Diaspora, Permutation City, The Diamond Age and The Laundry
Diaspora is Greg Egan's best work. Proper hard SF. Not hard as in "it's got spaceships in it" but hard as in "your brains will leak out of your ears trying to comprehend the scale" hard.

Permutation City is another one by Egan with a similar kind of vertiginous feel to it.

The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson, has the ring of plausibility to it - not a dystopia, not a utopia, and vastly more grown-up than its better-known little brother, Snow Crash.

The Laundry novels (The Atrocity Exhibition Archives, The Jennifer Morgue, and The Fuller Memorandum) by Charlie Stross are fun romps through a world where magic is a branch of mathematics, Lovecraft worked with Turing, and where the British government's response to it is typically slipshod and underfunded.

To avoid: The Lord of the Rings. Because it's turgid, slow, dull, slow, boring, soporific and above all slow. And inexplicably overrated.

All IMHO, of course.

[Edit: Thanks to Pig Bodine for making me notice that I'd got the name of one of my fave books wrong. D'oh.]
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 14:37, 5 replies)

Ooh, good choices
I loved Diaspora and Permutation City...not read Diamond Age but have read other Stephenson stuff, and will endeavour to seek out the Laundry books on your recommendation :)
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 14:42, closed)

LOTR
I wanted to slate it but was cowardly of the inevitable moaning war that would kick off.
good for you.
(Raol Duke, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 14:58, closed)

Charles Stross FTW
Halting State is another excellent one, now with a sequel called Rule 34. Another Lanudry short story that's easily overlooked is the one that hasn't appeared in one of his books:
www.tor.com/stories/2009/12/overtime

Well worth a read for any not familar with the series who's interested in having a look.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Thu 5 Jan 2012, 15:32, closed)

I like Halting State
but the Laundry novels just have precisely the right mix of humour, action, and weirdness to keep me amused from now until CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN.
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 0:13, closed)

Neal Stephenson is my metal god
That is all.
(Rilux might be pregnant and has bum-aids, Thu 5 Jan 2012, 16:16, closed)

Good call on The Atrocity Exhibition as it's one of my favourites,
but by JG Ballard (and a damn fine read which I recommend to all). Google tells me, as I'm as yet unfamiliar with Charlie Stross, you mean The Atrocity Archives. Thanks for the tips and have wanted to read something by Stephenson after Snow Crash for a while now.
( Pig Bodine., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 1:27, closed)