[Britton J Wingfield]

Heinlein is the all-time master. The two best contemporary scifi authors are (imho) WIlliam Gibson and Neil Stephenson. I haven't seen a new Larry Niven book in a long time, so he doesn't count.

[JenB]

Hmm... sounds like you like hard scifi/cyberpunk. Personally I don't care for either of the authors you mentioned. I think Orson Scott Card has some brilliant stuff (Ender's Game) and Connie Willis is fairly unknown but absolutely great. Her works sometimes resemble Heinlein's and she is clearly a fan, one of her books is dedicated to him! She wrote Doomsday Book, a time travel story, and To Say Nothing of the Dog, a time travelling romance Victorian mystery with a side trip to the Blitz. Absolutely a hilarious novel, and well written to boot. Her latest book was Passage, another brilliant work. Other than that... well, Heinlein's dead and most new stuff is trash.

[Congressman Billybob]

A heads-up for those looking for sci-fi that's great from less well-known writers. R.A. Lafferty's Nine Hundred Grandmothers is a collection of his short stories. Most of them pack more action, delight, and character development into a story, than most writers put into a whole book.

The best of the lot is "Just Slow Tuesday Noght," which many of you have probably seen in fine anthologies.

However, I agree that there is no one who is better than Kilgore Trout.

Congressman Billybob

Column: "The Un-Music Man"