I love Baxter's stuff, but it tends to get really, really depressing.

LM Bujold's "Borders of Infinity" about "Quaddies": people genetically engineered with two extra sets of arms in place of legs for free fall, is interesting. I quite like when a woman hits the "Bad Boss" with a wrench, a guard who (everybody turns against the BB!) says, "Don't hit him like that! Hit him like this!" :D

that sounds pretty good.
the books i ended up picking up were Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy about an alien race with 3 sexes that ends up saving the few remaining people left on earth after humans all nuke each other. Pretty cool stuff. Alot of the bio-engineering stuff since their 3rd sex naturally takes genes from any living thing it encounters and mixes it with its own and other species' to create crazy living things.

It's not exactly sci fi, but Slaughterhouse 5 is good, and it does have aliens and time travel. So far, it's the only book I've ever liked that I've been forced to read for school.

Ambush at Corellia.

Ambush at Corellia.

Star Wars FTW.

Samuel R. Delaney's: Dhalgren or Russell Hoban's: Ridley Walker

a book on scientology :p

I'd recommend this too. Any chance to push Vonnegut onto people.

I'd recommend this too. Any chance to push Vonnegut onto people.

I'm already well versed in Vonnegut. That guy's the fucking man. I loved Slaughterhouse 5 but I think I liked Sirens of Titan better

Try "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" its a short novella but I liked it and it won the hugo (and maybe nebula) award(s)

Also don't laugh but planet of the apes was pretty good.

ps. I wouldn't conciser 1984 sci-fi, good but not sci-fi

"Rendezvous With Rama" is very good. Arthur C Clarke. Pass on the sequels.

"I, Robot" is always a classic by Isaac Asimov. Also from Asimov, the main 3 "Foundation" novels (that is Foundation, Foundation and Empire, & Second Foundation) are terrific books.

I'm looking at reading the Red Mars, Blue Mars, & Green Mars trilogy for my next sci-fi adventure.

Enders Game by Orson Scott Card. It's one of those books that wasn't on my HS reading list, but should. It sure kicked the ass out of any of the books I read off their shitlist.
And if you like Enders Game, don't be shy about picking up the rest of the Ender series.

If you want believability, Harry Turtledove does an excellent job with alternate history and scifi.
If you wanna take a gander at his works, I'd suggest In The Presence of Mine Enemy as a starter. It's about jews living in Nazi Germany and surviving by emulating as much as they can.
He does a great job in my opinion with his world war themed books, where in one series he chronicles from the American Civil War (in a what if the south had won), through world war II and beyond.
The names of the books escape me, but they are sitting in my room collecting dust. If you're interested, I'll dig up the names.