Iain M Banks
Iain M Banks wrote engaging science fiction about people in a fascinating post scarcity utopia.
I am a fan of Banks’ science fiction. (He wrote mainstream fiction without using his middle initial.)
Most of his science fiction novels are Culture novels, that is, novels set in a post scarcity, anarchistic socialist utopian society set in an interstellar background with characters that are recognizably human, but who are not Earth humans.
One of the features of the Culture is that most of its citizens don’t live on planets, but rather on huge orbitals with artificial gravity, many of them much larger than planets, or on large spaceships the size of our largest cities, maybe larger. The basic work of running the Culture is performed by sentient machines. The machines have senses of humor, and can be altruistic, but like any sentient being they are imperfect.
I could spend an entire post being amused by the names Culture ships give themselves, but I’ll just give a few examples: “No More Mr Nice Guy”, “Very Little Gravitas Indeed”, and “Contents May Differ”. I think Banks had a lot of fun coming up with these names.
A lot of people recommend starting with Use of Weapons. It’s good, but I found it to be extremely bleak. I think my favorite so far is Look to Windward. I find the characters the most engaging, and the plots the most interesting. It is the end bracket for Consider Phlebas, which is the first Culture novel, though there are several more books.
His final novel, The Hydrogen Sonata, is a good way to go out.
I think The Player of Games may be the most accessible, and a good place to start, though if you’re willing to make the commitment, Consider Phlebas is first. I feel like it’s a bit of a kitchen sink novel, though, where Banks was just throwing in whatever he thought of next.
Transition is a non-Culture parallel universe novel. I found it interesting enough that I'll read it again. Against a Dark Background is not a book I’ll be rereading anytime soon. It’s set on a planet that is basically the “anti-Culture”; a libertarian free market world where everything is transactional.
Here is the Wikipedia summary article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series