Here are some books I loved - please recommend me more!

[Magnus Hedén]

Looking at that list, I'm seeing a lot of "more thoughtful spec-fic, with a side of doing-something-different". With that in mind, I'd second Bea's recs for Abraham's Long Price Quartet (setting-building to match Mieville, in a more traditionally fantasy way, big sweeps of character and theme) and Bennett's Divine Cities (a sort of post-colonial god-punk world, not afraid of digging into complexities).

I might also suggest you have a look at:

• Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower though I appreciate that might fall under the "new and expensive" list.
• How do you feel about spies / spycraft stories? Both Lara Elena Donnelly's Amberlough (and sequels) and SerialBox's The Witch Who Came In From The Cold do interesting things overlapping spec-fic and spycraft.
• Murderbot! Murderbot! All Systems Red by Martha Wells. (These are expensive individually, but I found that they've got popular enough that my library has them so wheeeeee.)
• Anything by Max Gladstone, basically, but I particularly enjoyed his very first Three Parts Dead. Though since you seem to be slightly more into scifi than I am, perhaps you might more enjoy his wuxia-cyberpunk-space-opera Empress of Forever.
• Scott Hawkins' The Library at Mount Char which has that gritty-urban-high-concept feel like American Gods, but a bit more horror-sci-fi with it. A profoundly weird and challenging book that was also somehow a lot of fun.
• The work of Kate Griffin. She now writes high-concept spec-thrillers as Claire North (which are also great), but as Kate Griffin, she wrote lyrical but gritty urban fantasy deeply set in London. (Some books just take place in London; these ones have London in every atom.) First book A Madness of Angels.

I seem to have missed a few posts here!

(I swear I liked everything that was posted here as thanks for the help, but I just went back and had missed half as well as failed to notice several posts...)

I've actually read the Raven Tower, that was quite good. I've read first Murderbot, that was great, but they are super expensive considering their length. The others I've barely heard of, but they do sound promising. Your judgement of my general taste is probably quite on point.

Thanks, I'll compile a nice list and start checking out prices and adding to TBR soon, looks like there's plenty of potentially good stuff coming up.

[Alex Hormann]

Children of Time and Dogs of War both have sequels out now, and I'd recommend pretty much everything Tchaikovsky has written, especially Cage of Souls.

Arkady Martine's A Memory called Empire and Christopher Ruocchio's Empire of Silence are both very thoughtful space operas that you might enjoy.

Hao Jingfang's Vagabonds is one of the most thought-provoking books I've read in recent years. If you like Cixin Liu, it's definitely worth a look.

[Magnus Hedén]

Children of Time and Dogs of War both have sequels out now, and I'd recommend pretty much everything Tchaikovsky has written, especially Cage of Souls.

Arkady Martine's A Memory called Empire and Christopher Ruocchio's Empire of Silence are both very thoughtful space operas that you might enjoy.

Hao Jingfang's Vagabonds is one of the most thought-provoking books I've read in recent years. If you like Cixin Liu, it's definitely worth a look.

I've read Children of Ruin, but not the Dogs of War sequel. I do have more Tchaikovsky on my list; I recently realised he's written some fantasy as well.

I've read A Memory Called Empire and enjoyed that a lot as well.  I'll have to look into Empire of Silence.

[Magnus Hedén]

Short update:

I've read Lord of Light, which I had serious issues getting through. I found it very confusing, despite being decently well-versed in the involved mythologies. The narrative is frankly a jumbled mess. I think it's one of those books that are mostly impressive for when it was written, as I imagine it was quite ground-breaking back then. But to me, it doesn't hold up as a classic.

I've recently finished City of Stairs and I'm now going through City of Blades. They're good books for a lot of reasons, though perhaps a bit bleak for my current taste (though that usually doesn't stop me, but right now I could probably have done with something a bit more colourful).

I might have some spare money for books soon, in which case I'll give the suggestions in this thread another pass.

[isos81]

I've read Lord of Light, which I had serious issues getting through. I found it very confusing, despite being decently well-versed in the involved mythologies. The narrative is frankly a jumbled mess. I think it's one of those books that are mostly impressive for when it was written, as I imagine it was quite ground-breaking back then. But to me, it doesn't hold up as a classic.

This book, unfortunately, requires prior knowledge of Indian Mythology. Besides, the chapters aren't in chronological order, and this isn't clear in the book. The first chapter is actually the last. People get easily confused, I had to start over. When I got the basics, it was quite fun to read.

[Magnus Hedén]

This book, unfortunately, requires prior knowledge of Indian Mythology. Besides, the chapters aren't in chronological order, and this isn't clear in the book. The first chapter is actually the last. People get easily confused, I had to start over. When I got the basics, it was quite fun to read.

It may just have been a bit too demanding for my current mindset. I'm definitely not my usual self (for reasons I've shared in the mental health thread). But yeah, I did just study Hinduism and its mythology as a part of some research, so that wasn't the problem.

[Magnus Hedén]

Spare book money spent! I bought:

The House of Shattered Wings
Embassytown
Vagabonds
and
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (not recommended here, but didn't need to be!)

[Bender]

I've read Lord of Light, which I had serious issues getting through. I found it very confusing, despite being decently well-versed in the involved mythologies. The narrative is frankly a jumbled mess. I think it's one of those books that are mostly impressive for when it was written, as I imagine it was quite ground-breaking back then. But to me, it doesn't hold up as a classic.

I just read it recently and it was fun. Not sure why it doesn't hold up in modern times. Anyway, if we are looking at a narrow lens of mythology based sci-fi, I'd have this in my top lists.