can someone recommend some good fiction writers?

[Geof]

Originally Posted by HayTay Frank Herbert - Dune (I really enjoyed the first book, struggled through the second one, Dune Messiah, and never finished with whatever the 3rd, and subsequent, Dune novels there are)

It is difficult wading all the way through the Dune series but if you enjoyed the first book you should try reading the prequel series; House Atriedes, House Harkonnen, etc written by the son of Frank Herbert and a co-author that also wrote some of the Star Wars novels. They used Frank Herberts notes and have succeeded in tieing things together very nicely. These books fall into what I call airplane books; books that make time pass on long international flights when it is impossible to sleep.

[Geof]

Originally Posted by davesaudio Might help to mention what you have read so far? Classics like Niven's ringworld series? Pournell? Is fantasy OK? Do you want light reading or heavy stuff? (Anybody got the patience to plod thru the painful details in 11+ "wheel of time" books?) Dave

Would a photograph of my bookshelves suffice? Much easier than typing a list with several hundred entries.

[shovelitdeep]

Off the Sci-fi genre, try Trustee from the toolroom by Neville Shute Norway, if you can find it. It is from the fifties. Or The Long Ships by Franz G Bengsston, a great adventure about the Vikings, also from the fifties. It was made into an incredibly bad and stupid movie at one time, but the book is great, it won a Pulitzer prize for fiction, i think.
For fun reads, try the Dortmunder (I'm a robber, not a graverobber!) series, Smoke, High Adventure, and others by Donald E Westlake. What's the worst that could happen was written by him, the book is good, the movie stunk. The books are usually good humored. He also wrote the Mel Gibson movie Payback as Richard Stark. His Stark books are usually darker and much more violent.
Hiasson is good, his villains are way over the top goofballs, dark humor.
Mysteries, try Jonathan Gash's Lovejoy series. Lovejoy is a guy you want to choke, the books are also darkly funny.
Enjoy!