Eventually the whole protomolecule thing settles down, and afterwards you have essentially politics and genocide in space, which can be good but almost feels like a different genre.
(obviously my personal opinion eh?)
For a really nerdy-oriented SF series try Three Body i.e. the 2023 Tencent version of The Three Body Problem. Again in my opinion the 2024 Netflix version, was one of the boringest things I've ever watched. I'm pretty sure if that had been my introduction to the Rememberance of Earth Past series I would have been left distinctly unimpressed.
For an example of what I mean by "nerdy-oriented", avoiding spoilers there's a scene where some of the characters are observing a certain celestial phenomenon. In the Netflix series they are sitting outside looking at something that should not be visible by naked eye. In the Tencent series they're sitting in a proper scientific station, i.e. a big room lined with PC workstations and side-rooms with bigger machines and printers, and they're starting endlessly at a single red line on a monitor while munching on junk food.
Another thing: a certain Chinese army base in the 1960's is decorated with picture-perfect, period hardware, big mainframes that a character is shown physically disassembling to service. In the Netflix series... honestly, I don't even remember. The attention to detail that only a proper nerd would notice is, to me, something genuinely new, like I've never see anyone go to all that trouble before to make sure a certain demographic won't scrunch up their face and go "that's not how computers looked in the '60s".
I should also say that there is certainly quite a bit of overacting (or over-directing) in the early episodes but they get over it later.
There's also a 6h fan edit, https://disembiggened.com.
My goto for showing the difference between the Netflix and Tencent shows is the Shi speech about bugs. It's an important moment, but the Tencent version does a much better job of conveying that.
The series was cancelled after 2 seasons, so many plot lines were left unresolved.
Also, remember to support your local library.
Dune (the first 3 books) Vinge’s Deepness series Dark Forest (3 Body Problem…)
Also, both the "Children of Time" and "Shadows of the Apt" series by Adrian Tchaikovsky are excellent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Tchaikovsky#Bibliograph...
I would call the novels well executed, enjoyable and very readable action adventures, using well-worn tropes. There is nothing ground-breaking in them. It's not what's currently at the edges of the genre in the written form - It's not Greg Egan, it aint Ted Chiang or Adrian Tchaikovsky. M. John Harrison does not make an appearance. It's not even Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds or Iain M. Banks.
The TV show however, is quite something, it is one of the flagship sci-fi TV series. And it does indicate that written and visual sci-fi might be different stages of development , with the TV version lagging by decades.
Have you read / listened to The Sun Eater Series?
As someone who loves the book, I think the show is a 10/10 for capturing the feeling. Though if you where expecting as more serious scifi I can see why you think it's of inferior quality.
As someone who read all the books (fun vacation pop read), I think gendering the murderbot was a significant loss.
I also think going with an Eddie Redmayne (https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.... or https://starschanges.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/eddie-re...) or (given wardrobe) even an Asia Argento (https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/MfT7Q... or https://todaymix.ru/uploads/posts/2020-01/azija-ardzhento-59...) could have worked to maintain the conceit.
It's hard to have no gender reveal for 7 books, but it makes the introspection so much more interesting.
There was this other series called Murderbot which had some similarities in the setting of the story. It was not that great compared to the 1st season of Raised by Wolves, but it was consistent throughout the whole series (so far) in quality, and it is much more satisfying.
Anyways if you like scifi and haven't checked out The Expanse yet, that is a masterpiece.