Little Brother is a pretty slam-bang tale, full of neat tech and even neater plot twists. That is, right up to the moment you realize that in one sense this is Doctorow finally being the high school kid who says and does the right thing in all the tough spots. It's a little heavy-handed where the tech is not tightly entwined with the plot, and it certainly does push political buttons. But it's a good read.

Saturn's Children is surprisingly unsexy about its main sexbot character. On the other hand, it's a pretty vivid portrait of a completely made-up world that's neither utopia nor dystopia. If this one's not his best, then I definitely need to read more Stross.

Can't comment on the others, except that Neal Stephenson was fine up through The Diamond Age, but way too wordy beyond that. Gibson and Sterling did steampunk pretty damn well many years ago. (Small spoiler - beware those silky French punchcards.) I'm not sure Stephenson can muster the economy of words to make his take -- well, not steampunk but it shares many genes -- compelling.