Favorite Sci-fi Authors?

I've read several of his. The Door into Summer is my favorite.

Also read a couple by Arthur C. Clarke.

Not a big fan of Sci-fi books but i like Jules Verne

William Gibson
Ian M. Banks
Richard Morgan
Gene Wolfe
Jeff VanderMeer

I read almost zero science fiction but do have a few authors I like.

I have read a lot of the short fiction of Isaac Asimov and, especially, Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke is a wonder at shaping a short story.

Of current writers, I can only mention Connie Willis. "Belwether" is a wonderful novel as are her books about the time traveling Oxford historians: The Doomsday Book, Blackout, and All Clear. (Blackout and All Clear actually make up one continuous story, but was published in two volumes about nine months apart.)

Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, Piers Anthony, Orson Scott Card, Michael Crichton, Pohl.

...in no order:

Alfred Bester

Clifford Simak

Ambrose Bierce

Theodore Sturgeon

Arthur C Clarke

Edgar Pangborn

Olaf Stapledon

AE Van Vogt

Phillip Jose Farmer

HG Wells

Jules Verne

Frank Herbert

Frank Belknap Long

Walter M Miller

Robert Sheckley

Damon Knight

Robert Heinlein

Andre Norton

James Blish

...and let's not forget Kilgore Trout...!!!

In no particular order:

Robert Heinlein: I’ve read five of his novels, my favorite being The Door into Summer. Also enjoyed The Puppet Masters, Have Spacesuit – Will Travel and Time for the Stars. Oddly enough, I didn’t enjoy Starship Troopers that much, though it was just after reading The Forever War. Will be reading more Heinlein.

Arthur C. Clarke: read more of his novels than any SF writers, his best work is Childhood’s End which boasts maybe the best finale of any SF novel, many of his other novels and short stories well worth reading

Ray Bradbury: a brilliant writer, one of the very best, wrote several works I consider masterpieces, his best SF works are The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man

Philip K Dick: wrote more consistently interesting SF novels than any other writer, my favorite being Ubik, no other writer deconstructed 'reality' quite like Dick

James Blish: wrote some stunning novels, such as Dr. Mirabilis, Black Easter/Day After Judgement and A Case of Conscience, collectively called his ‘After Such Knowledge’ trilogy, Cities in Flight and might be best known for his adaptations of Star Trek TOS

Alfred Bester: he makes it on the strength of his masterpieces The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man but his short stories are outstanding, too

Bob Shaw: wrote some really impressive works like Orbitsville and The Palace of Eternity but I think The Ragged Astronauts was his very best

Stephen King: I consider some of his works ‘SF’, even if they have horror elements. The Stand is arguably the most famous post-apocalyptic novel of the last 30 years, other works like The Running Man and The Long Walk are futuristic tales and my favorite King novel Carrie deals with telekinesis.

Samuel Delany: his novel Nova is truly a masterpiece of beautiful style, storytelling and colorful characters, sadly his other works are not as good, though I’ve met a few that loved Dhalgren, a work I could never get into

Theodore Sturgeon: one of the great writers in SF, most of his best works were in short fiction, his best novel is certainly More Than Human, Sturgeon was so talented a writer I would often go back and re-read his passages

Brian Aldiss: another one of the all-time greats, and almost underrated as hard as that is to believe, his works Hothouse, Non-Stop, The Malacia Tapestry and the massive Helloconia Trilogy all worth reading but my favorite is Greybeard, a beautiful and poignant post-apocalyptic that will remind many of Children of Men

HG Wells: Wells deserve mention because of The War of the Worlds, which lives up to its reputation and the fascinating The Time Machine, both well-deserved classics, The Invisible Man is very good, too

Michael Crichton: it seems to me that the SF community likes to reject the idea a mainstream author can be SF, though Crichton clearly qualifies, with such brilliant works as The Andromeda Strain, Sphere and Jurassic Park

Gregory Benford: maybe the best physicist SF writer ever and I doubt there is a better hard SF novel than Timescape, which combines great story, writing, characters and real science ( I knew university physics and quantum mechanics would come in handy someday)

Orson Scott Card: has become something of a controversial figure (due to his stance on same sex marriage and homosexuality) but there is no doubt he is a supremely talented writer with his Ender and Tales of Alvin series

Mark Geston: little known SF writer from the 60s and 70s but I just love his novel Lords of the Starships and its sequel Out of the Mouth of the Dragon

Joe Haldeman: I’ve read a few of his novels, and I enjoyed them but the only one I loved was The Forever War, easily the best military SF novel I’ve read, which also makes for a good time travel/romance and even daringly deals with future social issues

John Wyndham: wrote two of the better 50s novels in The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos

Algis Budrys: wrote several decent novels and short stories but it was with the two novels Rogue Moon and Michaelmas that he created two of the more memorable works in all SF

JG Ballard: odd writer, there is no doubt and as his career progressed he seemed to be trying too hard to stretch his imagination to the point it became silly (see Crash) but going back to his earlier years I appreciate what he was at least trying to do, my favorite work is still his first novel The Drowned World but The Crystal World, High-Rise and the later The Day of Creation all worth reading.

Gene Wolfe: creator of the most challenging SF I have read in his Book of the New Sun series, beautifully written with a barrage of words I found hard to find even on the internet, a grand and glorious journey