I really enjoyed Scalzi's "The Android's Dream." It's witty and filled with action. It has some of the strangest plot twists I've ever seen in any kind of novel, but Scalzi makes them oddly plausible, in a warped way. It's relatively clean, so you can recommend it to a teen without too much blushing.

I'd love to see it turned into a movie. A movie version would have to be tongue in cheek without being over the top. I'm thinking it should be something along the lines of "The Fifth Element."