Good sci-fi thread.

Any favs, anon?

Alastair Reynolds, Iain M Banks, and Peter F Hamilton have been my top picks lately.

I also finished up Gene Wolfe's, "The Book Of The New Sun". Very fucked up story set millions of years in Earths future after the sun has finally reached its end life and is cooling down. It's set in a world where todays technology is no longer existent.

Another recommendation for C.J.Cherryh. Few authors write convincing alien species as good as she does. Be sure to give the Invader series and the Chanur series a try.

David Brin's uplift novels are also a good read and have convincing depictions of alien species, though I find his writing style a bit on the dry side, compared to Cherryh.

Be sure to give Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light a read. It's a classic IMO and manages to depict an epic and complete story, mixing Indian mythology with science fiction, within the confines of ~300 pages.

Stanislaw Lem's Return From the Stars-
An astronaut returns to earth after about 150 years, it's only been about 10 years for him. He finds earth culture to alien for him to adapt to.