Another Ian McDonald favourite of mine is Necroville (released as Terminal Café in the US).

I would also second Al Duncan’s Vellum although I’m still going through it, with the caveat that I suspect that his short story cycle — The City of Rotted Names, The Prince of End Times, The Whenever at the City’s Heart, The Tower of Morning’s Bones — might very well be even more mindblowing than both Vellum and Ink, to which they are linked.

Chris Priest: almost anything. My personal faves are The Extremes and The Separation, but YMMV. He is one of the very best British writers living today.

If you’re looking for hard SF, Greg Egan is your man. Diaspora might be his best, although Schild’s Ladder is quite probably the most far-reaching hard SF novel ever written. My good friend Al Reynolds said, that as an ex-professional astronomer, he tried to understand it, but still couldn’t fully grasp it. In other words, Schild’s Ladder is either the epitome of hard SF, science geekdom gone over the top, or excruciatingly boring, depending on your POV.

Finally, I really liked Mike John Harrison’s Light, and its sequel Nova Swing was released last year, but I haven’t read it yet. But it’s very high on the ‘to read’ pile, which has grown over a couple of hundred books.

–Jetse

If you are looking for a out and out fun read try A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore.

If we’re talking fantasy, I highly recommend Greg Keyes’ THE BRIAR KING as well as Sean’s own THE CROOKED LETTER, and his forthcoming ASTROPOLIS is the one book I plan to drop everything I’m doing to read when it comes out. (And I’m not publishing that one).

And for Christ’s sake, see CHILDREN OF MEN already. It’s out on DVD now too.

STAMPING BUTTERFLIES, by John Courtenay Grimwood
THE SKINNER, by Neal Asher
MARROW & WELL OF STARS, by Robert Reed
SUN OF SUNS, by Karl Schroeder
LIGHT & NOVA SWING, by M. John Harrison
AIR, by Geoff Ryman
RECURSION, by Tony Ballantyne

On the other hand, I’d suggest starting with China Mieville’s THE SCAR rather than PERDIDO. What he had great fun with first time round, he really nailed at the second attempt (imho).

I know this book is some years old now, but if you haven’t read Robert Holdstock’s MYTHAGO WOOD, do. It’s still my favourite fantasy novel ever.

Meanwhile, I’d second the call to read Mieville. If you had to only read three of the above works, from everyone’s recommendations, I would read PERDIDO STREET STATION, RIVER OF GODS, and ACCELERANDO, in that order. To do so would be to read the three books that seem to have had the most impact on the “dialogue” that is speculative fiction.

I’ve only read MARKET FORCES by Richard Morgan and thought it was quite excellent. Flawed in places as it felt like he was working with too many ideas for the overall novel to hold them all comfortably, but it was so uncompromising and blistering in its passion that it won me over. I’ll go hunt for the trilogy you mention.

My wife has SNAKE AGENT, so I can steal that from her, and the bookstore that rents me an office has a couple copies of VELLUM for sale, so that gives me a starting point. I also admit to having PERDIDO STREET STATION on my shelf. I’ve started it twice and kept getting stalled, though that has more to do with the last three years of kid-rearing than anything to do with the book.

Maybe I’ll tell the bookstore lady to pick up Scalzi’s books. She’s always asking me for suggestions about what she should stock, and I’m always a bit stuck because I know that my tastes aren’t necessarily what move lots of (or sometimes any) books. The last time I was successful with a book suggestion was when I got her to stock the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, so Scalzi might be a good experiment for a rural town’s bookstore. The rest of the authors are mostly new to me. I’ll go hunting.

As I get through them, I’ll post my mileage. If there are other suggestions, I’d love to keep building a list. Cheers!