Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey

The book definitely came second, it tries to give a bit of exposition for the events of the film, especially the weird bits at the end.
I also quite liked the first Rama book. I don't rate Clarke very highly as a writer/storyteller, but his ideas are just amazing and they carry the books along admirably.
Worth seeking out is "Report on Planet Three". It is a collectionof essays by Clarke. The title work is a short fiction, the conceit of which is that it is a document, found by space-faring explorers in the ruins of an extinct Martian civilisation. The document is written by Martian scientist and it is a scathing attack on the ridiculous theory that life might exist on the third planet, which is obviously insane; how could life exist in a volatile oxygen-rich atmosphere? Very funny.
Another article contains the memorable quote;

---

Mutate and Survive

Perhaps you should try Iain M. Banks then. His "Culture" novels never stray too far from believable science and manage to combine enough flash-bang to make it exciting with intelligent plots and great characterisation. "Excession" is probably my favourite, but I recommend you start with the first, "Consider Phlebas", which provides some much-needed exposition.

---

Mutate and Survive