Here's my nominations:
The Stars My Destination (second)
Verdant Skies by Steven Lyle Jordan
A catastrophic eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera threatens the global biosystem, and drives Earth's desperate residents to seek refuge in any of the four satellite-cities in Earth orbit. The satellite Verdant immediately finds itself under pressure to accept a forced occupation by a population it cannot hold, and certain doom of its own survivability. But a secret group on Verdant has a plan of its own...
http://www.rightbrane.com/StevenLyle...dant_skies.htm
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
The most exciting SF debut of the last 5 years - a star to stand alongside Reynolds and Morgan. Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy - from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars.
Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons - the Dilemma Prison - against countless copies of himself.
Jean's routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self - in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed . . .
The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future - a heist novel peopled by bizarre post-humans but powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge and jealousy. It is a stunning debut.
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quantum-Th...mm_kin_title_0
B&N:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/quan...=quantum+thief
Apple:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-...29699133?mt=11