Galileo's Dream was both unusual and yet typical from him. Unusual, in that it was primarily a work of historical fiction about Galileo. Typical, but he also painted a picture of a fantastic future that is not dystopian and is rather idealistic.

In Galileo's Dream, he achieves this by having a future society living on the moons of Jupiter (circa the year 3020) contact Galileo. The "first scientist" goes back and forth between his present life in Florence and Venice (circa 1610s and onward) and to the future, to the moons he just discovered.

It is all compelling. In his own time, Galileo is trying to escape being burned at the stake. In the future, he bears witness to humanity's attempts to contact intelligent life for the first time.

Galileo's Dream bears a lot of superficial resemblances to Arthur C Clarke's 2001, 2010, 2061, and 3001 (as does almost any science fiction book about Jupiter and intelligent life).

But the root of the book is in the past, and with that it really is a great piece of historical fiction. Like all Robinson's books, it's alternatively passionate, funny, philosophical, and mathematical. I really enjoyed it.

He's not for everyone, however. I'd try Red Mars first if you haven't read him and then decide from there.