Luke, you torture me with these excellent books that aren’t yet in English. Luckily Stross has me covered.

You should really read Cryptonomicon by Stephenson. I finished it a few weeks ago and it does a really great job at tying multiple eras together via cryptography. Though, it is a beast of a book in terms of length but well worth the time.

Wait, too space opera? That’s the selling point for me XD And how remiss of me I did not think to search your blog for the others! XD Will go check those out now.

@ theperfectnose:

Heh, I read Consider Phlebeas by Ian Banks but I felt like it was a little bit too space opera for me… Then the anorexic space cannibals showed up… And then he went all Joss Whedon on all the protagonist. :P

I read House of Suns by Raynolds and liked it, but… Same complaint – little too space opera and too campy. But fun nevertheless.

Oh and I did write a big review on Quantum Thief by Ranjemi. I thought he had a lot of interesting ideas in there. I think my biggest complaint about that book would have been the completely unnecessary bad-ass action-chick which was so dangerously close to Mary Sue territory that it was grating. :)

Haven’t heard of these guys (well maybe Stephenson) but I’d like to recommend Alistair Reynolds and Iain Banks for eventual addition to your list. Also Hannu Rajaniemi. Need to go through this in more detail but it’s bedtime now so bookmarked for later.