OSC is great. Most of his books are top notch, even the ones he wrote that are essentially about the book of Mormon (Homecoming Saga). You'll find a lot of criticism about that one, but I had no problems with it and I'm an athiest.
And yeah, God Emperor of Dune is hell to read through, but worth it in the end. Those prequels were terrible, too.
If you haven't read any Asimov yet, do so. Not many libraries have his full Earth/Robots/Empire/Foundation catalog, but if you can get them all, here is the order you should read them in:
a) The End of Eternity
1) I, Robot
2) Pebble in the Sky
3) The Currents of Space
4) The Stars, Like Dust
5) Caves of Steel
6) The Naked Sun
7) The Robots of Dawn
8) Foundation
9) Foundation and Empire
10) Second Foundation
11) Foundation's Edge
12) Foundation and Earth (this book kicks so much ass)
13) Prelude to Foundation
14) Forward the Foundation
15) Robots and Empire
It's tough to find a, 2, 3 and 4. You could probably skip them, I guess, and it wouldn't hurt. They are good, short books, though. The first one is labeled "a" because it's not part of the whole Earth/Robots/Empire/Foundation timeline. I put it in because a few characters in that timeline conjecture about similar stuff and a conflict within the book coincides with what should happen after Foundation and Earth. The reason I put some stuff out of order is because the last two are weak books. When read in this order, though, it works. Robots and Empire is last because it spoils probably the greatest secret Asimov ever held in all of the prior stories.
EDIT: Obviously, read Fantastic Voyage.
Some other good stuff... Michael Crichton: Sphere, The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Arthur C. Clarke: Hammer of God, The Songs of Distant Earth and The City and the Stars. Also, Excession by Iain M. Banks, if you're into long, torturous reads like Frank Herbert.
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