I just wanted to echo the Blindsight comment. I sort of think (no offense Charlie, you're a right there in the top five) that Watts is the most important writer in SF at the moment. Blindsight wasn't just a novel riff on transhumanism, vampires, post-cyberpunk and space travel (telematter is unique, I think) but it was also a novel first contact novel. He literally covered new ground on pretty much the first trope of the genre.
Continuing the 'genre importance list from someone who is a couple years out of date' I'd add Coalescent from Baxter. Subtracting the last two chapters about the future, it's easily the best SF for people who think they like SF books I've read in a decade.
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