Going back to the 80s here, but I would recommend the Taltos series by Steven Brust. It’s a very catchy read, great world-building. It starts as pretty much hard-boiled hitman whodunit in a fantasy setting, but escalated to much higher stakes. He’s still writing the series.

Brusts other stuff is good too.

I second the other suggestion in this thread of Becky Chambers’, classy stuff that really draws you in, very cozy, but not epic sci fi!

The other series I’d recommended then is an old one by Greg Bear: The Way series, starting with Eon. It is about an asteroid which appears in orbit when Earth is at the brink of war, and is one of the most mind-bending, far-fetched sci-fi stories I’ve read, that is still arguably hard sci-fi.

I agree in general terms, but Bernie is not the only “uncompromised politician” in the world. How many politicians outside the US can you even name?

The Earthsea books match your description exactly. Spooky.

another is the hypertext transfer protocol… (?!)

I presumed Arthur Miller

My understanding is that it will eventually used to improve autocorrect, when they get it working properly.

ffs USA, surely you know that democracy is about electing the people most citizens like, rather than the people most citizens don’t not like…