Ask HN: What are the best Sci-Fi books you've ever read?

Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash were great. Others you might:

- The Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang (superb short story that Arrival was based on) - The Three Body-Problem (Cixin Liu) - Dune (Frank Herbert) - The Parable of the Sower (Octavia Butler) - Lucifer's Hammer (Larry Niven) - The Kundalini Equation (Steven Barnes)

Olaf Stapledon's "Star Maker" Is one of my favorite books of all time. Its pretty much a grand exploration of this universe and every other universe to ever exist, through the eyes of the main character. I'm rereading it right now again.

"Use of Weapons" by Iain M. Banks.

Edit: Overlooked the "fun" and "lighthearted" part. Let me change my answer to "Excession", same author.

This is a pretty old list I put together--so nothing in the past 15 years or so. It does tend toward hard SF but it's a fairly broad mix.

http://www.bitmasons.com/docs/sf.html

OP said "fun, lighthearted and enjoyable".

Noted reviewer James Nicoll on Peter Watts: "When­ever I find my will to live be­com­ing too strong, I read Peter Watts."

Which Dr. Watts put at the top of his About the Author page.

Watts is really, really good. And really, really bleak.