Book recommendations (Science Fiction)

[Kato]

Since we apparently don't have a general book recommendation thread anymore I thought I'd start a new one for my purposes.

Okay, point is I'm looking for a book for my reading club. I was thinking SciFi and consindering to use the chance to read some more Heinlein which I have been putting off for years now. But there arises the problem: I've hardly read a handful of his books. And since a few of us do prefer German books my possibilities do not cover the entirety of his works but that's something for me to sort out.

So, I'm looking for something not too... well, I don't want to say complex but I'll say it anyway. Just some good SciFi with an interesting story, possibly something stand alone which does not require to read a whole series.
I'm not entirely limited to Heinlein so if someone feels there is something else they would love to recommend feel free to do so.

[Grinner]

Have you heard of "Schismatrix" by Bruce Sterling, perchance? If you can get past some of the writing style, it's incredible.

Pay attention to the dates heading each chapter.

[Eldan]

Reynolds, perhaps? Chasm City is still one of my favourite SciFi books. It's also a mystery, of sorts.

[erikun]

Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer is a SciFi book (touching on paleoanthropology, quantum realities, society and pathology) but most of the story is about the people involved and interactions with each other. I've been meaning to pick up the rest of that series as well.

I will also recommend Asimov; it's been awhile since I read his books, but I seem to recall them being good shorter stories and good characters.

[Kitten Champion]

Nova, by Samuel R. Delany. A fast-action space opera adventure, replete with archetypal mythical allegory. It's a modern myth told in SF, and lots of fun.

Then there's Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, which is a seminal geek text if you haven't heard of it. Set in a dystopian future, the story is a literal grail quest to find an Easter Egg imprinted somewhere in the virtual reality world which replaced the internet. Filled with 80's arcade game, D&D, anime, and fantasy/SF references -- it's really gratifying within a fast-paced action story.

And I couldn't get away clean without recommending William Gibson's Neuromancer. Probably not Gibson's best work, but an enjoyable hard boiled cyberpunk crime story nevertheless.

[dariathalon]

One of my favorite recent (for me anyway) sci fi reads was Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow. Some really interesting ideas in there primarily about extremely long lifespans and social currency.

[dps]

If you want to try something obscure, try Galaxy 666 by Pel Torro. I don't know if it's available in German or not, though, or even if it's still in print.

[Brewdude]

It's hard to go wrong with John Varley. His stuff reads like Heinlein, too! :)

[Fri]

Talking about John Varley, I can recommend The Golden Globe, it's one of my favourite sci-fi book ever. It's about a shakesperean actor/conman who travels through the solar system in a universe without FTL. There's a really memorable scene about the main character spending months cooped up inside a baggage travelling secretly in a ship cargo from... I forgot, pluto to Neptune or Neptune to Uranus or something, a very long journey with their drive, with all the problems that entails.

[DMClockwork]

Don't know if it helps OP but I like to recommend the podcast Escape Pod (http://escapepod.org/) to every sci-fi fan I meet.

It provides audio-books of short sci-fi stories, rights always obtained from the authors, always free to download.