pouët.net

Well, you really have to have read The Robot Series if you are a fan of fiction.
But what really got me into loving Asimov is The Foundation Series...I started with the Foundation Trilogy (all in one book in my case), which ain´t chronologically the first to be read, but i can assure you it´s a superb start into the series!

By now i am somehow stuck, as i got myself all of the Perry Rhodan Series...well not all but the first 2500 of ~2700 released pulp booklets (roughly 40 pages each) and just started with number 61, so many years of reading only that in front of me, until i get to the point where i have to wait a week for every new issue like real fans of P.R. have to!
That´s a nice read for sure, eventho the technic used is a bit silly, but thats easy to say if reading a book from 1961 in 2013...also the same with Asimov,Lem or whoever you prefer from the golden era of fiction!

+1 for Asimov and the Foundation series :)

george r r martin (check out his "tuf voyaging" series!!!!111)
vernor vinge
alastair reynolds (revelation space series, the most recent one i read that got me google all this quantum mechanics stuff again)
kurt vonnegut (slaughterhouse five)
John Scalzi (Old man's war)

aaaaand of course the obvious ones:
Aldous Huxley
George Orwell
Philip K dick
H. G. Wells
Ray Bradbury
Douglas Adams

and all those that do not come spontaneously to my mind. like the writers of the mass effect series or whatever who don't get enough credit.

great thread btw!

various authors: The Bible

Ronald D. Moore, Brannon Braga. ;)

Peter David