perfidy

Buckethead, fair enough. I haven't read the Brin on your list, and I will admit that the ending of The Postman, which used a deux ex machina, was not quite up to the rest of the book. I read I, Robot when I was about twelve, and it is what first kindled my inner fire of geek. So, propers are due there. 

As for abuse of cyberpunk concepts by Gibson and Sterling, you're just baiting the Johnny-bear. Shockwave Rider was a very good book indeed, and advanced many of the same ideas earlier, but Neuromancer especially is the better book. It's not everybody's cup of tea, to be sure, but the atmosphere, ideas, and details really killed me-- it's like "The Long Goodbye" as re-written by Philip K. Dick. I will admit though that Shockwave Rider does have a better plot. 

Regarding Fantasy novels: Dude, you are such a geek. Not that I'm any better. I really dug Katherine Kurtz' first Saint Camber trilogy.