I was a frequent reader of sci-fi during the 70's and 80's, but didn't stay with the genre much after that. As a result I'm sure I missed out on a number of really good books. I recently discovered Sheri S. Tepper, and like her work quite a lot. In the past, I preferred Arthur C. Clarke, Clifford D. Simak, Harlan Ellison, A. E. Van Vogt, Andre Norton, Samuel R. Delaney, and Larry Niven. Can anyone recommend some newer authors that I might like?

Imajica by Clive Barker
It is not SF as such, but it is not fantasy either. It's a combination that surpasses both genres easily.

The Naked God by Peter F. Hamilton (3 books)
Pure SF combined with a good against evil battle. Many interesting sub-plots.

The faded sun trilogy by C.J. Cherryh
Mesmerising

And then of course there are the classics, but you've probably read those:
Dune by Frank Herbert (7 something books)
Hyperion by Dan Simmons (4 books)

If you check out the science fiction section in Quizzyland where I edit most of the submissions in Sf and fantasy, you'll quickly see who's in.
I'm not a big Terry Brooks fan, I don't know why, but there are many many fans and the section is huge. Here in France he's a real phenomen, even in translation.

The other half swears by the discworld novels by Terry Pratchett.

I've also read theadult stuff by Chrstopher Pike (he usually writes teen stuff) and they are not bad too.

OOops, now that's a Freudian slip, Pratchett!
Miaowamberg, are those as big in the UK? I think I saw them figuring prominently in the sf section.
Maybe it's like an acquired taste. But I haven't been curious enough to actually buy them. And when someone is very very popular like that and there are many many books, I get kind of discouraged. Maybe it's like Harry Potter though, I resisted till the very end, till I saw the film and then I asked my kid for them and read them from cover to cover.

Mercedes Lackey used to write some fine fantasy stories. I know I've seen quizzes on her work here so she's probably still doing it.

I have to confess Dune is another blockbuster that I've read, of course, as most sf fans, but that for me, was a blockbuster but didn't do the human stuff that I like in a story.

You'll notice a definite female bias in my tastes, but in the sixties the sf was pretty macho and Ursulé leGuin came along and changed quite a few things.
There are many sf classics from the biggies, Bradbury, Asimov, et al, but I was happy to read stories by women.

Try "Woman on the Edge of Time" Marge Piercy (spelling seriously in question). Now that's an interesting book.

Hmm...well I'm not big on science fiction, but around here everyone loves William Sleater. He usually writes shorter books, which is good if you're in the mood for a quick read.

Pratchett is great the first seven, maybe eight books. After that it deteriorates big time. The good thing is, though, that it's not a series as such. I mean, the story doesn't really go on, so you can stop whenever you want without having to miss out on 'how did it end, anyway?'. (My problem with The Wheel of Time - I don't like it anymore, but I do want to find out what eventually happens to Rand, ...)

You MUST read some Philip K. Dick books if you haven't already. This is the man that worte the books thay Blade Runner, Total Recall, Screamers, and the Minority Report were all based upon. Im my opinion he is the most influential Sci-Fi author of this century. Just ready either "The Man In The High Castle" or "Flow My Tears the Policeman Said" and tell me what you think.

What kind of sci-fi are you most interested in? (cyberpunk, space opera, alternate history, etc.)

Writers I've that I want to check out myself:
William Gibson
Rudy Rucker
Tanith Lee - just read Biting the Sun (very good)
Philip Dick - read Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep? (brilliant)
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five

I just watched "The Impostor" with Gary Sinise. This movie was also billed as being based on a Philip Dick book. I think I bought "The Man in the High Castle" but never got around to reading it. Thanks for recommending it.

As for which types of sci-fi I like, that's hard to say because I'm not familiar with all of the different sub-topics. I can say what I don't like though:

--Books with so many alien names they read like the Icelandic Sagas
--Books in a series. I remember reading a great book once by Julian May, only to come to the end of the book and find out that the story is continued in the next volume. I hate that! Each book should stand on its own, even if it is in a series.
--Books with too much macho war action.
--Books with characters that have leprosy (Ugh - that "Lord Fouls Bane")
--Books like Lord of the Rings or the Elves of Shannara.
--Books with too much romance.

