"The Sparrow"

I'm a fan of P.K. Dick... ... I've a thing for "Stranger in a Strange Land".

! but the question was plural, as in - let's share our FavS.

Anything by Stanislaw Lem - especially Solaris, The Cyberiad, and the Pirx stories.

Lem is great ;-))

I like Modern UK based scifi authors- Alistair Reynolds, Richard K Morgan, Iain Banks and China Mievelle(but he isnt really hard SF as such)

never heard of them, what Style ??

Kim Stanley Robinson - Mars Trilogy

love it. I've re-read it again and again.

Alistair Reynolds is fantastic so is Jon Walter Williams.

Sorry I could go on & on but yeh. KSR has to be my favorite. Short Sharp Shock is a great Novella as well.

There are so many! Let's see.

Anything by Philip K. Dick. He writes both novels and short stories very well. My two favorites would be The Second Variety and A Scanner Darkly.

Dune, by Frank Herbert, is my favorite SF book. I also really enjoyed the rest of the series (the ones written by him), but a lot of people don't really like them. The first is a must, though.

All of Asimov's short stories. His novels are great too, but I think his short stories is where his true genius lay.

Ringworld, by Larry Niven. I hear the rest of the series is good, but I haven't gotten around to them yet.

Rendezvous with Rama, by Clarke. 2001 is great, but this is my personal favorite by Clarke.

The Forever War, by Haldeman. Written as a criticism of Heinlein's Starship Troopers, this is one of my favorite Space Battle novels, but it isn't too well known. If you liked Starship Trooper (or better yet, if you hated it) you'll love this book.

The Vatta Series by Elizabeth Moon. Moon is quickly becoming my favorite author. She writes both SF and Fantasy flawlessly. This series is my favorite Space Battle series.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure more will come to me.

In no particular order:

Philip K. Dick.
Isaac Asimov.
John Brunner (Stand on Zanzibar's my favourite.)
Arthur C. Clarke (though he ain't what he used to be.)
Larry Niven (Ringworld was the best.)
David Brin (Kiln People is the best of his I've read so far.)
Paolo Bacigalupi (The Windup Girl was probably the best SF novel I've ever read. Period.)
William Gibson (Neuromancer' my fave, but the newer Pattern Recognition is very good as well.)

Dick is great: haven't read one I was "huh" to yet. Favourite: "The High Tower" (if I got the title right... the one set in post-WWII America, but a WWII won by the Axis, in which America is partitioned into three: Nazi-controlled east, Imperial Japan controlled west and a defeated and semi-independent centre).

Reynolds is great too. Space opera at it's best.

I love McDevitt: his linking of space exploration with archaeology just appeals to me :P

Piers Anthony - selected ones (never really enjoyed the Xanth series which just doesn't seem to match up with the other works I enjoy of his): Tarot series, Of Man and Manta series and Cluster series.

If we can throw in a little Fantasy, Jack Vance is a master. Lyonesse and Dying Earth series... wow.

Oh and just seeing the post above mine, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "Mote in God's Eye" was a great read.

Niven, Pournelle, Weber, Ringo, Flint, Heinlien, Asimov

Most P.K. Dick ... :-) ;-) ;-)
Stranger in a Strange Land
most Larry Niven
James Bliss - Cities in Flight
Philip Jose Farmer- To Your Scattered Bodies Go
the Jesus Incident - Herbert, Dune is a fine read also.
Stanilaw Lem
Foundation series
Roger Zelazny
Rendevous With Rama, Arthur C. Clarke - visionary (at least ) of what might be 'soon' !
Samuel R. Delany - Dhalgren
!!! A Canticle for Leibowitz !!! -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz
Gateway - Frederik Pohl
JULES VERNE !!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_vogt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startide_Rising
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson#Neuromancer

@Dharmaton: I think you mean "Blish" instead of "Bliss". I agree, Cities in Flight is quite a good series.

And how did I forget A Canticle for Leibowitz? And Dune?

Blish, yes ;-))

I'm still looking for an obscure novel, Tile&Author;
set in a 'future' greek mythos, satyrs are timidly gathering and singing
to 'hero' that the world (as they know it) is about to End.

Dharmaton, Alistair Reynolds and Iain Banks are probably the most popular British authors of scifi right now, Reynolds used to work for the European space agency so his books are quite "hard" while Iain Banks also writes non scifi books so his are very character driven. China Mievelle is more a Gothic horror meets steampunk writer.
Paolo Bacigalupi - I have read great reviews of this book, I cant wait to get it, just waiting until the (massmarket) paperback has been released before I buy it.
I often use SFsite.com and then look under "books of the year" for recommendations.
Duke, I was actually really disappointed with the (only) Jack McDevitt " the seeker" book I read, thought the story was thin and the characters even thinner and a bit too cool to be taken seriously. Couldnt believe that won an American scifi award(nebula?)
Dune- yes a book that has stood the test of time and then some, thought he went a bit crazy in his later books but. Haven't read any of the son's books- too scared I guess
Foundation- great reads when i red them in my late teens but as I got older I find them a bit dry.

And while im on the subject of authors that I dont understand are so well respected , John Scalzi- great for an airplane, riveting but ultimately light fluff, Naomi Novik- one interesting idea(dragons, the 18th century!) and lots of stiff upper class Brits doing their all for love of Queen and Country does not do it for me.

Dune and the rest in the series are great. I'd say God Emperor of Dune was my favorite, but I've always been odd. His son's efforts to finish the series led to the worse books ever written, but his prequals hold their own as a bit of good natured fun :).

Thank you for the new authours references ;-))

Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars... Never before in the field of the human imagination has so much been written about so little!

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle write great collaborations. Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, The Legacy of Heorot and my personal favourite The Mote in God's Eye.

@ Sean: can't remember reading "Seeker" yet. Tbh it depends which series of McDevitt's books you read. The "Space Academy" series is the better one. "Seeker" is fron the "Alex Benedict" series I think. I read two from that and they certainly weren't as good. The Academy series aren't quite as Indiana meets Star Trek as the Benedict books.

@Octavious - so the colonisation of Mars is a little thing? ;-)

@kaner: The Mars series manages to take the colonisation of Mars and makes it both as realistic and as exciting as the implementation of a modern sewerage system in a large city. In a twisted kind of way it's a sort of genious... but fun it ain't.

ray bradbury anybody?

Douglas Adams.

@Octavious

LOL I felt the exact same way, but would have never been able to phrase it so eloquently!

I'm not a big SF fan but I've enjoyed a few. Stranger in a strange land, Dune, Planet of the apes, (the movies suck but the book was pretty good) and the Deathstalker series was fun. I think I read all the Owen books but not his children's adventures.