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I enjoy the writings of Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Anne McCaffrey/Todd McCaffrey, Issac Asimov, Piers Anthony, and many others.

I tend to prefer Sci-Fi Fantasy rather than just straight Sci-Fi but always enjoy a good read/

Then there are also Robinson and Baxter and Le Guin (ah! someone already mentioned her), and newer writers like Kij Johnson and Catherine Wells and Terry Bisson and. . . I have just now (March 2016) read Connie Willis's The Domesday Book--literally stayed up overnight reading, unable to put it down--great time-travel/14th-century plot structure, and the characters with their warmth, caring, courage are mind-blowing.

I grew up in the late 50s and 60s reading the old masters, Heinlein, Asimov, Sturgeon, Clarke, Farmer, Anderson, you know the names, I won't go on. Over the years, while still enjoying science fiction, I fell away from it a bit. I'd pick up something from time to time, like the Forever War, which became one of my favorite books, but read other things, mostly classics, contemporary, mystery, non-fiction. Lately, though, I've read three amazing science fiction novels, Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (I'm a sucker for time-travel stories), How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (about a time machine repairman), and Perdido Street Station (perhaps a bit of fantasy thrown in). I've gotten the bug again.

In my younger days, I read a lot of Asimov, Clarke, Bradbury, Heinlein, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert. E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, Philip K. Dick (most of his works).

For my money, most of the science fiction that is published today can't compare to the old school stuff. I might be a little nostalgic, but the writers of yesteryear wrote sci-fi that was powerful and full of grand themes. The vast majority of sci-fi today is meh.

I'm on a fantasy reading binge right now, but David Weber, Ryk Spoor, Kal Spriggs for newer authors and of course Heinlein Robert A., ASIMOV ISAAC, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

War with the Newts by ÄŒapek is my favorite SF. It's highly relevant to the present and recent past. It's also fantastic satire that makes fun of the media, political leaders, celebrities, scientists, religious figures, labor movements, racial issues, popular movie tropes...I'd recommend War with the Newts to just about anyone.

Hmm.. Stranger in a strange land was great. Try 1984 by George Orwell, The Stars My Destination, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and maybe The Railway Man of Horse Green by Milur Banks.

From the top of my head: Ursula Le Guin, Jack Campbell, Ray Bradbury

then get a collection of books by Arthur C.Clarke and Philip k.Dick and read them all.

when you're done, move on to Pohl, Asimov and le guin.

Always been a huge fan of Asimov. For me, the beauty of I, Robot, is how each story presents a puzzle that can be solved with logic; robot behavior, though mysterious to humans, can be thoroughly explained once the robot's rules are understood. It's no coincidence that Asimov was also a mystery writer (check out Tales of the Black Widowers for some great armchair detective-style short mysteries).

I like all kinds: Fantasy, practically all Jack Vance books; Hard Science, Clarke's Rendez-vous with Rama, Benford's Timescape, James p.Hogan's Inherit the Stars;
Inner Space, most of Philip K.Dick's books.

'Stranger in a Strange Land' will always be my favorite sci-fi book, just because I read it at a point in my life when I was perfectly able to 'grok' it. But I usually go with more modern authors: Neal Stephenson, Simon R Green (ohhh, Deathstalker series), China Mieville, Mark Hodder. And I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for The Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison.

To pick one is difficult. Heinlein, Fredrick Pohl, Pohl Anderson, Piers Anthony, Ray Bradury, Joe and Jack Chalker, Haldeman... just to name a few.

However, if I had to judge based upon the books which I have read, and re-read so many times that the books are falling apart, I would have to say.

Robert Heinlein: Friday, Number of the Beast, Farmer in the Sky, Have Space Suit Will Travel (Light-hearted but still engaging and exciting.)

Pat Frank: Alas Babylon (Deep subject and interesting portrayal of humanity in a dystopic setting.)

Larry Niven: Ringworld, The Ringworld Engineers (This guy can write.)

My favorite sci-fi author at the moment is Clarke. Currently reading Childhood's End, and I love the suspense.

HG Wells, some of Jules Verne, Heinlein (mostly Stranger in a Strange Land), parts of the Dune series, Enders Game and some of the graphic novels (comic books) that fall into the sci-fi genre.

Also authors that only just fall into the sci-fi genre, eg JG Ballard, Orwell (1984) etc.

Cordwainer Smith wrote truly great short stories--The Dead Lady of Clown Town, A Planet Named Shayol, etc.