I generally have liked books dealing with time travel, alternate universes, space travel, clashes of cultures, exotic flora & fauna (including dinosaurs), realistic futuristic science, and the the "god" question, to name a few. I like a book that surprises me with inventiveness so it's sort of hard to say what I expect in a book...

Thanks everyone for your great suggestions and I will definitely check them out!

Hi there.

My personal favourites are:

The 'Rendez-Vous with Rama' series by Arthur C Clarke, but you may have already read these.

The Serrano Legacy series by Elizabeth Moon

'Moonrise' and 'Moonwar' and the Mars books by Ben Bova

Happy reading!

Try "Season of Passage" by Christopher Pike. Alternate universe, alternate time lines, Hinduism and mysticism and a trip to Mars.

In reply to:

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Books in a series. I remember reading a great book once by Julian May, only to come to the end of the book and find out that the story is continued in the next volume. I hate that! Each book should stand on its own, even if it is in a series

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lol, what is it about the sci-fi genre and its penchant for series. Usually this bums me out, too. Don't they realize I have a limited book budget? hehe Of course, if I've fallen madly, deeply for a character then I don't mind so much.

Well, not a new author, but in my opinion the best sci-fi writer is Robert A. Heinlein.

ShadowHippie

Sounds like what you like is what I call "hard science" science fiction---and I seperate science fiction from fantasy, which is mostly what Mercedes Lackey and those like her write. (if it involves magic, it's usually fantasy---but sometimes, it IS SF!)Most of the authors you mention are faves of mine, and I consider their work to be 'true' science fiction.

Not that he's really 'new' ---I can't off-hand think of any of the new people who write this kind of stuff---but I'd recommend John Varley, for one. Maybe Octavia Butler, too. You didn't mention Isaac Asimov, but if you like SF at ALL, you need to reaad Asimov!

IMHO, science fiction has gone downhill lately. But the best new stuff can be found (alongside the worst) in the SF mags, like Asimov's, Analog, and Fantasy and Science Fiction. And I'm expecting great things from the new on-line fiction sources. I haven't checked the out yet, but they hold great promise.

"Can you recommend some good Sci-Fi authors?"

Yes.

You said you have The Man in the High Castle -- that is a really good one. Philip K. Dick wrote many, many forgettable, shoddy potboilers, and a small number of good books. Also good are The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer and, perhaps especially, A Scanner Darkly.

The most exciting under-appreciated author currently writing science fiction is Linda Nagata. She has a loose trilogy out (The Bohr Maker, Deception Well, Vast) which is not marketed as a trilogy, because each book is written to stand on its own. However, they do occur in a chronological order; I read #1 and then, much later, #3, without realizing they were connected in any way until close to the end, when I realized that... but that would be a spoiler. An amazing trilogy, dealing with nanotechnology, consciousness, and the human neuro-endocrine system. She also has a good cryonics book (Tech Heaven) and a new one (Limit of Vision) that I am not familiar with yet.

Kim Stanley Robinson is also wonderful. A trilogy that basically ought to be read as a trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) treats the terraforming of the planet Mars. A number of his other novels are based in the same universe, but need not be read in any particular order, and do not require knowledge from the other books; particularly good are A Memory of Whiteness, which is a marvelous fantasy of music and space travel, and A Short, Sharp Shock which is a strangely oneiric little work which I can never put down if ever I pick it up and glance at one of its pages until I have read it through again. He also has three related books, the so-called Three Californias (Pacific Edge, the Wild Shore, and the Gold Coast, I think), each of which stands alone as its own work, and each of which describes a different alternate future for southern California and by extension the world: corporate greed run amok; post-nuclear primitivism; a realistic society that takes natural resources accurately into account in its economy. (but the Three Californias are really literature rather than science fiction.) He has a great work on Antarctica which came out of his research for the Mars books.

Octavia E. Butler has a number of great books out there, all dealing with culture shock among alien races or within one race which is diverging into more than one. the Wild Seed, Xenogenesis, The Parable of the Sower, Dawn, etc.

Aldiss' Helliconia books are basically worth reading; also Terry Bisson, Gene Wolfe.

As far as older stuff you may have missed back when you were in the sf loop: R. A. Lafferty and Ursula K. Le Guin ought not be overlooked.

I once started to make a web page including SF worth reading; it is still available on my website and might give you some ideas (but I haven't maintained it for years): http://xaosdog.com/ac/books/#genrefiction