I've been on a pretty big Alistair Reynolds binge lately. You've got to like space opera type science fiction to at least some degree to get into him, but he's taking the genre to some pretty new places.
I love China Mieville, especially Perdido Street Station and Iron Council. I don't read much "fantasy" other than him, but he's great. He brings in elements of SF and horror too, so maybe that's why it works so well for me.
I'll echo the votes for Burroughs (especially the Naked Lunch which is a book worthy of all the hype), Ballard, PK Dick (though Valis is one of my favorites), and Gibson. I'd add Michael Moorcock to that bunch too, though he's most famous for the sword and sorcery Elric books (which are great) he's also done a lot of experimental SF/fantasy/surrealism stuff.
I read a lot of less experimental science fiction as well. David Brin, C.J. Cherryh, Stanislaw Lem (well, he's actually pretty damn experimental), Octavia Butler, Kathleen Goonan.
Pretty much the only horror I'm into (aside from the classics like Poe) is H.P. Lovecraft who is also one of the originators of science fiction really.
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