Sci-fi S/D

I oppose the recommendation of anything by Asimov, unless you have very high tolerance for awful prose, and possibly for Heinlein too, except there are a couple of very neat early time travel shorts, on the basis of his having the emotional maturity of a 12 year old and being very right wing.

Favourite funny SF: much of Stanislaw Lem and Robert Sheckley.

Budrys wrote one excellent book, Who?, but was generally fairly dull.

Which Vinge? There are at least two I know - Joan, who wrote at least one fine novel, and Vernor. Pretty sure they were related, possibly married.

There is this one guy in the Galaxy collection who looks really cool. I haven't read the whole story yet. He wrote under the name Cordwainer Smith. Apparently he was a professor at John Hopkins University who also wrote strange surreal sci-fi stories. The story in the collection is called The Lady Who Sailed The Soul.

Nelly, I don't know The Ice People or Barjavel - can you tell me something more about it?

As for more modern stuff, I like Joe Haldeman's work (the best of which is "The Forever War") and Robert Charles Wilson also does some good stuff; his "Chronoliths" is one of the more interesting time travel works to be written in recent years.

Current: Jim Munroe.

(Ya ya, all Canada-connected: Hey, I warned you I was into Canucks these days. Cue the Russian Futurists album!)

Hey,
Some help required, I'm looking for any recomendations people have for Classic Sci-Fi, excuse me if my terms are a little off beam I guess I mean classic as in taking part in the future/in space or on alien worlds/general epic-ness, as opposed to say I Am Legend or later Heinlein books.

I have read a few bits and bobs over the years (Dick/Heinlen/Asimov/Clarke etc:) but I'm wondering what the big space opera style books are like and who to read, but I've no idea where to start or who to start with.

The net throws up lots of lists but they are pretty impersonal even the Amazon ones are a bit alll over the place.

There are so many exotic names out there Simak/Le Guin/Pohl/Van Vogt I'd like a little guidance.

Thanx

Jack Vance's "The Demon Princes" are good if you want a fellow traveling to planets full of odd people. (Giant mechanical spiders and the like)
He writes well, too, so that's a nice bonus. These are practically the definition of space opera. It's _Lady Snowblood in Space_, if you will.

Iain M Banks' "Culture" novels are excellent as well. I'm not sure which one might be most up your alley here though, perhaps "Consider Phlebas"

Friends who are more into SF than I are seem very fond of these huge Peter F Hamilton tomes such as his "The Dreaming Void" trilogy. I gather there's a lot of giant spaceships and the like.
Charles Stross has done some popular space opera recently with "Singularity Sky" etc. I find his writing dreadfully annoying, but he's a guy that's really having a lot of fun with his books. What else? I guess Stross' fondness for the singularity would naturally lead you to Vernor Vinge and stuff like his "A Fire Upon the Deep".

A seconding for 'Consider Phlebas' by Banks: big, fast-paced, intelligent, hugely imaginative fun.
Alistair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter (who has "co-written" with Clarke, in that he wrote the books and Clarke stuck his name on the cover) and Greg Bear (esp 'Blood Music' (which is epic but not far-future or space-y) and 'Eon') are all good starting points for writers still writing and not dead. Greg Egan and Ted Chiang also good for mind-blowing short stories, if that's your thing.

i got a TON of great recommendations on this thread:

School Me On Some Sci-Fi My Astral Brothers And Sisters!

Thanks all,

Quick update, I snuck into Borders yesterday after work and bought Fallen Dragon by Peter F Hamilton, it's a stand alone and is supposed to be one of his best.

I need to read more SF... maybe I should finally read some of the Phillip K Dick books (other than the two easy ones) so that I can have an informed opinion on this writer.

I used to read TONS of sci-fi when I was a kid, continuing up through my late twenties, though not so much these days. Some favorites:

Ringworld: Larry Niven
The Anubis Gates: Tim Powers
Crash: J.G. Ballard
The Cyberiad: Stanislaw Lem
Way Station: Clifford D. Simak
The Master of Space and Time: Rudy Rucker
The Book of the New Sun: Gene Wolfe
Brightness Falls from the Air: James Tiptree, Jr.
Roadmarks: Roger Zelazny
The Man in the High Castle: Philip K Dick
Bill, the Galactic Hero: Harry Harrison (skip the many sequels)
Dhalgren: Samuel R. Delany
Blood Music: Greg Bear
Neuromancer: William Gibson
The Iron Dream: Norman Spinrad
Presidio Street Station: China Mieville
Vurt: Jeff Noon
Dr. Adder: KW Jeter

Short stories by Theodore Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison, Connie Willis.

Also, The Difference Engine, a Victorian proto-cyberpunk thing by Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Not a great story, but the ideas and implications have stuck with me for years.

That's a hard list to argue with.

this YouTube channel looks..... intertsing

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7sDT8jZ76VLV1u__krUutA