Ask Lemmy

For sci-fi check out The Interdependency Series by John Scalzi. It's about an interstellar empire that can only navigate through wormholes that are now closing up. The last emperor foresaw this and is trying to save as many humans as possible while fending off political rivals and assassins.

For a similar series check out Foundation from Isaac Asimov. It's more of an anthology of stories over the course of a millennium but Asimov has a brilliant way of piercing the story together through the vast gaps in time.

I haven't seen anyone recommend The Expanse here so I'll go ahead and do it. The show is a faithful adaptation given the complications that came from having to change networks and deal with some... Problematic aspects of some of its actors. The book series however goes into greater detail and goes beyond the 6th season to some of the best parts of the story in books 7 through 9.

My current fantasy fix is the Cradle series by Will Wight. He's not as well known as Sanderson but he's a diligent writer and has some interesting world building and magic concepts. If you want to start off light with him you might want to check out his Traveler's Gate series, it's only three books long but has great pacing.

The Powder Mage series is a very decent military grimdark fantasy that features a world with 17th century technology and some interesting magic systems. The story's decently written but it's the battles that caught my attention the most. It's always interesting to read about how some mage soldiers do a line of gunpowder like they're sniffing coke to make bullets travel unfathomable distances and snipe out enemy generals on the battlefield.