Writing Forum

I couldn't agree with you more. Not that the proper amount of world building doesn't have to be there too, but many, especially older science fiction stories are often bogged down by having way too many irrelevant technical details.

His Immortal by Roger Zelazny is the first book that popped into my mind. It's far from a perfect book, but it focuses way more on the protagonist than on the speculative element (though it still have a pretty unique premise).

Red Shirts or Old Man's War by John Scalzi have a decent amount of character building too (not as much as most "literary" novels, but in my opinion, that's not a bad thing), and keeps the technical mumbo-jumbo to a minimum.

I'm more well read in fantasy, so I'll suggest anything by Joe Aberchrombie as well (if you don't mind the violence), especially Heroes, which is the most character driven novel I've ever read, and still it doesn't have a dull moment.