#1. Gene Wolfe.
The best recommendation for him is the words of Michael Swanwick:
Quote:
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Gene Wolfe is the greatest writer in the English language alive today. Let me repeat that: Gene Wolfe is the greatest writer in the English language alive today! I mean it. Shakespeare was a better stylist, Melville was more important to American letters, and Charles Dickens had a defter hand at creating characters. But among living writers, there is nobody who can even approach Gene Wolfe for brilliance of prose, clarity of thought, and depth in meaning.
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#2, I see you've got the big "ABC" (Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke), but there are many who would equally substitute Alfred Bester as "Mr. B." Truly a great pioneer.
#3, this list is already getting too sexist, so please add Ursula LeGuin. Her ability to portray the "human condition," even in alien settings and with non-human characters, equals or surpasses that of Frank Herbert.