not a long book, but what i really liked is that 80% of the first book was simply set-up for the next two. Good luck finding it though, its rare enough to be a collectors item.

Post -Apocalypse....that reminds me of Fallen Angels by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Michael Flynn. It is not quite apocalyptic, but it is a a fun read.

http://www.larryniven.org/reviews/fallen_angels_review.htm

Ok...so to avoid being redundant...I have read about 60% of everything mentioned already, let me add some that haven't come up:

L.E. Modessitt Jr.:
The Eternity Artifact
Adiamante
The Forever Hero : Dawn for a Distant Earth, The Silent Warrior, In Endless Twilight (Forever Hero)Flash
The Parafaith War ********!!!!
The Ethos Effect
Archform: Beauty
Gravity Dreams
Octagonal Raven

He writes a lot of fantasy as well but his Sci Fi is more stand alone and stronger story telling. His emphasis is upon the balance of power and events that restore the balance of power, usually resulting in vast personal costs to the people upon which the stories focus.

Have fun!

Ok, I have 2 authors that were not mentioned.

For Space Opera (think Star Wars) Try EE "Doc" Smith.
For an great series about the comman man in the wrong (right?) place, try the Heechee Saga by Fred Pohl.

The Schu

There was a book I just read CAlled Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. It was a really good read. Its hard to explain without giving it away. So take a look.

The ultimate series of books for Sci-Fi was written years ago by the doctor of science fiction.

E.E. "DOC" Smith - The Lensman Series

(although Kat Lord Niven is hailed as Earths greatest author on Prydean)

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large

stephen donaldsons GAP series is really really good if you can stomach it.

DUNE by herbert and all his other dune books including the new stuff by his get.

ben Bovas Orion is a classic and his earlier works are good reads too, but his latest stuff is drivel

heinlein's starship troopers, puppet masters, the man who sold the moon, stranger ina strange land. in fact read all his old books

Clarke rendevous(is that how you spell it?) with rama

Everything ever written by ASIMOV

Philip k dick : do androids dream of electric sheep(Blade runner)

footfall - pournelle and Niven

orson scott card - enders game

hyperion Dan symmons

The above are fairly serious pieces of sci fi, but if you got time on your hands:

Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy

The stainless steel rat

the early doctor who books

Donaldson is the key here, he is an excellent writer, but he is hard reading prepare to have your emotions twisted when you read him.

Having looked at the above posts now i've repeated most of what others have put down, start with whatever comes up the most...

Argh! It’s almost 3am, must promise myself a SHORT post of not mentioned but should be, imo.

First off gotta say, Heinlein v. Asimov, I finished the debate with myself the day I.A. followed R.A.H. into the where ever. I THINK I’ve read all of both, except the newly published letters of R.A.H. and they both are near and dear…

Someone mentioned space opera and didn’t mention Lensman by E.E. “Doc” Smith. I bit dated, but it is the granddaddy of all space opera, I’m not sure one can actually “get” space opera until you’ve read it, but that’s just an opinion.

Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon. Only one already listed I’m going to mention cause I think it’s his best, or at least as good as Snowcrash.

O.K. skip that, Ben Bova’s Colony gets over looked way too much.

Strike two, Philip K. Dick, “A Scanner Darkly” his “doper period novel”, and “Man in a High Castle”

(That’s it, I promise.)

Some military S.F. named so gotta include David Drake.

Gordon R. Dickson The Childe Cycle, make sure you start with Neromancer it gets missed sometimes but it is the origin point.

Jack Chalker Well of Souls, etc.

John Bunner Stand on Zanzibar

Niven and Barnes Dream Park and Barsoom Project.

David Gerrold “When Harlie Was One”, one of the great A.I. novels, and “Chess with a Dragon.”

Fritz Leiber “Gather Darkness”

Walter J. Miller A Canticle etc etc etc

Robert Sheckley “Journey of Joenes”

Cordwainer Smith “The Instrumentality of Mankind”, TRULY AWESOME!!

ZELAZNY, Just go to the book store, go to Z, go directly to Z, match the last name and simple buy one of each, you won’t be sorry.

C.J. Cheryth

Spider Robinson

Harry Turtledove

Kinky Friedman (OK, not on topic but he’s plenty enough off in space all by himself.)

AND

If you’ve actually read this far,

Kurt Vonnegut,

BUT

If you can find him writing as

Kilgore Trout in the book “Venus on a Halfshell” you’re gonna be so happy!


P.S. Believe it or not this is a SHORT post, well on this topic at any rate.

I recently read this trilogy... thought it pretty good.

Walter Jon Williams: Dread Empire's Fall trilogy,
#1) The Praxis
#2) The Sundering
#3) Conventions of War

Here also is a good series if you have not read it

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

Kinda depends on how dense you like your reading - I tried to keep the list to (IMHO) engaging/absorbing but still relatively quick reading (sorry, Frank Herbert/Dune, Greg Bear) and also to Sci-Fi (as opposed to Fantasy; sorry, Piers Anthony/Xanth, Christopher Stasheff/Warlock series)

Mentioned above & recommended

Asimov - Just about anything
Dan Simmons - Hyperion series
Orson Scott Card - again, just about anything, but read the various series in order
Van Voght - might be hard to find
Heinlein - just about anything, but if you are well read in the genre, Number of the Beast is a good romp
David Weber - esp the Honor Harrington books
Lois McMaster Bujold - Absolutely everything - try to read the Miles Vorkosigan series in order - not rqd, but helps
Michael Gear (and/or wife Kathleen [O'Neill] Gear) Spider books, Conquerer Series (they also have the "People of" Books if you like Archeological/Anthropological fiction)
Joe Halderman - Forever War series
C.J. Cherryh - just about anything
Arthur C Clarke - just about anything (you can still find)
E.E. "Doc" Smith - Lensmen Series, Skylark Series (but good luck finding them)(written in the 30's/40's so they aren't written in quite today's multicultural lingo - the multicultural tolerance and inclusion is directed at alien races, but I know the mentally facile folks on the forums can sub in their own mental images to compensate )
Gordon Dickson - the Dorsei (sp?) Series/Childe Cycle (I really liked "Tactics of Mistake'")
Roger Zelaney - anything, but esp Amber series
Jerry Pournelle, particularly with Larry Niven (Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, Mote in God's Eye & Gripping Hand, etc.)


