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Has anyone mentioned Ursula Le Guin? Surely a great "soft" SF writer if ever there was one. Can't think of anything by her that I *wouldn't* recommend. Good characterisation, strange but believable societies, and ideas that make you look at your own world in a new light.
Oh, and Mary Gentle -- "Golden Witchbreed" & "Ancient Light" for evocative adventure on an alien world, "Ash: A Secret History" (I think this was published in several volumes in the USA) for a tale about a female medieval mercenary captain in an increasingly alternate world, which *is* actually SF, but with the trappings of fantasy, the White Crow books for "science fiction" in a world where hermetic magic is the way the world works.
Jo Walton's latest series, beginning with Farthing, is a trilogy of excellent murder mysteries set the late 1940s in a world where Britain made peace with Hitler in 1941. Sort of Agatha Christie meets George Orwell... She's also written some good Arthurian fantasy and a Victorian novel of manners about dragons which won the World Fantasy Award.
Robert Silverberg has written reams of "soft" SF too, very readable. "Lord Valentine's Castle" and sequels are great for epic adventure on a vast alien world, and he's written many many excellent short stories.
Better stop now, I'm getting carried away...
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