The thing I'm on now is The Mocking Program by Alan Dean Foster. The only other work of his I've read is The Dig, the first page of which turned me off so much that I immediately put it down. This is looking much better though.
He is an odd author. I think he drinks sometimes before he writes-his stuff is all over the place. Try For Love of Mother-Not. Its the first in a series-but the best, I think. And Spellsinger is pretty good.