I very much enjoyed the 3-Body Problem books by Cixin Liu. A bit scary though if you give the 'Dark Forest' theory any credence.
As a massive Iain M Banks fan I like to think there's a Special Circumstances Contact team from the Culture keeping an eye on us in case we show signs of becoming properly civilised.
Iain M Banks was great. Consider Phlebas and The player of Games are my favourites. Alastair Reynolds revelation Space books are terrific as well. Unlike Banks, he's a "hard" sci-fi writer which means that everything he writes about must be scientifically explained and plausible.
