Best short stories in general... James Tiptree Jr...(who was a woman)
Lots by Roger Zelazny..including the exquisite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rose_for_Ecclesiastes... which *I* think should have been made into a movie... but Zelazny would never have permitted Hollywood to mess with the story.


Best novels- My all-time favorite is "The Mote in God's Eye" Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle,..sequel is "The Gripping Hand"
.. but many things by James Blish, Issac Asimov are also great.
So very, very many...