Lois McMasters Bujold. All around fun, but she slips "Hmmmm" moments into her stories.
CJ Cherryh. Some authors have only a couple of stories and they tell them over and over again. She doesn't.
Debra Doyal and James McDonald. Try em.
David Webb: Honor is good, but Colin is a personal favorite.
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. A Japanese Jane Austin in Space.
Alan Dean Foster, The novels of the Humanx Commonwealth are great. His others are a bit hit or miss.
Ah that should be David Weber not David Webb.
I tried Cherryh, too techy for me. Most of the rest I'm not familiar with. I mostly just dabble.
ADF is fun, though I haven't read him since I was a kid.
I consider Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston "science fiction" -- Relic, an awesome story constructed around the science of genetics made into a dumb movie.
Bujold has been a favorite of mine -- I hope SCIFI NEVER gets it's hands on the rights to make Miles Vorkosigan into a miniseries -- but her fantasy novels leave me cold.
Terry Pratchett is the king of parody. Death is my favorite with Susan not far behind, followed closely by The Luggage.
I recently read "City on Fire" by Walter Jon Williams. It's technically the sequel to "Metropolitan" but stands well on it's own. The POV makes it awkward reading at first but overall it's absolutely fascinating.