I'm looking for some good speculative fiction books, i.e. sci-fi and fantasy. Any suggestions? ?

Question

I like Shirley Jackson, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, William Gibson, Alice Hoffman, Ray Bradbury, Christopher Moore, Katherine Neville....

Answer 1

red wall a very good series  

Answer 2

Robert A. Heinlein - Way too many good ones (look for Job:, Stranger in..., The cat..., the Man..., The Moon..., The Number..., Methuselah's Children, Friday...,  To Sail..., Time enough..., and Expanded Universe

http://www.wegrokit.com/reviews.htm

Piers Anthony - Bio Of A Space Tyrant, 5 books

as well as the Apprentice Adept series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Adept

David R. Palmer - Emergence

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Emergence-David-...

Anne McCaffrey - Dragonriders of Pern

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonrider...

Stephen R. Donaldson. -The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cove...

Just a few of MY all-time favorites, They have all been read multiple times.

Answer 3

Ray Bradbury - Martian Chronicals. Fantastic read.

Answer 4

I would recommend Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series. It's a trilogy, so it's not a big commitment (like many fantasy and sci-fi series!) and the final book is being released Sept 08. The first book is Mistborn: The Final Empire. It's great if you like books that stray from happy endings, too.

The main character is a girl, also, which is different, though the other primary character is a guy. The premise of the story revolves around the ability to 'burn metals,' which gives the person burning the metals special powers. It's a realistic approach to almost magical abilities that's more sci-fi than fantasy.

Good luck!