Science Fiction

Hard to pick just a few. I think I am going with authors to sort of cheat a bit. ;p

I love me some Arthur C Clarke and Asimov and other oldskool stuff but every age had their greats. Greg Bear left a pretty deep Impression with his Blood Music, written in the 80s, and these days I really love me some Alastair Reynolds. Blindsight by Peter Watts, from the early 2000s, is another standout for me but feels kind of unfair to single out specific books cuz there are so many great ones. Almost anything, old and new, released under the SF Masterworks label is great!

Anathem by Neal Stephenson.

Excession by Iain M Banks is one of my Culture favorites. I really like the far future universe he built with all its anarchy and culture clashes. Jeff VanderMeer's Ambergris books are my favorite kind of creepy weird. The first book is massive and a bit of a slog to read but worth it in my opinion. Just like everyone else I like the Foundation series by Asimov.

Jean le Flambeur series by Hannu Rajaniemi, probably better know by the first book of the series: Quantum Thief.

The world building is AMAZING. The author has a PhD in mathematical physics and the world is a far future extrapolation of what human societies could become. The "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" kind of future without blatant contradictions with what could be possible by current science. It's not a utopia or a dystopia, it's "just" a world with multiple societies with their own lifestyles, ideals and problems. The other notable thing is that reading is a bit of a puzzle. You can understand the story without understanding every term and that's essential because the workings of the world are obvious and mundane for the chracters and they do not go out of their way to explain them just for the benefit of the reader. But for me that is a big part of the charm to be tossed in a very foreign culture to figure out it all by yourself. Also since the author is originally from Finland (the book is still originally written in English) there are people who mostly chill in the Oort cloud in zero gravity saunas and making snow sculptures.

So many good recommendations! I'd like to add Ernest Cline's 'Ready Player One' which I thoroughly enjoyed. Look into it if you are looking for a fun quick read and are somewhat interested in computer games and/or role playing.

For all suggested titles I can only recommend to read the books first. The movies are just a pale imitation and are lacking so much! Especially The Expanse but also the above mentioned Ready Player One are to be read IMHO.

Sea of Tranquility is amazing! Emily St. John Mandel just has a really great writing style and even though the main plot of this novel is very much connected to sci-fi themes it does not read like a dissertation on specific futuristic concepts.

I have recently been reading Bobiverse series and I have been thoroughly enjoying it!

A bit unorthodox, but I found "Off on a Comet" by Jules Verne interesting. Definitely in-depth explanations. Plus, it's not copyrighted so you can read it for free on project Gutenburg.

I also found Spin by Robert Charles a good read (note: I tend to go for more emotional epics, so the tone is that, but Spin definitely contains sciency stuff).

Another one I keep hearkening back to is The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. The ending is really grim, but the author provides a lot of detailed explanation for how the ship goes to the planet (attaching to an asteroid and accelerating based on the asteroid's energy).

Hope that helps!