Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days by Alastair Reynolds

Currently reading this...I had been put off based on the misconception 
that it was tech-heavy and self-serious hard SF, but I'm pleased to 
report that it's kinda brisk and doesn't shy away from its pulp origins. 
Call it space opera for the phone-addicted generation, or the citizens 
old enough to remember the Before Time.

-- 
“I am past scorching; not easily canst thou scorch a scar.”

-- Herman Melville