Almost anything by Vernor Vinge. "A Deepness in the Sky" in particular is amazing. I was/am particularly impress by how he handles the idea of fundamental limits on the scope of human achievement, and by how he weaves that into the story so that it's there at all levels.
"Diaspora" by Greg Egan has a great story, huge ideas, and probably the most cogent explanation of sentience/sapience ever written.
"The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" and "Accelerando" have already been mentioned.
"Reteif!" Made me laugh out loud. Larry Niven's "Destiny's Road" points out the difficulty of interstellar colonization. "Ringworld" blew my mind. Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Syn" taught me to pay attention; "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams reinforced the lesson.
There are a lot of good ones; I could go on for ages...
It's easy to categorise these as wonderful and well written space opera, but that undersells them. Their author (Venor Vinge) invented the idea of the Singularity, and worked as a computer science professor. Both won both the Hugo Award.
For fantasy books, Patrick Rothfuss is doing good stuff. The Kingkiller Chronicles is excellent. Read his other books before "Slow Regard of Silent Things", though, because that is one weird story.
Bruce Sterling's Distraction. He touches on net-smart nomads, technology-driven disruption and the resulting unemployment, gridlock in congress, something similar to the Occupy movement in DC, a trade war with China that ended when they dumped all US IP online, a war referred to as 'Iraq 3', etc.
This is seriously impressive considering that it was published in 1998. My current hypothesis is that he's a time traveller messing with us.
Diamond Age is one of those awesome books where what you get out of it depends on where you are in life. I read it both before children and after children. I enjoyed it both times. But it was a different experience.
I really like the ideas from Greg Egan, so any of his books.
I still love Gibson, even his later books.
I want to say one of my favourite books is "Salt" by Adam Roberts. I love the characters and description of political views and the way the war between factions plays out. Roberts' other books are pretty good too.
I loved REAMDE - I could have done with a bit more inside the game and a bit less tramping through the woods. I love Stephenson's other books too.
Finally: Bruce Sterling seems to be under-appreciated. Hard to recommend one of his books.
This question is perhaps a FAQ. Has anyone on HN ever scraped the answers posted to the various threads, added information about number of mentions or votes; with links to Amazon (and other book sellers)?
Having some carefully chosen adds and duplicating all the links with affiliate links would turn this into a mostly passive income project.
I have read and enjoyed many of the classics that others have mentioned. I would give a shout-out to Wasteland of Flint by Thomas Harlan. I enjoyed it for how it incorporated alternate history in our relatively recent past - imagine a world in which the Inca and Imperial Japanese kingdoms became the dominant superpowers and led the industrial revolution, Europeans were conquered and fast forward into far future world with aliens, FTL space travel all mixed with what the Inca and Japanese cultures might have evolved into in that context and how those of European descent were seen as the lower caste. Some interesting cultural reversals and twists mixed in with future technology and ancient alien technology.
A single book? Impossible. I don't think I could even name my favorite Zelazny or PKD. Many of the works of both are in the running. As is "Dune", for sure. Possibly "Snow Crash". "Protector" might not quite make the cut, but comes somewhat close - from my recollection it was my favorite Niven (not counting short stories)... I'm currently finally getting around to "The Mote In God's Eye". Further back, "Foundation" was pretty amazing, and I've a bit of a soft spot for "Childhood's End". Bester's "The Demolished Man" is well worth a read, but I think also doesn't quite make the cut.
"The Golden Age" by John C. Wright - just awesome, and I agree with the values of the main character
"Chronicles of Amber" by Roger Zelazny - for imagination and badassery
Favorite short story is "Understand" by Ted Chiang - mind-expanding ;)
Also in general the lesser known Heinlein books are amazing. Not a fan of Stranger in a Strange Land. Named my current company after a reference to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
"Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" As someone who simply cant sit down and read a book this was the first book I have ever read and reread. First comedic release, is littered everywhere in the book. Recurring jokes for those who pay attention to detail are little nuggets of gold. There are social commentaries that ring true today. Lastly all the characters are believably absurd.
Lord of Light is a harder read than Amber. If you trail off partway through don't kick yourself, just try again later. I think it took me three tries to get into it, but once I did it's definitely high amongst my favorites.
"Diaspora" by Greg Egan has a great story, huge ideas, and probably the most cogent explanation of sentience/sapience ever written.
"The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" and "Accelerando" have already been mentioned.
"Reteif!" Made me laugh out loud. Larry Niven's "Destiny's Road" points out the difficulty of interstellar colonization. "Ringworld" blew my mind. Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Syn" taught me to pay attention; "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams reinforced the lesson.
There are a lot of good ones; I could go on for ages...