I didn't find the people or relationship issues to detract from the Mars trilogy because the personalities interweaves with the politics, and the inescapability of personalities and relationships being factors in the close proximities necessary in almost all stages of colonising a planet.

Greg Egan, recommended on HN in any sci-fi related thread, seems idea-heavy from the little I've read so far.

(edit: reading down further I see I've been beaten to this recommendation)

The novel I want to write is a thoroughly depressing the-future-is-the-just-present-for-those-born-during-it exposition about the inescapability of human nature and how this means that any and all revolution is doomed to just change the people and not the structure and that whilst your fellow revolutionaries are your closest friends and allies now, in the unlikely chance that the revolution is successful, when it comes time to actually make decisions affecting reality, you'll find yourself in the company of strangers with familiar faces. Highlighting that in any future-state technological context this remains true.