Authors not mentioned above:

Anne McCafferty - just about anything
Keith Laumer - Retief books and the Bolo Books
David Drake - just about anything
Robert Forward - Dragon's Egg & and it's sequel - HARD Sci-Fi, but outstanding

Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list, but all I can think of off the top of my head.

"Alastair Reynolds - "Revelation Space""

I'll second that, brilliant read, innovative and engrossing too. Oh, and it's pretty atmospheric for reading in conjunction with playing GC II.

Though I'm afraid it'll expose the inadequacies of the generic content of the GC premise .

Best space epic ever - read it ( and then read the rest of the series ) !

Fachen

DUNE DUNE DUNE, all 6 of the origianal series are great, at least read the first one if you have a fear of commitment, still heavy stuff though

Foundation and its series is good, other Asimov books get too techincal for me

Enders Game by Card is a light read but very interesting. has anyone read any other books of the series? are they worth reading? My god so many books to look for, just in time for summer

Kim Stanley Robinson is a great hard scifi author. I've read the Mars Trilogy and now I am hooked on another trilogy that he is writing, "Science in the Capital"...The first book is "Forty Signs of Rain" and the second is "Fifty Degrees Below", I think he is still writing the third (he better be). The series deals with global warming in the near future, I love the books, but many people have said they are a little dry...especially the first one. I like them anyway though.

OP:

Problem is, now that I've read all of his books

Peter F. Hamilton's sequel to "Pandora's Star" has recently become available here in the states. It is "Judas Unchained" and I just started reading it last night. I loved Pandora's Star and things are already proving interesting in Judas Unchained.

The Asimov Robot books are awesome Never managed to find the last one in the series though . . .

. . . and so to are his Foundation novels. In later novels he tied together the two series.

Asimovs Foundation Trilogy: Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Foundations Edge. If you like them, read also Predlude to Foundation and the Robot Novels: I, Robot, The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun and The Robots of Dawn.

You forgot the Foundation novels: Forward the Foundation, Second Foundation, and Foundation and Earth, then the Robots novels: Robots and Empire, The Positronic Man, and finally the Galactic Empire novels: Pebble in the Sky, The Stars Like Dust, and the Currents of Space.

Isaac Asimov is my favorite SF author!

Anne McCafferty books are some of the best ive ever read. i like ra salvator ( spelling ?) also. read anne tho, you will like her style. peace tooth...

Ok The best books to read are simply:

Starship Troopers, Its one of the best political and science fiction books i have ever read! The part when they start talking in class about how dumb it was to be fearing going to a park at night, or in the daytime, because of gangs. And how dumb the prison system is right now, genius!

Enders game, then enders shadow, then shadow of the hegemon, then shadow puppets, and anything with Bean being the man character was amazing! You have to read those and in that order! they are amazing. Im sorry but i could never get into speaker for the dead. The whole alien thing with talking and wierd stuff going on just made me confused and bored.

Finally the Halo series. Now i know i know... Some people hate halo, but! There are the amazing parts where the captain has to destroy 3 advanced ships, with his weapons that mosly have no effect on the first try because of its shelds. Oh my god there is a part! where he shoots a nuke at the start of battle at the first two ships, uses his MAC cannon (Rail gun) to hit the other ship the first time, and then ram into it , pushing it down into the planet, where it starts to burn up in atmosphere. Then he detonates the nuke after his MAC cannon is charged, and the emp blast takes care of the shelds for the other two and he shoots them with his cannons. HALO: The Fall of Reach is the first one, then there is HALO: The Flood, then HALO: First Strike.

HALO: The Fall of Reach - Eric Nylund
HALO: The Flood - William C. Dietz
HALO: First Strike - Eric Nylund

The Eric Nylund stuff is better, but the flood gives a very good interpertation of the original game. Its actually well done.

Eric Nylund lives for the space combat! He makes its sound so great with the commands and the battles. Also the ground combat is amazing! Totally worth the read! Please at least read this!


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Try the Lensman series by E. E. Doc Smith

Battlefield Earth, by L. Ron Hubbard, is actually quite good ( I personally would like to stab John Travolta for his rubbish attempt at this book - he totally messed it up)

Or, for a laugh, try the Stainless Steel Rat books, which are great (Harry Harrison) + The number of the beast by H. Harrison - very good ideas

Oh yes....

DO read any Anne McCaffrey books - especially the Dragons of Pern (even if these are science fantasy)

+ Discworld books

Oh, number of the beast might actually be a Heinlin book. Sorry - I have it somewhere !!!!! My dad, god bless him, has a stonkin huge collection of sci-fi - sci-fant books in a cupboard - I think there is something like 200 - 350 books at a minimum guess. I have started to work my way through these.

Oh yes.... Also read the Ring World books