I find Peter Hamilton’s operatic stuff extremely page turning and easy to get along with…provided you start with the first book in his series.
The Commonwealth Saga series and the Void are my favorites and they aren’t five parsecs worth of reading either. Purists may scoff but those two series of books are really good IMHO.
This is a thread for recommending books not showing off your insider knowledge. A person looking to check out science fiction needs the name an author published under.
If you want some light reading, and can easily suspend your disbelief, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars books would be fun. Antique science fiction, light on the science, that inspired a lot of today’s stuff. Multi-limbed Martians, cloaks of invisibility, brain transplants, etc.
A picture of Harlan Ellison looking like a middle-aged woman with hairy forearms!
It’s not an accurate likeness.
He looks much worse by now.
That link failed on me, but if you just go to his own “webderland” site, there is a more recent picture, with his trophy wife – more recent as in about 10~12 years back.
I would start with the reality disfunction. Space, zombies etc it is awesome!
Baen books has a library where they have many complete books available for free. https://www.baenebooks.com/mobile/main_search.htm#catalog
Like any good drug dealer they offer the first hit for free. 
Personally I like Weber and Ringo but there are plenty to choose from and the price is right.
You’ve read Mote, might as well read The Gripping Hand. Prepare to be disappointed.
Hell of a setting though. Which reminds me, since Stross is already mentioned in the thread, try his novella, Missile Gap. It kills me that, to the best of my knowledge, he hasn’t done anything else with the setting. Does anyone know if it’s original to him, or did he borrow it from someone?
I will sound like a broken record and urge you to give Alastair Reynolds a try. Chasm City is a decent take on film noir and someone who’s already mentioned having Dick in the library (Hey, phrasing?) should be comfortable with the narrative stream in this one.
The third book, Outies, by Jennifer Pournelle, is actually quite good. Some problems, but it is (in my opinion) better than The Gripping Hand. TGH is pretty much a very long “chase scene in space.” Outies is a more detailed conspiracy/intrigue novel. It holds the reader’s interest (it did mine, anyway) quite well.
Permutation City by Greg Egan. A hauntingly believable exploration of what it actually means to be a sentient individual.
Here’s the correct link:
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/toast/toast.html
Thank you. That was an embarrassing mistake, for which I apologize. Let me make up for it by giving the correct link for Stross’ story “Bit Rot” Short Story: Bit Rot - Charlie's Diary which was mentioned earlier in this thread.
Emergence, by David R. Palmer.
If you are looking for some more recent stuff, there are a few series I’ve been reading:
The Empire’s Corps (sort of a fall of the Roman Empire in space) by Christopher G. Nuttall (he also has another series called Ark Royal which isn’t bad).
Odyssey One by Evan Currie
Star Carrier by Ian Douglas
Man of War by H. Paul Honsinger (this series has just started and there are only 2 books in it so far…but the first two were really good IMHO)
Star Force by B. V. Larson
A bit older, but a good series IMHO is the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell. The Honor Harrington series by David Weber is always good as well.
Or you can tackle Fallen Dragon, which is a single book that has much of the quality of the Commonwealth books. If you like that, then Pandora’s Star + Judas Unchained (the first in the Commonwealth). The more recent Great North Road is also a stand-alone and I enjoyed it as much as the PS + JU.
I tried the Night’s Dawn books and didn’t like them at all.
Fountains of Paradise and Rendesvous With Rama by Arthur C Clarke.
*The Forever War *by Joe Haldeman
Downbelow Station by CJ Cheryh
The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold. (Caveat: She begins this series with Shards of Honor and its sequel, Barrayar, but I believe the best book to begin with is this one, and then go back and read the others if you like it.)
The Sage of Pliocene Exile by Julian May, which begins with the novel The Many-Colored Land.
Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons.
Startide Rising by David Brin
