A few days ago, I finished Manifold: Time by Stephen Baxter.

Manifold: Time is as odd as it's title.   It starts off like a modern version of Destination Moon, but then quickly goes off the rails with messages from the future, philosophical predictions of the end of humanity and Midwich Cuckoo like children being abused across the globe.

It started to lose me with the predictions of humanities doom based on the Carter Catastrophe.  The Carter Catastrophe is a real idea, but the way it is presented in the novel is transparently wrong, and that bothered me for the rest of the novel.  The rest of the ludicrous plot didn't help.

Not recommended.

I just finished The Dervish House by Ian McDonald.

Set in a near future Istanbul, were nano-tech is a cottage industry, The Dervish House follows a number of plots centered around one home.  These include the launch of a new tech product, the search for a man turned into honey and the fallout of a tram bombing.  They all tie neatly together in the end.

A dense, slow read, but worth the effort.  Expected to be on a lot of end of the year best of lists.