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[Arx]

Asimov's Caves of Steel and thenceforward are very good, too. Kevin Anderson's Saga of Seven Suns is pretty good, too. C.S. Lewis's Cosmic Trilogy is flippin' weird, but fairly good.

[sjm9876]

Depending what you're looking for, maybe Olaf Stapledon. He tends very much to the philosophical side, and is far from contemporary, but I'd still recommend them.

Also, I am Legend, Richard Matheson. The book, ofc. Very much puts the film into shame IMO.

[Azerty]

Others already advised to read Starship Troopers; I would add The War of the Worlds and books from Jules Vernes, although the last ones could be deemed too "kiddie."

[PyroDesu]

Manifold series by Stephen Baxter (and most of his stuff in general)
Ringworld series by Larry Niven (again, most of Niven's stuff in general)
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, among the other Heinlein works
The Mote in God's Eye by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven
On Basilisk Station and the Honor Harrington series by David Weber, though beware that there is a lot of dry, sometimes painful detail of a sue-ish main character, at least towards the beginning of OBS
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (already recommended several times and for good reason)
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Not the movie, the short story collection. The movie has nearly zero to do with it.

[quamzie]

,, We "  Evgeni Zamyatin
,, The heart of a dog " Bulgakov
,, Roadside picnic " Strugatsky brothers

[Caz]

Peter F Hamilton

(specifically: the Night's Dawn trilogy)

This. Great books, and each one comes in at 800+ pages easy. The Commonwealth Saga is amazing too, imo better than Night's Dawn. The North Road is also very good, though it does take a couple hundred pages to get going due to the convoluted timeline thing. Void Trilogy is also a great hybrid of fantasy and sci-fi. MorningLightMountain is one of the better-conceived alien races in the whole of the genre tbh. The only thing those novels have a problem with is the general deus ex machina nature of their endings, which is a shame, but the ride beforehand is great.

If you're into the dystopian stuff, I'd also recommend Neal Asher - The Owner series.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

DUNE series (Frank Herbert). Foundation series (Isaac Asimov). Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card). Gaunt's Ghosts (40k)(Dan Abnett).

[Eagleon]

The Light of Other Days by Stephen Baxter from a synopsis by Clarke - exploring the implications of widespread use of micro-wormhole cameras.
Manifold Trilogy from Stephen Baxter - bizarre, plays with some timescales that most sci-fi authors don't like to mess around with for fear of looking silly.
The Solar Cycle series from Gene Wolfe - huge old-earth sci-fantasy series. On its way to becoming a classic.
The Sleepless series from Nancy Kress - transhumanism porn, but it gets darker in later books.
Red/Green/Blue Mars from Kim Stanley Robinson - terraforming sci-fi. I love him because he doesn't lose his characters on the way to pushing all his pieces together for an expansive story.

[JimboM12]

Shoehorning some W40k in here, but the Ciaphas Cain series by Sandy Mitchell is a good deconstruction of the hero archetype, and of the W40k universe in general. The !Grimdark! isn't being bludgeoned over your head every minute, which I appreciate.

I woulda also suggested Ender's Game for a more serious tone, but someone beat me to it.

*minor typo

[Antsan]

Anything by Stanislaw Lem, but especially
Solaris
Master's Voice
Test

For Fantasy I'd recommend the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss.

[Ghills]

Andre Norton wrote some great science fiction.
The Time Trader series - fun and intelligent look at time travel and alien encounters
Brother to Shadows and Star Gate - interesting takes on colonization
Solar Queen series is also great. 

Timothy Zahn writes really good science fiction adventures with pretty believable science and alien psychology, so long as you avoid the Cobra series. My favorites are
The Icarus Hunt
The Blackcollar series


Elizabeth Moon writes great space opera and military science fiction.
Vatta's War series
Serrano series

Her fantasy is also excellent.  She's got the knack for writing stories that are fun while also exploring serious subjects.
Deed of Paksenarrion is a great hero's journey and exploration of what 'good' is.
The sequel series Paladin's Legacy is a great epic quest/adventures, with political intrigue, wars, and really unique takes on fantasy species. Her gnomes are the best.

Starship Troopers is a wish-fulfillment book by a guy who held extreme political theories and got invalided out of the military. It was OK but it's not a favorite.  Dune kept putting me to sleep, so YMMV on that one.  Asimov's I, Robot was great but his Foundation series is uneven.

[Zrk2]

I thought Dune was pretty good.
'Course, I only ever read the first book, only one I could get my hands on, but still.

I've read all the books by Frank, and they're all quite good, although the later ones get really weird.

Also, one I haven't seen mentioned yet is pretty much any scifi by LE Modesitt Jr. his fantasy also has a distinctly scifi bent to it, as well, with the exploration of philosophy and really interesting magic system.

[Capaverde]

I'd like to order some more science fiction books, but I'm sort of at a loss as to which ones.
I've already ordered four (2001,first two Culture books and neuromancer) and they should arrive soon, but beyond Chasm City, I don't know what else to buy. Feel free to suggest fantasy books too, I guess.

Brave New World is all that comes to mind.

[Nightscar982]

Peter F Hamilton

(specifically: the Night's Dawn trilogy)

...The Commonwealth Saga is amazing too, imo better than Night's Dawn....

...If you're into the dystopian stuff, I'd also recommend Neal Asher - The Owner series.

Above quote snipped heavily, but yea, commonwealth is great, but I would also suggest the polity series by Neal asher. It is a pretty big 'verse in the polity series, and I think quite a few books are out. I started on skinner but that may not be the best choice

[Un67]

How about Oryx and Crake and its sequel The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood? I definitely enjoyed reading those books, and felt that they provided a pretty compelling view as to what the near future might be like, Oryx and Crake especially.