I haven’t had any luck in finding sci-fi books recently. I’m looking for a longer story that takes its time to establish the world/universe and the characters living in it. I like the idea of exploring space or futuristic cities/landscapes and being on a journey together with the protagonist. The story doesn’t have to have a happy end or flawless characters, but I also don’t like it when everything is hopeless/dystopic and all the characters stumble from one flawed decision to the next one. Some examples of what I enjoyed so far are:
- Dune
- Project Hail Mary
- The Expanse Series
- Hyperion Cantos Series
- Bobiverse Series
- The Murderbot Diaries Series
- Tuf Voyaging
- Night’s Dawn Series (Might not be for everyone… contains excessive violence and some smut, but also some very interesting ideas)
- Vatta’s War Series (I usually don’t like military sci-fi, but this one wasn’t bad)
- The Interdependency Series
- Falling Free
If you enjoyed some of these stories and have any similar suggestions, feel free to share them here. If not, maybe consider checking out the list above… I highly recommend each of these entries.
Another vote for Cherryh - pretty much anything by Cherryh. And in the “journey” department, perhaps also look at John Varley’s Gaia trilogy (Titan, Wizard, Demon)? (Probably falls into your “excessive violence and some smut” category)
You might also try the “far future/dying Earth” genre as a way of getting the exploration without necessarily being tied to the space/hard sf milieu. I think the most awarded member of this subgenre (and I liked it quite a bit) is Gene Wolfe’s three Sun series (Book of the New Sun, Book of the Long Sun, Book of the Short Sun).