If you saw the film version of "The Postman", don't be put off--the novel is much, much better than the film. Also, the "Uplift" series are very good, but it is better to start at the beginning and read them in order. "Sundiver" is my choice for first read.

Wole Soyinka is a powerful Nigerian poet, novelist and memoirist. "The Man Died" is an account of his experience as a political prisoner in Nigeria. A very powerful book.

Poor Arthur Koestler gets remembered for "Darkness at Noon" and that is the only book of his most people read, but he had a quirky and inquiring mind which led him to write fascinating, if now dated, nonfiction, like "The Act of Creation," his examination of the origins and process of creativity. Worth exploring all his writings.

Gardner was a great writer, his untimely death was a real loss. I have read them all--"Grendel" is a good place to start, but I also would suggest "The Wreckage of Agathon" as an introduction to Gardner.

Banks is one of my favorite authors. He writes several different sorts of novels. He is known for literary fiction as Iain Banks, and for science fiction novels as Iain M. Banks. Of the former, I recommend "Complicity" and of the science fiction, I recommend "Excession".