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Both Silverberg & Bradbury are more contemporary than Heinlein or Asimov. Hubbard was almost a contemporary of H. & A., and I'm not quite sure in time where Edger Rice Burroughs fits - but I believe he was pretty early as well (possibly earlier). Though having read books from all of the above Asimov is still the best (and intrestingly is also the most prolific writer EVER - he wrote far more non-fiction books than fiction, many, MANY science texts). For pure Alien in a compelling book Asimov's the Gods Themselves is prob. one of the best ever (though one of my least favorite). The Foundation Series & the Robot series are master works akin to Tolkien's material. (Indeed, the Robot theroms are being use today in the budding field of AI for Robots.)
Its intresting to note that the "flavor" I mentioned isn't restricted to Heinlein. Piers Anthony has also gone through similar development in writing style (though to a lesser degree). Perhaps one of Anthony's most intresting books was one of his first, Macroscope (which is a "harsher" novel - as were the early Hope Hubris series). (Reading Macroscope is a mind-trip - one of the best.)
BTW, I consider Waldo to be the best short fiction story I have ever read. (I believe that Waldo was combined w/ God Inc. to form a book.)
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