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Dan Simmons (Hyperion, Endymion)
James Noon (Wurt)
Tad Williams (Otherland)
Gregory Benford (Galactic Center)
...Bear, Assimov, Clarke, Niven, Lem, Dick....

Stanisław Lem (about 20 books read) - if you can't read in Polish, most probably you lose A LOT.

seconded! also: dick, gibson, noon.

Isaac Azimov!

Stanislaw Lem - I can't read Polish, but Lem was translated very well to Spanish. He was a true genius.

Olaf Stapledon - Another genius.

P.K. Dick - Awesome novels and short stories.

Dan Simmons - Hyperion is one of my favourite books.

Frank Herbert - Dune is another awesome book.

William Gibson - Neuromante and Count Zero, two great novels.

Robert Silverberg - Great imagination both in science-fiction and fantasy genres.

A lot more... including Larry Niven, George R. Martin... etc.

I did read hundreds of sci-fi novel and stories and I hope to read more of this great stuff. :)

William Gibson - Neuromancer, Count Zero, Virtual Light, Johnny Mnemonic, Pattern Recognition

Douglas Adams - *

Terry Jones - Starship Titanic

Frank Herbert - Dune (tho I have to admint I only saw the very long movie adaptations)

I would like to add two more authors to my previous recommendations:

Ray Bradbury - One of the bests in short stories.

Bruce Sterling - Great cyberpunk writer.

Charles Stross, Greg Egan, Lem, Bradbury, etc

Seems forgotten: Jack Vance's, Philip Jose Farmer (his riverworld saga is wonderfull).

My personnal best is of course Douglas Adams...
But also humourous are Robert Scheckley and Fredric Brown.
And since we are at humour, i would recommend Bill Bryson's "American rigolos" (French title) although it's not scifi.

Not to mention Bill the Galactic Hero (at least the original book.)

neal asher

Stephen Hawking

Never heard of Lem, now I have to learn Polish. Damn!
Forgot about Adams & Phillip Jose Farmer completely (+1 to baah)
Clive Barker (? I did put Brian Lumley in earlier), Neil Gaiman.
I'm really glad no-one has said Terry F*cking Pratchett! +ings also to Deus, psionice & Frost - I read some of the "new" Dune books (just cause I loved the real series - read 'em all about 8 times now) and it just left me sad & pissed off.

Its amazing Neal Stephenson has only been named once here.
So now it's twice.

i picked up a copy of martha stewart's "baking handbook" the other day; an epitome of literature and essayism.

stanislaw lem.

Stanislaw Lem for sure.
Futurological Congress is one hell of a foresight on a psychotropical society.

I also read Eberhardt del Antonio's Titanus and Heimkehr der Vorfahren.
But this stuff is flat-out communist-utopia and must be dealt with the right distance and perspective.

Peter Watts. "Blindsight" is great.
Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan)

Hey kwook, barby and beers today?

Shinichi Hoshi. Having said that, I'm more a fan of his short-shorts than his SF novels. But even still, many of those short-shorts do contain SF elements.

Knl: SORRY!!! Forgot i read Snow Crash.

Any good free ebook repos out there? I'm really keen to try some Lem now. Hook me up man...
Gutenberg has nix.

Nobody mentioned Michael Moorcock yet. Behold the Man is a must read.

I had thought of Moorcock but along with David Gemmell and *many* others I'd personally put him more in the fantasy genre.

Carl Sagan, especially for "Contact".

The movie is great, the book is totally mindblowing (° 3°);

And Ender's Trilogy by Orson Scott Card is totally awesome too!