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[RF]

I'm looking for good authors in these genres. :p

I've read a lot of the big ones (will list as many as I can think of below), but I could do with a lot more. :p

Any ideas, ladies and gents?

Spoiler: The List (click to show/hide)

George RR Martin
Terry Pratchett
Robert Jordan
Brandon Sanderson
Terry Goodkind (Blurgh)
Eion Colfer
Orson Scott Card
The Black Library books
Stephen King
R Scott Bakker
Jim Butcher
Elizabeth Moon
Neil Gaiman
Robin Hobb
Isaac Asimov
JRR Tolkien

[Enzo]

I don't know, J.R.R. Tolkien? I hear he was pretty good at the whole fantasy schtick. Or Isaac Asimov. Or most of the suggestions in this thread.

Seems like these what-to-read threads pop up quite a bit. It's strange, I seem to have the opposite problem. My reading list is immense.

[RF]

I don't know, J.R.R. Tolkien? I hear he was pretty good at the whole fantasy schtick. Or Isaac Asimov. Or most of the suggestions in this thread.

Seems like these what-to-read threads pop up quite a bit. It's strange, I seem to have the opposite problem. My reading list is immense.

I heard he was quite good at world construction, but really wasn't all that much of an amazing author. :p

Updated it with as many as I can remember. I've read pretty much everything in that thread.

I tear through books in a day or two. Sometimes less if I've got nothing to do.

[Nikov]

38 North Yankee by Ed Ruggero is a good one. The setting is 1985 and North Korea goes for broke. Its a good novel about infantrymen in combat. It barely fits into alternate history, but is a very good read.

[DJ]

Stanislaw Lem. The Invincible is my personal favourite.

[Jiharo]

For fantasy I'd add Dave Duncan for "High Fantasy" subgenre and Fritz Leiber for "Sword and sorcery." Moorcock should probably be somewhere in the middle.

[Simmura McCrea]

Try Iain M Banks for Sci-fi. If you like his stuff, maybe try Iain Banks for general fiction. Yes, they're the same person.

[Willfor]

Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards series, starting with Lies of Locke Lamora, and continuing with Red Seas Under Red Skies.

[Lord Shonus]

David Drake is an excelent Sci-Fi writer. Hammers Slammers is a bit hit and miss, but the RCN series is awesome.

For alternate history, try Turtledove. I reccommend starting with Ruled Britannia (The Invincible Armada conquered England. Primary viewpoint Character William Shakespeare):  or The Guns of The South (AWB uses a time machine to help the Confederacy win the war. PVC: Robert E. Lee).

[scriver]

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel, by Susanna Clarke. About the last two magicians in an early 19th century Britain, with a lot of historical cameos and such, as a large part of it takes place during the Napoleonic wars. Very "realistic" and low fantasy. Lots of great worldbuilding. Probably my favourite "fantasy" book.

To paraphrase an exchange I remember:
"Could a magician kill someone with magic?" Lord Wellington asked.
Strange replied, "A magician might - but a gentleman would not."

[Levi]

I'm a big fan of Tad Williams Otherland series if you are looking for a good sci-fi.  Its 4 big books long.

[Darkmere]

Sergei Lukyaneno's Watch series.

I enjoyed Ringworld, but the sequels sounded dubious to me.

Lovecraft had a bit of sci-fi, and the dreamcycle was odd fantasy. Might not be what you're looking for.

Watchmen is a healthy dose of alternate history and... lots of other things. Very worth a read.

[choobakka]

Otherland by Tad Williams is good. Also, anything by Neal Stephenson.

[Il Palazzo]

Stanislaw Lem. The Invincible is my personal favourite.

Read Lem if you like some food for thought in your books rather than just them being pleasant timewasters.
Just be careful to pick up one of his less-philosophical books, as these might be too much to handle for a casual reader. "The Invincible", "Return from the Stars", "Eden", "Fiasco" are good to start with. Those are S-F with a very hard S part. "Solaris" fits in there too, but is somewhat more philosophical.
Should you ever read Carl Sagan's "Contact", and think it too soft on the Moch's Scale of SF Hardness, then try Lem's "His Master's Voice".
"Memoirs Found in a Bathtub" and "Futurological Congress" are in turn somewhat reminiscent of P.K.Dick's work, who incidentally is a great s-f author himself.
(Oh, and make sure to read English translations by Michael Kandel - he's a genius.)

Dick's novels and short stories tend to be very easily readable, while containing heaps of original and often disturbing ideas and worries. He was a gold mine in this respect, and the filmmakers are still digging that vein today - his ideas have been made into movies more often than any other author's(yes, it's not a hard fact).
There is that staple feeling of oppressiveness, of uncertainity of one's senses permeating his works that makes you question the reality, and the meaning of it all yourself, for days on end.
For starters, try "The Man in the High Castle", "Ubik" or "Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said". His short story collections are great as well.

As a fun fact - Lem thought Dick the only worthwile s-f author in the USA, while Dick thought Lem to be a false name of a KGB comitee hell-bent on gaining mind control of the public opinion, and even reported this "fact" to the FBI.
Dick was an interesting man.

Just as an additonal, quick namedrop, I'd also recommend:
Ursula K.Le Guin for her very strongly humane approach to her characters;
James Tiptree Jr.(aka Alice Sheldon) for her unflinchingly brutal dissections of what it means to be human;
Arkady & Boris Strugatsky for... I can't quite put my finger on it. There's just something different, something unique about their writing style.

[Logical2u]

Harry Turtledove does a lot of alternate history stuff, whether or not you'll think it's good is a different question!

I've personally been partial to Ken MacLeod and Charles Stross for Sci-Fi, although some of that may be due to a nostalgia filter!