Neal Stephenson

Stephenson is certainly a master of prediction. He is able to not only predict the future, but how those predictions would come to be. I have only read The Diamond Age, which I certainly enjoyed, but it seemed fairly disjointed at times, without any clear direction (this being the only real flaw).

Stephenson really is the most talented SF author operating today. I know that every time you go to the SF section of your local bookstore and pull a book off the shelves you've gotten a badly-written, dull, childishly written and irrelevant read. So, in order to make my above statement more meaningful, I'll put Stephenson in the ranks of contemporary literature, and he still ranks way up there. As the author of such rocketing SF tales as Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, he has continually entertained me with great, vibrant characters and deviously immersive futuristic locales. You simply cannot go wrong taking one his books home with you. Enjoy.