First of all: whats with all the "Terry" books?
Terry Pratchett
Terry Brooks
Terry Goodkind
(I have books by all those authors, but it IS weird)
A book BESIDES The Good Earth? (While, it really is a dang good book but if you want....)
Ice Hunt, By James Rollins. Other very good books by him: Amazonia, Subterranean, Excavation, Deep Fathom (havent read this one yet)
All very very very good modern sci-fi books. You get sucked in really fast.
k:
If you can't find him, find Michael Crichton: Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Sphere, Congo, The Terminal Man, Airframe, Prey, can't think of any more....
Similar to James Rollins, very good scifi.