[llreader]

Oh, right, I read that, and I kept thinking of Gardner.

Just about anything by Gene Wolfe (especially "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" and the New Sun books), if you like that style (the unreliable narrator). He does a lot of great stuff.

Anything by Truman Capote - he is a master of making the words just disappear and get out of your way.

"Black Wine" by Candas Jane Dorsey shows how a story oriented around people and the way they interact can do away with a lot of the description of objects, with the world as an almost blank slate. Also, the interleaving of the different story lines is a thing of beauty.

Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea books pack a lot of story in some very slim volumes - I am still trying to figure out how she does it without feeling like she is rushing things.

Andrew Miller is a great writer ("Ingenious Pain" was a phenomenal novel). Smooth, rich, strong prose.

Madison Scott SMARTT Bell can write the hell out of a scene. Really good description. I enjoyed his "Waiting for the End of the World" very much.

If you want to go way back, pick up Ford Maddox Ford's "The Good Soldier", the first 20-30 pages are so rich they make your head spin. Free on Gutenburg.

EDIT: Not sure how many of those are available as ebooks, but "The Good Soldier" certainly is.