I re-read the "Academy" series by Jack McDevitt. Nothing world shattering or ground breaking, just solidly good stories in a believable sci-fi setting. I've not yet found a book by McDevitt that I didn't like.
Now reading the "Witcher" series by Andrzej Sapkowski. If you've played any of the Witcher games, you know what the settings and themes are going to be like. Usually I don't like books based on games because they wind up being formulaic tripe for the most part. In this instance, the games are based on the books and it's the games that have to conform to the settings. Dark fantasy describes them best. Something Andrzej Sapkowski has done is to publish his anthologies as the first two books in the series. This has a couple huge advantages. First, you get to try several stories before diving into a 300+ page commitment. Second, you don't get blind sided by a new character or situation in book three that gets introduces in the second short story that's published in an anthology as book nine. While the risk of spoilers coming up in the anthologies is real, I think the benefits outweigh the possibility. So far, they've been quite enjoyable, if (and likely because they are) a bit different from the usual fantasy fare.
Now reading the "Witcher" series by Andrzej Sapkowski. If you've played any of the Witcher games, you know what the settings and themes are going to be like. Usually I don't like books based on games because they wind up being formulaic tripe for the most part. In this instance, the games are based on the books and it's the games that have to conform to the settings. Dark fantasy describes them best. Something Andrzej Sapkowski has done is to publish his anthologies as the first two books in the series. This has a couple huge advantages. First, you get to try several stories before diving into a 300+ page commitment. Second, you don't get blind sided by a new character or situation in book three that gets introduces in the second short story that's published in an anthology as book nine. While the risk of spoilers coming up in the anthologies is real, I think the benefits outweigh the possibility. So far, they've been quite enjoyable, if (and likely because they are) a bit different from the usual fantasy fare.
Thief and assassin for hire. Member in good standing of the Rogues Guild.