I haven't read a ton of modern SF, but my favorites from the last 5 years are:
* All Systems Red by Martha Wells. It's about a very introspective AI security droid who is trying to disguise the fact that he's become self-aware and has free will. It's very short, but I almost missed a flight because once I picked it up, I just kept reading it until it was done.
* Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This is by the author of The Martian, but I think I liked this one even more than that. It's still got that very procedural, engineering-porn style, but the scope is grander, a bit more Arthur C. Clarke and a bit less MacGuyver.
* Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. A lot of people may call this fantasy, but I don't think the distinction is meaningful in this case. It's about someone who gets stuck in a strange world that's sort of The Library of Babel meets The School of Athens.
* Recursion by Blake Crouch. False memory syndrome (e.g. The Mandela Effect) becomes a global existential crisis. All Blake Crouch books are incredibly fast page turners with fun SF ideas: Dark Matter, Wayward Pines, also good.
* Agency by William Gibson. I actually thought this book was just okay, but I am adding it to this list because it's the sequel to The Peripheral, which was amazing (but is older than 5 years). The premise is that people in the future can send information into the past, creating a parallel world. Like most William Gibson novels, it seemed like gibberish at first, but then when it clicked I really liked it, though it was sort of terrifying to think about.
This is a great list. To the point that if you have any other book recs lying around (not necessarily sf, not necessarily last 5 years), I’d love to hear!
I read a ton of KJ Parker books last year, they were all really good. His most popular series is the one that starts with Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City. The premise is that a city is under siege by an army that has made it clear they're not going to spare anybody if they win. The protagonist is the highest-ranking surviving officer in the city, a lowly military engineer, who is suddenly in charge. Think The Martian meets The Siege of Gondor (or Constantinople). It's fantasy, but there's no magic.
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* All Systems Red by Martha Wells. It's about a very introspective AI security droid who is trying to disguise the fact that he's become self-aware and has free will. It's very short, but I almost missed a flight because once I picked it up, I just kept reading it until it was done.
* Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This is by the author of The Martian, but I think I liked this one even more than that. It's still got that very procedural, engineering-porn style, but the scope is grander, a bit more Arthur C. Clarke and a bit less MacGuyver.
* Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. A lot of people may call this fantasy, but I don't think the distinction is meaningful in this case. It's about someone who gets stuck in a strange world that's sort of The Library of Babel meets The School of Athens.
* Recursion by Blake Crouch. False memory syndrome (e.g. The Mandela Effect) becomes a global existential crisis. All Blake Crouch books are incredibly fast page turners with fun SF ideas: Dark Matter, Wayward Pines, also good.
* Agency by William Gibson. I actually thought this book was just okay, but I am adding it to this list because it's the sequel to The Peripheral, which was amazing (but is older than 5 years). The premise is that people in the future can send information into the past, creating a parallel world. Like most William Gibson novels, it seemed like gibberish at first, but then when it clicked I really liked it, though it was sort of terrifying to think about.