I know people hate AI, but I find it to be a good starting place on things like this where ultimately, even if it hallucinates, little damage is done. I was discussing with it about some literary preterences. I grew up reading a lot of Asimov, although I'd never finished the Foundation series, so I'd been doing that - but I hadn't remembered how it just got completely bogged down in convesation with so little action… it got annoying.
Well, I have four recommendations I'm considering. I'd love your opinions on which one you think I should go with, and if you agree with the provided summary.
For brief reference, I adore the Discworld novels (which are fantasy, not sci-fi), The Expanse, much of Asimov's earlier works, the Miles Vorkosigan series… I think that's all I'd been talking about with it. heh. ninjaedit: Andor as well.
And if you're so anti-AI that this submission offends you, please feel free to ignore it and even block me if you wish, but I'd humbly ask you to keep AI discussion out of the comments. Obviously I have no way of enforcing that request, but I am humbly asking.
Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
If you specifically love how Pratchett could weave distinct, isolated vignettes into a stunningly cohesive tapestry, you have to read Hyperion. The first book is essentially a sci-fi Canterbury Tales. Seven pilgrims are traveling to a distant, dangerous world on the eve of a galactic war, and they each tell their own deeply personal, vastly different story along the way. The writing is incredibly literary, the characters are richly drawn, and it all snaps together brilliantly.
Teixcalaan Series by Arkady Martine (starts with A Memory Called Empire)
This one is a masterclass in political science fiction. It follows an ambassador from a small mining station who is sent to the capital of a massive, overwhelming empire to replace her predecessor—who was murdered. It has that same incredibly tight, high-stakes imperial political tension as Andor, but wrapped in gorgeous, evocative prose. The characters are incredibly sharp, and the world-building feels intensely real and grounded.
The Culture Series by Iain M. Banks (start with The Player of Games)
This is the gold standard for beautifully written, sweeping space opera. Banks was a phenomenal writer who created a vast, post-scarcity utopian society run by highly eccentric, deeply sarcastic AI minds. Every book is a standalone story within the same universe, usually focusing on the messy, morally gray fringes where the utopia clashes with other civilizations. It has spectacular writing, profound philosophical weight, and excellent pacing.
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells (starts with All Systems Red)
If you loved the character-driven, slightly wry tone of the Vorkosigan saga, you will adore Murderbot. It is about a heavily weaponized security cyborg that hacks its own governor module so it can stop killing people and just watch soap operas instead. It is technically a series of fast-paced, action-heavy novellas, but the absolute triumph of the series is the deeply relatable, highly introverted protagonist. The writing is tight, funny, and incredibly human.
I grew up avidly reading Asimov and also read the vast majority of the Discworld novels. I met Terry Pratchett at a talk he gave. He was a very entertaining speaker. He signed one of my books. Andor is, I think, the best sci-fi on TV ever.
The Culture series is very well written in my opinion, but not often light reading at all, and every book has something profoundly dark. As others have commented, it doesn't hide that there's a dark side to the Culture's utopia.
Much lighter reading is M. R. Forbes' ten-part The Starship in the Stone series. It's loosely based on the legends of King Arthur, but set as sci-fi with magic. I enjoyed it a lot. Space adventure, kindness and heroism from the flawed protagonists, malice, scheming and awful oppression from the antiheroes. It's refreshing in that surprisingly few of the characters have plot armour, and almost all of the characters feel grief and have complex motivations, despite the clarity between good and bad.
On the subject of sci-fi with magic, there's the Starship's Mage series by Glynn Stewart. Interstellar travel is only possible because a trained mage can jump the ship by one light year using magic but then has to sleep it off for about six hours. (Doing way too much with magic way too fast can kill a mage in a very messy way.) The scale of the series gradually grows and events have significance for the overall plot in a way that they don't as much in the Culture. Whist the main protagonist can remain the same over a run of books, there's not one protagonist for the whole series. It's not as dry as Asimov nor so daft as Pratchett, nor with such reality as Andor, but I find all the books a very worthwhile read indeed and will buy every single one without exception. Good stories combining to make a good story.