I want to read some sci fi

When DH tried to convert me to sci-fi he chose Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds. Its a blinding story and it does have spaceships :) I also second Oryx and Crake, and Cryptonomicon, although I wouldnt class that as sci-fi and it needs concentration - if you read infrequently its hard to follow. I think its one of the best books I've ever read

Another vote for Iain M. Banks ('Look to Windward' is a great stand-alone Culture novel) and William Gibson. Can also reccomend Richard K. Morgan - 'Altered Carbon' is a cracking good read, although somewhat derivative of Gibson.

Timothy Zahn does some good si-fi with interesting aliens - The Icarus Hunt is a good sci-fi / detective mix, also Alan Dean Foster has some great world building stuff. Otherwise I think I am more on the fantasy side though I have read loads of Asimov, Clark etc in the past.

I was also going to recommend Elizabeth Moon's 'Vatta's War' series if you're looking for adventure and spaceships!

Player of Games v good also. I then went back and read Consider Phlebas but didn't like it so much. I don't think it matters if you start with Player of Games even though it is not first.

Asimov is good - if you accept his cultural context isn't entirely his fault - and I think his work is underrated now.

Ray Bradbury's Illustrated Man is amazing.

Harry Harrison's (RIP :( ) Stainless Steel Rat, and Bill, the Galactic Hero series are good - they are easy to read and amusing and "proper" Space Opera iykwim.
You could get the "Mammoth Book of..." anthologies to find authors you like, they do ...Apocalyptic Fiction, and several volumes of other sci-fi ones too - they are usually under a fiver on the Kindle and have loads of stories in them.
Andre Norton wrote hundreds of proper 'ripping yarns' with all the space ships and ray guns and excitement you could ask for, and some of hers are free/dirt cheap on Kindle in anthologies. I recommend the Solar Queen series - I think Dane Thorson was my first ever crush many years ago...

Jo Walton has a great sf review blog on the Tor website which is an enjoyable read, and has alerted me to a whole lot of writers I didn't know (including Jo Walton). She often covers classic SF - the current front page has books published in every decade since 1950.

Off my own bat I reccommend Lois Mc Master Bujold (the Barrayar/Vorkosigen books rather than the fantasy ones), Connie Willis (start with Doomsday Book), David Weber (the Honor Harrington series), Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (start with Agent of Change) and Sharon Shinn (Archangel).

I'd recommend John Scalzi's books - Old Man's War, The Ghost Bridgades, The Last Colony, and Zoe's Tale. They're traditional 'space opera' science fiction (space travel, aliens, wars), and very entertaining. A lot of modern sf can be hard to read if you've not read much sf before, but these are easy to get into.

The Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold is also great - again, a 'space opera' type setting, though some of the plots are more political thriller/detective stories. The books can be read as stand-alone stories, but you get more out of them if you read the whole series.

Another vote for Ender's Game, excellent book!

i love this thread, i now have a reading list of my own so thanks OP!

Just adding my vote to Orson Scott Card's Enders Game.

My recommendations have already appeared - CJ Cherryh's Merchanter's Universe books (Downbelow Station etc),and Elizabeth Moon.

Actually,I'd also recommend The Pride of Chanur - CJ Cherryh again

Madeup - I read Friday in my late teens and loved it. Not sure how I would find it today. At the time, I had found its views on sexuality interesting and the strong female protagonist empowering.

William Gibson's earlier novels (Neuromancer, Idoru, Mona Lisa Overdrive etc) are really good. Gibson coined the word "cyberspace" in Neuromancer, btw, and with that book he opened a new chapter in sci-fi which was later named "cyberpunk". He started losing his way around the time All Tomorrow's Parties came out and these days I just don't know what his books are supposed to be about. I think he might be going senile Still, he has a very interesting Twitter feed, definitely worth following.

Neal Stephenson is definitely a genius and possibly even a minor deity. His books range from merely brilliant (Cryptonomicon) to mind-blowing (Snow Crash, Diamond Age), to epic & brain-hurty (Anathem). His Snow Crash was selected into Time magazine's list of "100 Best English Language Books Of All Time" and has inspired Google Earth and Second Life, as well as the use of the word "avatar".

While this thread is running - I'm curious about everyones opinion on 'Friday' (Robert Heinlein).

Oohh...thanks Snorbs. Off to Amazon right now :)

flapper, if you like dystopian I really recommend William Gibson. "Neuromancer" and its sequels are truly great.

Neal Stephenson can be good, too. "The Diamond Age" is well worth a read.

I've generally been a sci-fantasy/dystopian novel reader. Hence I'd say Margaret Attwood, Oryx & Crake and Aldous Huxley, Brave New World. Gonna try a few of those listed above.

Have a look at the Baen website. Lots of sci-fi. Lots of different sub genres of sci-fi. Most of their books have chapters free online so you can read before committing to buying.

I really like David Weber and Eric Flint.

The thing about the Culture novels is that they're not hard sf - they're sociological Space Opera (you can have hard sf SO, but the two don't have to go hand in hand). Banks isn't normally interested in physics - he wants to play with what a truly post-scarcity society might be like, and he hand-waves a bit to say "Oh, we're post scarcity because the pixies bring us lots of goodies". This makes it less than ideal hard sf but, like FTL travel in most books, or the time travel in TEFL, we accept it because it's a necessary mechanism for the story the author wants to tell.

I wouldn't class Banks as a great author, but he has an interesting vision of the world, some intriguing plots, and loads of whacking great spaceships and "that would look great on film" moments - and sometimes that's exactly what you want.

That's really very rude and patronizing, Cote. Given this is a friendly thread about books and I don't believe I've insulted you, it's also uncalled for.

Michael Cobley - The Humanity's Fire series

Greg Bear - Moving Mars, Eon, Eternity

Hannu Rajaniemi - The Quantum Thief

Peter F.Hamilton -Night's Dawn Trilogy, Commonwealth Saga, Void Trilogy

Alastair Reynolds - Inhibitor series

A bit out there but deep - Olaf Stapledon - Star Maker

Btw, yes, Time Enough For Love is a pretty fun and unchallenging introduction to sci-fi. Putting aside some pretty old-school views on gender roles, it brings up interesting issues like what significantly longer life spans would bring, the conflicts they would cause, our prejudices about sex and promiscuity, etc.

It is by no means the greatest speculative fiction I have ever read, but it is witty and I think OP could start to enjoy sci-fi through it. Oh and even in this light read you find that the author goes into the challenges and struggles a self-aware computer would face. Not like Banks' ridiculous utopia of robots and humans living together in harmony with no problems

Then again, Robert Heinlein is one of The Big Three writers of sci-fi, whereas Ian M Banks probably isn't even in the first 15.