Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson)

This is a big book with an amazing number of threads: math, computers, cryptography, World War II, treasure hunting, data security, hacking, and more. At first, the two halves of the story (WWII and present day) seem connected only by the last names of some of the characters and the general theme of cryptography, but by the end everything has come together. I enjoyed all the science geekery, presented in a way that is accessible but also accurate, and was completely caught up in the personal stories of loyalty, trust, and love. Highly recommended.

Fire in the Mist (Holly Lisle)

This story has all kinds of magic, and makes no pretensions of coming up with "scientific" explanations, so it works just fine! A teenager is off tending sheep when everyone in her village is killed by a plague, and her emotional response is so magically powerful the leaders of the world's magical community come searching for her. A country peasant, she doesn't fit very well into the civilized and prejudiced magical university, but they convince her she needs teaching if she's to avoid harming anyone with her untutored power. In her first weeks, a horror from the past arises and threatens to destroy everything, and of course she's the one who winds up saving the day. The story was not the greatest (the end can't square with the beginning, for one thing, and I couldn't convince myself the big schism in the magical world could have persisted as completely as it did for hundreds of years), but still enjoyable enough.

A Discovery of Witches (Deborah Harkness)

I enjoy fantasy stories. This one has witches, vampires, and daemons, all together with humans in the present-day world. I was enjoying it until the author tried to explain everything using science, and missed that mark completely. Within the space of a page or two, she said (1) vampires have an extra pair of chromosomes than humans do; (2) when vampires are made, the maker first drains out all the human's blood and then replaces it with the maker's own blood (no explanation as to how the vampire survives this), and the advanced mutations in the vampire's blood triggers a spontaneous mutation in the DNA of every cell in the human's body (and "something similar happens with human blood transfusions), and (3) the secret to this may be in the "junk DNA" in human cells, which "has to be left over from previous selection, or it's waiting to be used in the next evolutionary change." I stopped reading there. Fantasy I have no trouble with, but this level of really bad science is too cringe-worthy.

The Dervish House (Ian McDonald)

Reading this sprawling, convoluted story wasn't easy, but it was worth it. In a near-future Istanbul, the lives of several people living in the same house come together in unexpected ways. One is a high-powered financial trader working on an almost-legal plan to earn millions. One is a trader in antiquities drawn into the mystical search for a legendary artifact. One is a retired professor of economics and former activist. One is a 9-year-old boy with a disability and a nearly magical robot. One is a woman who came to the city from a small agrarian community determined to make a name for herself in business. One is an empty-hearted drug user who begins seeing visions of djinni and saints. Their story begins with an explosion on a tram, and ends with a monstrous terrorist attack on the city. It was slow going, especially at first, but came together into a thrilling and satisfying conclusion.