I've been scrolling through all the comments, seeing if someone mentioned the late great Mr Banks. His Culture books are almost perfect hard sci-fi in my opinion, and his contemporary collection contain some amazing books (The Wasp Factory, and The Bridge immediately come to mind).

A Friend lent me this and I never gave it back (Sorry Tony!) The first chapter was so hard going I didnt read it for two years then wham! What an awesome book, sex, violence, deception, robots and starships with a bloody good ending to boot, definitely in my top five novels of any genre.

I'm a fan of Iain M. Banks and have gifted this one. It reminds me a lot of Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game.