Just finished book 10/10 in Tchaikovsky’s “Shadows of the Apt” series. I highly recommend it.
For me it was an interesting blend of the political/military games of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and the intersection of magic and technology in Sanderson’s Cosmere.
Tchaikovsky’s most well known for Children of Time but although I like the third book in that series a lot the first two were a little meh for me. I liked the concepts and world building but the perspectives of octopi and spiders was kind of a drag for me. Somehow I liked the raven stuff though.
I would also recommend Tchaikovsky’s The Final Architecture series if you’re into the sci-fi more than the fantasy aspects.
Currently reading the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, and have been for a while at this point. It does a lot of stuff, even for its page count, but I really like the way the authors write their world and their magic. It truly feels like a completely different world that on a pretty fundamental level works in a different way, something which I feel like few fantasy series accomplish. Wonderful stuff.
I don’t keep track of stuff that’s currently getting written, but I’m curious about Jeff Vandermeer’s next book in the Southern Reach trilogy,
Recently finished everything in Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere, now waiting for December for the next Stormlight Archives book.
Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds which is the 2nd part of the series. Absolutely top-notch hard sci-fi space opera. After reading Revelation Space Mr. Reynolds already caught my attention and rocketed himself into my personal pantheon of the greats alongside Stanislaw Lem, Strugatsky brothers, Robert Sheckley, Harry Harrison, Larry Niven etc.
I really like the overall world building of the Revelation Space universe. I’m currently reading Machine Vendetta which came out recently and is in somewhat of a prequel series for Revelation Space. Some of the Demarchist communities described in the Glitter Band are really wacky.
The various factions, planets, concepts, etc. are all great. It’s a great universe for short stories and there are some good anthologies.
However… I think I actually enjoyed Reynolds’ Revenger series a lot more in terms of the individual characters and their stories. If someone forced me to pick out only three books from Reynolds for you to read, it would be the three books in the Revenger trilogy.
I’d also recommend another series from him which starts with Blue Remembered Earth.