And of course, Asimov, Bester, Clarke, Davidson, Ellison, Farmer,..LeGuin, McCaffrey, Niven, Orwell, Pohl,... Van Vogt (who really wrote ALIEN), Wells, Wyndham, Zelazny--ALL of them.

Actually, the only sf writer I don't much like is Barry Malzburg.

Alan Dean Foster is so awful I can't count him as an sf writer at all--"chestbursters"?

asimov is very dull. If you're interested in slow political intrigue and vague notions of humanity then go for it. Besides that Bradbury is king.

Please give Angelmaker or The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway a try. I have been reading sci-fi for decades and these are two of my all time favorites. They are not, however, classic hard sci-fi, so there is that. There are some very, very good writers in the genre these days..Harkaway, China Mieville and John Scalzi. And Kim Stanley Robinson. And all fans of dystopian fiction should read The Road by Cormac McCarthy in my humble opinion. Sci-fi rules!!

Favorites? Since sf/f is a current field, I reserve the right to change favorites at any time.

Currently, my favorites are Dan Simmons, Iain Banks, and C J Cherryh. I've also read, and enjoyed, at least two or three dozen more. And read, and disliked, even more. (there was one writer who should be fined for egregious use of apostrophes in his wit'ch b'oo'ks)

Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, Clarke: but one of the ones I tell my students to looks for (purely for fun is E. E. Doc Smith. I have always loved the Lensmen Series, and the Skylarks of Space.

I started as a teenager with Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke and their cohort from the 40's and 50's. Continued with them and added others like Niven, Farmer and Ellison. Then got into Spider Robinson and Card, and most recently Sawyer, Simmons and Scalzi. Of course there has been hundreds of others interspersed all through.

I'm old school. I didn't read at all until one bored day in junior high I pulled out a strange title from the stacks of useless: I ROBOT. The first short story, Robbie, made me cry. I was hooked on Asimov, anything Asimov. Later I discovered Heinlein & Bradbury & many other exceptional sci-fi authors. Eventually, I discovered general fiction; later, non-fiction.

Confess most of the science fiction written in the last two or even three decades doesn't really work for me as entertainment. Perhaps it's a personal flaw in me; science fiction went somewhere, but it didn't take me along for the ride.

My own personal bias in science fiction I posted to Amazon at:

But this is just my own personal bias. Cheers! @hg47

Like Laurel, I'm more partial to SF/Fantasy than most straight SF -- or rather, I prefer SF in which character and the human element are strongly in the fore. Anne McCaffrey and Marion Zimmer Bradley come to mind, but so do Spider Robinson's "Stardance" (and other works) and Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game."

I'm not averse to SF set in TV or movie-franchise universes, if it's well-done. The first two books in Diane Duane's Rihannsu series about the Romulans are really good, not just as Star Trek novels but as novels (particularly "The Romulan Way", which is also a wonderful exploration of what can happen to a deep-cover agent.) I also enjoyed Duane's "The Wounded Sky," though admittedly that one will appeal more to fans than non-fans of the original series.

I'm afraid I can't speak much to the SF of today, since I seem to be gravitating toward fantasy these days.

I go for years without reading sci fi then catch the bug again and devour everything since the last bender

I like my Sci Fi speculative, original and just different

I've recently enjoyed Richard K. Morgan, Peter F. Hamilton and John Scalzi - all 'hard sci fi' all very current

This is perhaps a bit contradictory (oh well!), but I tend to enjoy Science Fiction when they tone down the science and attempt to fuse the science and the human - not literally, but philosophically, psychologically and emotionally. Certain Silverbergs do this quite well and obviously Bradbury, and at the peak of any list that fulfills my Science Fiction needs is James Morrow's "This Is The Way The World Ends". You can put Mike McQuay's "Memories" in there too. Both intelligent, thought-provoking, very human and deeply moving. If I wanted to stand up to my ears in hard science, I've got Discovery Science to play with.

I've always been partial to a trio of authors that I refer to as The Big three: Asimov, Heinlein and Bradbury. But I must add to the list (Edgar Rice) Burroughs because I love, love, love his Mars series.

Years ago when I started reading SciFi my favorites were Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke. Now, not so much, but LeGuin will always be my favorite.

I actually never became a fan of Heinlein. His writing style always seemed to me to me over-exuberant, sappy, cheerful, sophomoric; full-of-himself; cocksure. He tilts at windmills too much (and they aren't even windmills, just things which irk him).

The science fiction I prefer is gloomy, moody, and dystopic--this is actually what SF always was for most of the history of western literature. Before the whole 'space opera' style boomed under Lucas/Spielberg.