Hmm, too many to list, but I'll try... keep in mind that I primarily read science fiction and fantasy when it comes to fiction. These are authors that pretty much anything they publish is on my "very likely to buy on name alone" list - here they are in no particular order:
Guy Gavriel Kay: Pretty much everything he writes is good, but Sailing to Sarantium/Lord of Emperors and Tigana are fantastic.
Neal Stephenson: I don't like all of his books, and he's not a perfect writer (books tend to just drift off at the end), but Snow Crash and Anathem are both among my favorites. Very good at establishing colorful and vivid settings (and tends to write about protagonists I easily identify with).
Jared Diamond (nonfiction): It's a little different with nonfiction... in Diamond's case, he writes about topics that interest me, and is both clear, reasonably fun to read, and not too "dumbed down".
Steven Pinker (nonfiction): Pinker's books I enjoy for most of the same reasons I like Diamond's - interesting topic, well covered, and well written.
JK Rowling: I'm a bit older than her intended audience, but I really enjoyed the Harry Potter books. Writes about characters I like to care about... I cared more about Harry after a page than I did about any of Tolkien's characters after 500 (why Tolkien's not on this list).
Joan Vinge / Vernor Vinge: Going to include them together, although they're really not. An ex-married couple, each of whom separately writes/wrote (they both are *very* slow to pubish new stuff *sigh*) very different yet very good science fiction novels. I believe Joan won one Hugo (maybe two?), and Vernor won two (or did he win another a few years back?).
Patrick Rothfuss: A pretty young author... to my knowledge he's only written one widely-published book (Name of the Wind). Wow. I really, really enjoyed it. Too bad it's taken him so much longer than he thought to write the second part of the story :steam:. One presumes that it will be worth the wait.
George RR Martin: Writes very good medieval-era fantasy... I'd almost characterize it as political, but it's all about his large cast of characters, some of which are fantastic (others are the "love to hate them" kind).
Robin Hobb: One of the few more serious fantasy authors I've liked who writes from a first-person perspective (in some series). Her books are pretty typical in large-scale consideration, but very, very well done, and don't come across as "just another fantasy book".
Robert Jordan: I *almost* didn't include him on this list. He writes *long* books, in an almost unbelievably long series (it's 11 books, averaging perhaps 750+ pages, over the course of almost 20 years now). There's legitimate criticism that he was just stretching the story out for a buck (the story would likely be better if each of the latter books was half as long as they are), and that some of his characters are one-dimensional. But I'm re-reading the first few books now, and they still grab me the way they did in the early 90's - and without a doubt, the scale and detail of his story is epic. He passed away a year ago or so after a hard-fought illness, and another author has been commissioned to finish the story using RJ's notes. He's also the only author on this list I've met (book signing a number of years ago). RIP, RJ.
I know I'm missing a few worthies (oh, oops, have to go fill in one more I forgot and can't omit), but this is a pretty good list for me
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