dllthomas

As is "Dune", for sure.

Possibly "Snow Crash".

Cryptonomicon benefits a lot from being a theoretical comp-sci and/or crypto nerd.

Further back, "Foundation" was pretty amazing,

Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Lord of Light is a harder read than Amber. If you trail off partway through don't kick yourself, just try again later. I think it took me three tries to get into it, but once I did it's definitely high amongst my favorites.

and I've a bit of a soft spot for "Childhood's End".

Bester's "The Demolished Man" is well worth a read, but I think also doesn't quite make the cut.

That was good times

"Protector" might not quite make the cut, but comes somewhat close - from my recollection it was my favorite Niven