"Science Fiction has been my genre in the past but I feel that not much new or really creative is being written currently."

Sorry to pick out this little bit from your interesting post - but I feel the same about contemporary SF as you. There is one great exception, though; have you read Walter Jon Williams? I feel that he is the true successor to all those great writers of the 50s/60s/70s. His books are not just soap opera with added pseudo-science but a genuine evolutionary development of the SF of the past. He's got a new book out this month called 'Implied Spaces' - can't wait to read it!