Strange Flesh by Michael Olson

Heartache and a passion for hacking have comprised James Pryce's post-college years. Unsurprisingly, when he's offered the chance to work for his lost love, Blythe Randall, James quickly takes the job. She and her brother, Blake, need his cyber-spy services to track down their wily half-brother, Billy, who's sworn to destroy Blake, and has the cash to back up his threats. James's investigation launches him from a lifestyle of casual sex with strangers into a virtual reality of deviant sexual behaviour. But his involvement in this online world of depravity and his cover as a video journalist start to bleed into his real life when he becomes involved in a project to develop virtual reality sex toys. By the time he realizes the truth, it may be too late for him to escape his carnal new reality.

Limit of Vision by Linda Nagata

In the not-too-near future, nanotechnologist Virgil Copeland and his team are on the frontier of AI development. They've created a near-microscopic new species called LOVs, because "they exist at the limit of human vision." LOVs form a symbiotic link with their human host's brain. Because of this link and the potential power LOVs have over their hosts, they have been deemed unsafe and banished to a ship orbiting earth. But Virgil's team have rescued some LOVs from their exile, and using themselves as hosts, study the effects. The book opens as Virgil's team's misconduct is detected after a team member dies inexplicably. Her connection to the LOVs is blamed, and Virgil ends up on the run. Meanwhile, the LOVs in orbit, fearing for their survival, separate themselves from the rest of the ship and fall to earth, landing off the Vietnamese coast. Ela Suvanatat, a freelance journalist, dives to investigate the crash site, not knowing the political and martial whirlwind her actions will unleash.

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

This is a guest post
by Eva van Emden

Fans who found the Baroque Cycle and Anathem heavy going will be happy to hear that with Reamde, Neal Stephenson returns to the action-packed techno-thriller style of Cryptonomicon and Zodiac.

The biggest problem that Richard Forthrast, mega-rich owner of the only multiplayer game T'Rain, has to deal with is coddling the egos of his content writers. But the game is turned upside down when a virus called Reamde starts to encrypt the files of thousands of T'Rain users, demanding a ransom paid within the game; a full-scale war breaks out as bandits flock to rob the victims of their game gold. When a T'Rain player accidentally encrypts some files belonging to the Russian mafia, the consequences spread across the ocean to China and involve MI5, the CIA, a group of Islamic terrorists, and Richard Forthrast's own family.