>Here's a suggestion. If you haven't already, try Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Stephenson is a guy who really understands what he's writing about. Not taking anything away from Dan Brown, but I'd say Cryptonomicon is taking it up another level. I feel safe in saying that Charles H. would agree with me.

I'd agree, currently reading Stephenson's "Snow crash". Though he's not in the straight line Gibson - Egan - Stross, he's very close, almost a parallel street to these. And while Gibson had gleaned all his stuff without actually learning computers to any depths, Stephenson obviously knows his bytes. He actually invented SecondLife in 1992 - amazing, eh? He got very few things wrong, actually (like quality of your avatar depending on the speed of your connection - "B/W person" being a derogatory term).

Den Brown, however - I read Olympos, which sounded great and promised a great sequel. The sequel pretty much dissolved into battle after battle, involving horror-like elements here and there, and while it was mostly what I expected, it still lacked something. Can't exactly pinpoint what. Too much action, page turner, forgot to enjoy reading? Dunno, but somehow... hey, I can't even remember the name of the sequel. That's telling.


(update: worse than that, Olympos is the title of the sequel - Ilium is the first book ;)