Many very good suggestions already.
Try Michael Z. Williamson, Freehold. Part of the Freehold Grainne War series. Great space opera and a desperate fight for independence against earth.
Charles Stross, Accelerando is a book I liked a lot. Makes the also great cyberpunk books by William Gibson seem pedestrian and without scope. :X
S. M. Stirling, Island in the Sea of Time is a great start of The Change series. The start is better than the finish though. Accidental time travel/apocalypse well done.
L. E. Modesitt Jr. Of Tangible Ghosts is a great alternative history book, with a nice steam punk feel, as well as some ghosts, spying and a little romance. Follow up with The Ghost of the Revelator and Ghost of the White Nights.
I can also highly recommend the Ecolitan books by Modesitt.
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