withered_preacher-
Weeeell, I read a few of his books and he does some things that really tick me off about an author, but may not matter to others. For instance, he tends to put in a character who is all-wise and respected by everybody automatically etc and is a not very subtle representation of the author. My reaction to that is "I bought your book, isn't that enough? Surely I don't have to worship you as well." Unless it's a Robert Heinlein book (he did this all the time), where my reaction is "Get to fuck, you fucking Nazi!"
Stand on Zanzibar is an epic book, no doubt about it, (though also has one of those omniscient author avatars) but I found the take on humanity soulless. Also, you're clearly meant to find Chad C. Mulligan (Brunner's version of himself) immensely wise and amusing. I thought he was tedious.
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itsbruce
Quite a misanthropic hint of dystopia. Read a few Brunner books and I ended up disliking the author quite a lot.
All these suggestions are oooold. Did everybody stop reading SF before the millennium? (He says, having mostly stopped reading SF by the millennium)
If I were going to make a not-too-heavy 20th century recommendation, I think it'd be Neuromancer and the sequels. Cyberpunk has never been better than that.
The Rudy Rucker books @SideshowBob recommended are a lot of fun, fwiw.