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You know, I don't know that my (admittedly vast) experience buys anything here. I can steer you to the authors that I like or that I respect and hey, maybe there's even some overlap there, but that doesn't mean you will like them! Spider Robinson was the best SF book reviewer of the 1970's but, even though I didn’t often agree with him, his reviews could steer me to authors I had previously overlooked or that needed a second chance because we could compare the overlap of good and bad books. Also, I don't really want to dump on any other poster's selection or the authors listed here. Especially, since I used to read a great deal of "trash" when I was young. How else does one educate one's palate?

And, with a few days perspective, I have reflected on my friends over the years. We discussed the books we liked and disliked and sometimes we agreed and often we didn't - everybody has personal likes and dislikes. Sometimes they introduced me to authors I was unfamiliar with and vice versa. We all benefited and moved on. My best friends rarely like what I like but we all tend to know what each other likes and know when they will enjoy a particular book or author. Without that degree of familiarity, all we can do is suggest what we like, see where our tastes overlap, and grow from there. If you can get to a SF conference or two, it will definitely influence your perspective (it does tend to bring focus onto what you already know); that rude, arrogant, condescending authors always come across that way in their work, that nice guys can inspire you to find the good attempts in their work, and that idiots are irredeemable.

A quick aside: Never-ending-series-it is probably one of the things I hate most. Whenever a series starts to go that way (without sufficient justification) I just put it aside and wait it out. There were many such authors in the 1960's and 1970's and I really got sick of them. No point in mentioning them, you either liked them or you didn't and most of them aren't being reprinted for obvious reasons.

In summary, you already have a great deal of grist for your mill with the books and authors listed and I will let you make your own decisions about them. I hope everyone gets as much out of this thread as they might hope for.

Happy reading!

PS: But before I go, I have to get in a few last shots:

Unless you are a literature student, don't waste your time with anything older than about 1940; Peake's Gormanghast, Lord Dunsany, Chandler, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Bram Stoker, etc. The arcane use of language and the milieu shift is overwhelming. EE Smith's space operas (if you like that stuff) are about the only exception.

Also, Guy Gavriel Kay - The Fionavar Tapestry: The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy consists of The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road.

One of my best friends loved those books. I didn't. Take your pick.