Finding good scifi novels

I'm looking for a new scifi author as good as my favourite sci-fi writer, Ian M Banks.

Recently I found this cool flowchart from SF Signal plus the interactive version. Sadly, the first time I used it, after answering honestly, the interactive version tool me to Ian M. Banks.

Source

Then I found http://www.bestsfbooks.com/ and on the homepage are some books that I've heard good things about:

• The Dervish House by Ian McDonald  
• Zero History by William Gibson
• REAMDE by Neal Stephenson

Interestingly, the io9 posting that led me to the link above, has this sentence " But here's hoping BestSFBooks evolves into more of a real recommendation, something like Pandora except for books. So that if you liked Iain M. Banks' Culture books, it'll recommend Alastair Reynolds' books next"

Maybe I will look him up.

I want to meet Iain M Banks

He is, without doubt, my favourite author. I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into his new Culture novel, Surface Detail.

Synopsis

It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters.

It begins with a murder.

And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself.

Lededje Y'breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to put things right she will need the help of the Culture.

Benevolent, enlightened and almost infinitely resourceful though it may be, the Culture can only do so much for any individual. With the assistance of one of its most powerful - and arguably deranged - warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on. A war - brutal, far-reaching - is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead, and it's about to erupt into reality.

It started in the realm of the Real and that is where it will end. It will touch countless lives and affect entire civilizations, but at the center of it all is a young woman whose need for revenge masks another motive altogether.

Living in the future

Love this. The comments are almost as good as the book itself. From http://2010book.tumblr.com

2010: Living In the Future | the book

Back when I was a boy, I bought a children's book at my town's library book sale called "2010: Living in the Future" by Geoffrey Hoyle. Written in 1972, it had been withdrawn from the library's collection by the mid-80s, when I picked it up. I've somehow managed to hang onto it for 25 years and now, suddenly, here we are: 2010. I'm reproducing this long out-of-print book here to see how we're doing. Are we really living in the future? | a project by Daniel Sinker

One of my favourite quotes is this (emphasis added):

When you have bought your groceries, you must pay for them. The bill appears on the vision desk below the vision phone. It is important to check the bill because computers can make mistakes.

Gotta love the irony of that statement in a book where the entire house - especially the cooking - has been computerised.