[hwpky]

* Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space Series

* Dan Simmons - Hyperion Cantos Series

* Martha Wells - The Murderbot Diaries

* Peter F. Hamilton - Void Trilogy

* Liu Cixin - The Three Body Problem (Starts on Earth but goes Interstellar)

* Frank Herbert - Dune

* Joe Haldeman - The Forever War (Earth-based dystopia)

[andrei_says_]

Alastair Reynolds - Galactic North is a fantastic collection of short stories, and his House of Suns is an excellent shorter novel.

He is an astrophysicist, turned, science-fiction writer, and his world building is incredible.

[tnecniv]

Note for OP: While a big theme in the book is how Earth evolves between war deployments, much of the Forever War takes places elsewhere in the universe