I miss Ian M Banks, so so much. Post scarcity, socialist, benevolent AIs… You get it. I’m in my 50s, so I’ve tried a lot of stuff. This should probably be new, maybe even a living author, which is not something that I usually consume. I appreciate your help.
by kalvie
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* The [Hainish Cycle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainish_Cycle#Hainish_Cycle_bibliography) by Ursula K. Le Guin. Not a new, living author, but there’s a lot of similarities here. I like to imagine that the Hainish Cycle is what the Culture’s distant past looked like. It’s a lower tech setting, so there’s not really any AIs (The Dispossessed gets closest, out of the ones I have read). The books can be read in any order, just like The Culture.
* Succession by Scott Westerfeld. Also published as two separate volumes, The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds. This author is still living, but I believe he doesn’t write adult novels any more, only YA.
* The Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers. Not a post scarcity setting, but there are benevolent AIs and socialism. You can read the books in any order. This author is still living and writing. The Monk and Robot duology, which has to be read in order, does feature post scarcity and benevolent AIs, but in a different way than The Culture.