If you want interesting worldbuilding concepts of near-future international politics, Ray Nayler is your bet.
If you want "sci-fi your dad would like", Scalzi is your bet.
If you want hilarious, but heartwarming deconstructions of common scifi tropes and protagonists, Martha Wells' Murderbot is your bet.
If you want a comforting read, you'll want Becky Chambers.
If you want a wild romp of science fantasy, you want Tamsyn Muir.
If you want math-as-magic-scifi space opera, you want Yoon Ha Lee.
And of course the most wildass mililitary scifi, Kameron Hurley is the queen.
I have personally been going through and enjoying Alex Gonzalez's "> rekt", which is a novel about chilling brainrot.
So, I should more ask you, what is your definition of "great"?