h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I would recommend the NY Times.
plenty of fiction.....they are branching into science just a bit these days.

Isaac Asimov
Arthur C. Clarke
Robert A. Heinlein
Larry Niven
Robbert L. Forward
Hal Clement
Charles Shefflield
Stanley G. Weinbaum

Less so:
Robert Silverburg
Ray Bradbury
Ben Bova
H. G. Wells
Jules Verne
Kim Stanley Robinson

"Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue mars" -- Kim Stanly Robinson

"Sir Isaac"

Asimov was never knighted and I don't suppose you mean Newton. It's Dr. Asimov, not Sir Isaac unless you're talking about the physisist.

Clarke was knited, though.

Humor in Asimov books--
Foundation is sort of funny. I Robot is funny.

Whoever wrote "the Bible". One heck of a good story.....

seriously

Ray Bradbury.....yeah

I like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...Sherlock Holmes...I love workin' that brain....always a mystery to be solved.....

I don't know if Stephen King would be considered "Science" Fiction...but overall he is my favorite author...I've read many many of his books and short stories....Such an imagination....yikes!

Heinlein for the first half only of 'Time enough for love', The wisdom of Lazarus Long is spellbinding. Unfortunately the story goes downhill considerably when the action starts!

William Gibson - a must read

Philip K Dick (oh yes!)
William Gibson (early works)
Iain Banks (Culture series)
Alfred Bester (Tiger Tiger! aka 'The Stars My Destination')
Harry Harrison (Stainless Steel Rat, etc.)
Dan Simmons (Hyperion, etc.)
Arthur Clark
Fredrick Pohl
Asimov
etc.

Oh, and:

Robert Silverburg
Ray Bradbury
Ben Bova
H.G. Wells

I'd have to say Frank Herbert by a long shot. Voted the greatest sci-fi novel of all time and i believe it is

You're kidding!
By whom?

I mean, I've read the stupid thing at least a half dozen times (took me a year the first time), but that's some hard slogging!

Did they mean the whole series or just the first book?

What, Dune?

I enjoyed it, and I'd call it a classic, but the greatest? I think not...

Much as I have loved almost all the authors mentioned I am amazed by the number of references to Asimov and Heinlein. Asimov was probably the first SF author I read while Heinlein comes a close second and I have read dozens of books by both (which in Dr A's case is only a fragment of the canon) and enjoyed them enormously. However I would have thought that these days they seemed a little old fashioned. They certainly do to me when compared to Gibson or Banks but also did 20 years ago compared to Dick, Delaney etc.

Current fave by a long shot Iain M Banks (also Iain Banks when not reading SF). The Culture is a marvellous millieu for SF (Speaking of Millieu, Julian May anyone?).

Yo Higgs,
lookin' at yer personal space seems like you mighta read a little Vernor Vinge ,if not wrap yer rods round "a fire upon the deep "

Further more you may find investigating Greg Bear a worthwhile endeavour ,eh what!

not to mention getting down and dirty with A.A.Attanasio and life on a neutron star,and living life backwards with Merlin....plenty to fill in the lonely hours out in space.

'Ere, wot you bin doin', pokin' around my personal space?

Greg Bear - yup, been there...
Vernor Vinge - yes, I remember - a long time ago

A.A.Attanasio - hmmm - doesn't ring any bells, does he do fantasy? I'm not into fantasy.

There's some good new stuff coming out this millennium - check out 'Altered Carbon' by Richard Morgan (Gollancz), a cyberpunk doozy

Of course, for Sci-Fi-Comedy, Douglas Adams has everyone beat. For pure sci-fi, I loved the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card. Frank Herbert's Dune if also very good, but I haven't read the last one yet. One of my favorite series is John Ringo's Legacy of the Aldenata (otherwise known as the Posleen Invader series). If it's not the goriest book you've ever read, you've got to tell me what your reading.

A.A.Attanasio writes both,also if you haven't yet,try a little Stephen Baxter ,his Xeelee series tickles the tendrils tremendously.Brin and his uplift novels are a classic ,though I suspect you have already read them.Dune.. hmm...God Emperor was the best for mine.

Ian, with Sic Fic, you have to go backwards as well as forwards.

Asimov was one of the first Scientists who grew up reading the stuff to also write it.
Spurgeon, I think, also counts, and one other fellow I can't remember.
What, Dickson?

Ah, well, Clarke might count.

Heinlein poked his head out of the pulp pile and brought the proto-fascism of of E.E. Doc Smith to within spitting distance of Jerry Pournelle...

Asimov also brought an adultness to the puberty-hazed Campbell magazine. That's where the notoriety that led to his books began.

We may outgrow Robert and Isaac, but they are a good place for beginners, and there are some things that they didn't do that well, but they did do them first.

I'll never forgive either of them for their damned eons-long epic series books.
Nor will I forgive any who followed, including St. Herbert.

walks off, muttering...

damned paper-wasters...