no Banks or no Transhumanist stuff at all?

Dune.

If you've already read it, read it again.

Albedo

Arthur C. Clarke

Good shit there boyz.

Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein. Fuck me, best Sci-Fi out there.

Herbert is good too.

>>9437739
I just don't like Banks.

If you've read Desolation Road or Ares Express then that's the kind of sci-fi I enjoy. I'd rather have interesting characters and a fun story than a realistic world backed by hard science.

The Rediscovery of Man

>>9437753

Clarke is hard sci-fi, as is The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Also Haldeman is a good author.

>>9437742
Not just Dune, but most of the (huge) series is good too. Really interesting contrast between his writing and his son's.

Try the Orphanage series by Robert Buettner.

Also, if you're into something different, I rather liked Rainbow Mars by Larry Niven. You also can't go wrong with Footfall.

Jack vance's dying earth books if you're a verbose individual.
neal asher if you're not.

Also yeah, if you can get your hands on the collected short stories of Arthur C. Clarke, I really enjoyed them.

not sure what (no Banks) means.

Dune fo sho, Do Androids Dream of Robotic Sheep is an absolute must (aka Blade Runner), anything by Robert A. Heinlein particularly starship troopers it's nothing like the movie except with references Rico Razcack and Roughnecks, Ender's Game is ok,
If you don't mind reading fapfics try Dan Abnett's 40k novels.
i'll post more later

Peter F Hamilton's got some epic stories that should keep you going for a while.

>>9437787

Dakka, dakka.

I forgot Orson Scott Card. Great author. Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide... All great.

>>9437778
I really liked Cugel's Saga and Eyes of the Overworld, the other ones not so much.

>>9437787
>not sure what (no Banks) means.

An author famous for the Culture series. Everyone but me seems to love him but I personally can't stand his writing.

Lois McMaster-Bujold. Vorkosigan saga FTW.

Stanislaw Lem's The Invincible. (and other works)
Richard Adam's Shardik.
Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborea, Zothique, Averoigne. (SF/Fantasy)
Jack Vance's Dying Earth, Planet of Adventure, Demon Princes.
Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun (SF/Fantasy)
Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom Series (* of Mars)
EC Tubbs
EE Doc Smith
Cordweiner Smith
Theodore Sturgeon
Roger Zelazny
Arthur C. Clarke
Robert A. Heinlein
Isaac Asimov
Jack Vance
Strugatsky Brothers

I am of the opinion that if you don't like Banks that simply makes you a bad person. If you must decline his fine works then I recommend Charles Stross. Especially Saturn's Children, though I would also suggest finding a British copy otherwise it just looks like an oversized Hentai Manga from the outside. Singularity Sky is more light-hearted though the characters fall into a few too many stereotypes.

Alastair Reynolds books have the "interesting characters and a fun story" down to a tee, but is also (mostly) backed with science.

I'm partial to Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series. The world needs more scifi mysteries.

Slaughterhouse 5
anyone who says it isn't scifi, fuck them.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Hyperion Cantos series by Dan Simmons
Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K Dick
Mother of Demons by Eric Flint

John Brunner
Peter F Hamilton
Steven Baxter
Frederich Pohl
Eric L Harry
John Meany

Alfred Bester's (seriously read this guy) Everything. The Stars My Destination, The Demolished Man etc.
The Day of the Triffid by John Wyndham
John Brunner's The Traveller in Black
Jack McDevitt

Stanislaw Lem for the most philosophical and probably most intelligent SF there is.
Also, read it for the insane amount of puns. (The Kandel translation is excellent.)
Also, because they're a bit older, for the goddamn charme of old SF technology.

The Invincible (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invincible) is probably his most "classic" SF novel.

The Star Diaries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_Diaries) is a series of stories centered around a traveller named Ijon Tichy. Ramps up the bizarre. Includes one story where time fuckups end with Ijon beating the crap out of himself for being such an unreasonable jackass. Fucking awesome, all of the stories.

Tales of Pirx the Pilot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Pirx_the_Pilot) is less bizarre, more hard SF, more grimdark-while-sort-of-funny. Includes fucking up first contact due to a tape machine running out of tape due to space travel being like the Russian merchant navy.

These are the three main things I'd recommend you. Anything else, go for it. Lem is uniformly awesome, and he's the most underrated SF author I know of. But it's not exactly light reading, what with him getting heavily into philosophy and shit at times.

>>9437929

Ah, Bester! That's how you write Pulp.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr
HP Lovecraft
Ray Bradbury
Octavia Butler
Tim Powers
Larry Niven
H. Beam Piper
John Steakley's Armor
C.S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy
M.A.R. Barker's Tekumel novels (Fantasy-ish)
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

ITT /TG/-DELIVERS
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/9437724/

If you're into star wars the New Jedi Order series is pretty kickass.

>>9438085

And by that you mean the Thrawn Trilogy.

Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars/Green Mars/Blue Mars. Last one can be skipped, gets weird and meanders all over the place.

Haven't disliked anything I've read by Alastair Reynolds.

Most fa/tg/uys would like John Scalzi, I think. Not really heavy-duty reading but almost always fun.

http://greatsfandf.com/

>>9438098
These are great, but the guy doesn't like hard sci-fi. The MARS books are basically the best possible hard sci-fi.

>>9437845
>Roger Zelazny
Fuck yes. "For a Breath I Tarry" is a goddamned master piece:

http://www.kulichki.com/moshkow/ZELQZNY/forbreat.txt|

READAN
BOGGLAN
ENLIGHTENMENT ACHIEVAN

Jeff Noon- Vurt and Pollen are the only two of his I've read, but I hear they're all pretty good. Most everything else I'd suggest is already posted.
Trippy shit. Weird and dark.

Not sure its been said yet but for military sci-fi I'm calling out on Heinlein, John Ringo, and the Bolo Series all of them are just fun things to read and have some of the best action sequences I've read.