Just read a couple of books over the last two months.
(Having needed to purge myself of the ghost of Philip K. Dick)
I thought I'd share mythoughts with you.
Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton. Great book. Hamilton never lets me down. He is kind of hung up on the military thing, but his storiies are complex, well thout out, and his science and technology are always amazing. Good read IMHO.
Metaplanetary by Tony Daniels. Probably the most original science fiction novel I've read in a long time. Very well crafted, well thought out, with a unique perspectiv on what it means to be human. Took a bit to get into the flow of the book, figure out what was going on, but definately worth the read. He has a sequel coming out next year that I'm looking forward to.
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. Not really science fiction, more men's thriller ala Tom Clancy, but it has anitmatter used to threaten the Vatican, a centuries old plot against the Catholic Church, an interesting commentary on science and religion, and, well, its main character is an art historian. Fun read.

Limit of Vision by Linda Nagata. This is a novel about the creation of an artificial life form, how humans interact with it, and how the world responds. The idea is interesting, the writing is okay. I definately enjoyed reading it, but it felt like light reading considering its topic. In a way it also deals with what it means to be human, like Metaplanetary, but it feels as if the author of Limit of Vision is a less sophisticated writer when it comes to dealing with such issues. maybe If I hadn't read both novels so close together I wouldn't feel this way.

Last but not least...Evolution by Stephan Baxter. I'm actually not done with this, but so far, well, its a good read but...
This a novel about the evolution of humans, from the earliest primates to modern man. Its interesting, but hard to realte to a shrewlike creature who the author calls Purg and who scuttles around dinosaur feet at night smelling dino farts and looking for food. Or a horny raping primate named Solo who uses brute force to get females pregnant. Don't get me wrong. the writing is good and I'm sure he's got the story as close to reality as modern science can speculate, but so much of what he describes is hard to relate to as fiction. He would have been better off just writing a non-fiction yet somewhat speculative book describing his interpretation of the history of our ancestors. Worth the read, though, just to get a glimpse of lives worse then our own:)