[dugong]

A couple of recent books I've read and will recommend are "Singularity Sky" and "Iron Sunrise" by Charles Stross. Stross combines hard science, physics, cosmology and computer theory with spy thriller themes. For me, they were page turners I couldn't put down. And because they are large books (1000+ pages), the trip wasn't over before I was ready to put the book down.

Stross's Accelerando is another good read. Imagine a near future when the digital age progresses to where all of the matter in the Solar System is converted into a monstrous thinking machine and humanity is looked at by its creation as just more matter with no significant intelligence and that humans can be put to better use as organic matter assimilated into the brain.