[Grimward]

Michael F. Flynn was mentioned before for Fallen Angels, but I'd like to add that his Firestar series was especially excellent. Constantly trotting out technologies that seemed right around the corner, or perhaps right there at the so-called "bleeding edge" of technology. Some of it was really in the works when the series was written (e.g., "spiders" crawling the internet), of course, but in general much of it seems plausible. The first 3 books, Firestar, RogueStar and LodeStar, are especially good and deal with the same set of characters over a span of decades. The last book, The Wreck of the River of Stars, is OK, but not as good as the earlier books in my opinion. You don't have to really already know much about any of the technology involved; Flynn has a way of introducing it quickly, moving off to another plot, then working the first technical subject back in with a gradual explanation at a later point in the book. It sounds flighty, but Flynn pulls it off.