I think you would enjoy Peter Watts, either his Rifters (
https://www.goodreads.com/series/43561-rifters) trilogy(-ish) or Blindsight and its sequel from last year Echopraxia (
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22838183-firefall)
The best way to describe Watts is like reading Vinge after getting a punch in the gut.
He leans a bit more literary than Stephenson or Vinge, and I would say does equal or more research to nail the science (every Watts novel I've read so far has been footnoted like a journal paper). He also does more character development than either of them with no less action.
Best of all, his backlist, except for Echopraxia, is available at his website
http://www.rifters.com
A lot of people think he writes dystopias or dark stories, but I think he is more extrapolating from current trends and writing about often alienated or even alien perspectives.