Three (?) Novels possibly a series or merely related, total long shot.

[King Ink]

My son, about to turn 14, has become dissatisfied with the sameness of what he has been reading (Brent Weeks et al), and has asked me to turn him on to some sci fi /fantasy. Like many or most of us I've been reading the genre since early teens and I have read a lot. Unfortunately my recall of authors/titles is very bad.
One of my suggestions was Richard K Morgan, especially the Altered Carbon books. Thinking of the tech used in the books especially the cortical stacks and the transmission of persons across the settled universe I dimly remembered reading (and very much enjoying) a number (perhaps three) books around 10 to 15 years ago that used very similar technology.
I apologize for the vagueness of the following.
I am fairly certain the author was male. His name was two short names (5/6 letters each) and was reversible, in that the fore and sur names could be swapped and the result would still scan.
The protagonist was a female xeno-archeologist who was searching for the origin of an extinct race of winged aliens.
I think that some similar tech to the cortical stacks was being used with people 'training' bodies in certain skills creating muscle memory in the bodies for eg surfing, martial arts etc. and then selling the bodies on(this could possibly be a conflation with some of Morgan's ideas).
I would very much like to re-read these books and in turn have my son enjoy them.
Again, sorry for the sketchiness of this total long shot and thank you for bothering to read this and perhaps think upon it.

 

[hitmouse]

??the Priscilla Hutchins stories by Jack McDevitt.

 

[Danny McG]

??the Priscilla Hutchins stories by Jack McDevitt.

Yeah, I thought of them but this bit about the author name didn't work:-

am fairly certain the author was male. His name was two short names (5/6 letters each) and was reversible, in that the fore and sur names could be swapped and the result would still scan

 

[tachyon]

I did a search for xenoarcheology scifi books, found Thomas Harlan's "In the Time of the Sixth Sun" series.

First book Wasteland of Flint, from 2003.

Not finding anything about winged aliens from the descriptions but the author's name fits the request, it's a trilogy with a female xeno-archaeologist protagonist looking for artifacts of an extinct alien race. Cortical stacks or similar not mentioned in the blurbs, but it's a high tech space-faring future society... and alt history it seems... and I'm seeing Lovecraft/cosmic horror references!!! Really interesting stuff.

Even if it's not your book I'm glad I found this, adding to TBR pile.

 

[hitmouse]

Yeah, I thought of them but this bit about the author name didn't work:-

Yeah, I thought that too, but it still seemed closest to me.

 

[williamjm]

There's an extinct race of winged aliens in Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space and it's from the right time period but the other details don't really fit.