A reply from cstross! That's it, I'm done for the day. Doesn't get better than that. Thanks for all the great books!
Side note: I think Peter Watts is also a "cat person". Something about cat people must contribute to them being some of my favorite writers. Which is odd, since I'm more of a dog person. Maybe if I wrote fiction I would hate what I wrote. And Amazon should include a "author pet preference" as filterable criteria when searching for books. If Greg Egan likes cats that would make for a trifecta.