Sci-Fi reading in the 21st century?

[Jasp]

I'd personally look at the neuromancer by william gibson, its lighter then most to read and i personally quite enjoyed it, if you like his style you can also look at count zero and mona lisa smile which are also very good + the burning chrome series, basically a load of his short works that are nice easy reads.

If you after some seriously heavy reading look at the otherland series by tad williams, its 4 books at roughly 900-1000 pages each last time.

[Fraz]

I can't believe no-one has mentioned Alastair Reynolds yet in this thread!

My two favourite Sci-Fi authors are Alastair Reynolds and Peter F Hamilton. Both absolutely superb... I don't think I could choose an overall favourite between them, despite their books/styles being quite different.

Oh, and another well-deserved mention is Richard Morgan. His first major book - Altered Carbon - is absolutely superb. The second and third books that follow on (the Kovacs series) are not quite as good in my opinion, but still worth reading.

[Crazytom]

+1 for Iain M Banks
+1 for John Wyndham
Also H.G Wells has written a great collection of short stories, definitely worth checking those out, not all sci-fi though

[Jasp]

A thought just occured that if you haven't already get the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series, you won't regret it.

[Subterranean]

George R R Martin gets a +1 from me.