I would appreciate any feedback on book series like The Expanse as I've nearly completed them all (I'm on Tiamat's Wrath so no spoilers please) and have loved them immensely. I am extremely picky about sci-fi and before The Expanse avoided the genre. I will outline those reasons below and perhaps someone can recommend books based on my criteria.

The primary reason I have avoided reading sci-fi is because I write in the genre and I didn't want to be influenced by other writers. But before I began writing hard sci-fi, I found a lot of sci-fi to lack character development and focus too heavily on setting. What I would love to read--and I would appreciate recommendations for--are:

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1. Long, epic space opera sci-fi.
2. Hard sci-fi but on the fun, imagination-laced fringes of science, so soft H hard.
3. Exceptional and believable character development. I loved how the characters grew and changed and aged and died in The Expanse, and how each writing style changed with their narration to a very believable and very different perspective and nuance on the world.
   
4. A writer that makes me believe they have military or law enforcement understanding of combat and violence. Unfortunately this is where my suspension of disbelief falls flat with most writers. The vast majority of writers know fuck all about what violence feels like and they write like Hollywood does. I understand most readers also don't understand enough about combat and violence to be discerning either, but I'm hoping there are enough exceptions who loved this series as much as I did who can point me in that direction.
   
5. Elegance in writing. The writing is so on point. It's so good because it's simple, it's direct, it uses the fewest words possible to convey the strongest meaning, and it keeps the pace and action coming fast because of it. This is something I find a lot of scientists turn writers lack.

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Thank you for your time and suggestions.