I have read a TON of contemporary SciFi authors. I really enjoy
Stuff I like
Iain M. Banks
I liked the Martha Wells Murderbot books.
I loved We Are Legion, We Are Bob and have read all the books by him.
I like Alastair Reynolds. I liked the Poseidon's Children trilogy better than Revalation Space Series (but I liked that too).
I really like G. S. Jennsen - even though she's cheesy. I think I like her because of her progressive attitude and powerful female characters.
I like Charles Stross, but I didn't like Accelerando. I like his other books a lot.
I liked A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine.
I like Corey Doctorow, sometimes. Walkaway was good.
I like Daniel Suarez, most of the time for similar reasons.
I REALLY liked the Nexus series by Ramez Naam.
I liked the Red Rising books by Pierce Brown and I've really been enjoying the Sollan Empire books by Christopher Ruocchio, which I think are similar and even better.
I like Adrian Tchaikovsky and really liked The Final Architecture books and Doorways to Eden.(I didn't get that into Children of Time though).
I usually like Neil Stephenson. (The Fall or Dodge In Hell is quite a tedious book).
I've liked everything I've read by Verner Vinge.
I liked Hyperion like everybody else. Unlike everybody else, I think I liked the Endymion books even better.
I read some Ken MacLeod (the first Corporation Wars book) and it was fine... but I haven't felt like going back.
I REALLY enjoy John Scalzi, though I found the Old Man's War books started to get stale after a while. It's high calorie, low nutrition brain candy, but I know that going in and it passes the time.
I really liked Derek Kunsken's Quantum Magician books. And started reading his prequel series, set on Venus, and I couldn't really get into it.
I enjoy Space Race books like Erik Flint / Ryk Spoor's Boundary series, Saturn Run by John Sanford and Delta V by Daniel Suarez.
I love the Expanse.
I find Kim Stanley Robinson hit or miss. I really enjoyed the Mars books and The Years of Rice and Salt was fun (though a little tedious). 2312 drags and drags and nothing happens and Aurora is the same AND also sad.
I liked Permanence by Karl Schroeder. It could have used a little more... conflict? I had this same problem with Becky Chambers. The characters are all too well intentioned and the dramatic tension suffered a little.
I read all the Star Kingdom books by Lindsay Buroker. I thought they were a super fun adventure that just kept delivering from the beginning of the series to the end, even if it was clearly aimed at a more YA demographic.
I REALLY liked Velocity Weapon and the sequels by Megan O'Keefe. I found her Steam Punk series much less impressive. I've been meaning to try her galactic empire series, but I haven't quite been in the mood to start it.
I read Sue Burke's Semiosis Duology. I wasn't expecting to like it but I really did! The physical science aspects were a little softer than I would have liked, but the biological science was really cool, as was the anarcho-pacifist political philosophy.
I read Yoon Ha Lee's Ninefox Gambit and the sequels. I thought they were really fun, I wish they'd explored Calendrical technology more.
I thought the Neo G books by KB Wagers (A Pale Light in the Black and sequels) were good. Her characters are great. But again, very light on the sciences and technology. I'm in the mood for something harder. Also, not realistic that the champion hand to hand fighter in the entire Earth space military is a 110 pound woman, but I just pretended she's cyber enhanced.
I just finished the Wormwood trilogy (Rosewater and sequels) by Tade Thomson. They were great.
Stuff I Don't Like
Orson Scott Card did not age well, unlike Timothy Zahn, who's gotten a lot more progressive in his story telling in the last two decades.
I don't like Niel Asher. His in your face Libertarianism and conservative ideology annoys me, which is too bad because other than that he's a good story teller.
I find Peter F. Hamilton hit or miss for the same reason. But I really liked Pandora's Star.
I find AG Riddle hit or miss. I like his thought experiments, but he doesn't really care if his stories / characters are logically consistent. Ramez Naam and Daniel Suarez do what Riddle does but WAAAY better.
I didn't like Blindsight. I know, this makes me some kind of heretic. I just didn't find the idea of such a dysfunctional crew being entrusted with such an important mission believable.
I couldn't get into Ann Leckie. I WANTED to like it, but I just didn't find her writing very engaging. I've put the physical book down once AND turned the audio book off on a road trip.
I did not like Tamsyn Muir.
I did not like the Three Body Problem, although I see the appeal and it's nice to read something by a non western author. I found the pro Chinese politics a little too heavy handed.
I cannot get into Greg Egan. I find his writing style way too obtuse. Reading is Egan is like having a PHD in mathematics and a PHD in quantum physics, then going to Burning Man and doing 16 hits of acid.
I finally got around to trying The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet and I could NOT get into it. I agree with reviewers who complain nothing interesting ever happens.
People keep recommending Mary Robinette Kowal, but something about the alternate history just doesn't grab me.
People keep recommending Ted Chiang. But I don't want short stories (Murderbot somehow managed to be an exception). The longer the better.
People have recommended the Last Watch by J. S. Dewes, but others have told me things about the book that makes me think I won't like it. Standing guard at the edge of the universe makes zero sense, I think by proposing it's possible you lost me. Edge of the galaxy... Maybe, with 10 septillion robotic war ships. But edge of the universe? I think I'm out. If you know something I don't about this book, feel free to say so.