Recent big-market novels I've dug:
Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, The DaVinci Code, Digital Fortress, Deception Point. In that order. Really great page turners. I love how he alternates short chapters between sides to keep the pace fast.
Recent Sci-fi I've dug:
Iain M. Bank's The Algebraist. Great long term, epic span trip galaxy fiction.
Favorite series ever:
Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality. You heard about this? Each book is the story of a mortal who occupies the "office" of Death, Time, Fate, War and Nature. Absolutely fucking fantasic storytelling and plot weaving. He finished the series off with two books I never thought he'd write, For Love of Evil and And Eternity.. the storys of those who hold the offices of Satan and God, and how they get them.
I can't say enough about them. The science-fantasy methods of how Anthony dreams up how humans can assume an office, the tools needed to allow a mortal to do the job, and the battles and inner struggles of the oh-so-very human characters overseeing the world.
I even own the audiobook series.