I more-than-highly recommend Burndive because it's a great book, and because it and the other two in the series make up a great space-sf trilogy that's all character study. There are still explosions and space battles, but they mostly happen off-screen and... the person who turned me on to Stargate also tossed the books in my direction. They're nothing like Stargate, but um... similar interests. *fails at describing stuff*

The only Neal Stephenson (I'm copying his name off the spine of the book beside me) I've read was the so-very-bad-it's-almost-good Baroque Cycle books. Pirates! Natural Philosophy! Newton is crazy and also he's gay! philthe25th told me they're also prequel-y for his more contemporary novels tomes.