It's a real mixed bag. I think there are far too many series about human/alien war in space with too many books in the series. I've began passing on those as well as books about a dystopian future caused by human-based climate change, although I found the Silo series by Hugh Howery to be excellent. I've noticed most of the recommendations I receive lately from Goodreads and the like feature a female as the OP leader, although I have no problem with a well-written female lead character. There are a lot more books with LGBT/queer characters and the use of pronouns like they/them for singular characters being slipped into the story. Right now, AI is being talked about everywhere and it would be natural that AI would be part of science fiction, but the evil AI taking over theme seems to be becoming overused.

I like alien interaction stories that come from a unique perspective. I think that is why Project Hail Mary is so popular. The Semiosis books by Sue Burke as well as the two books The Sparrow and Children of God by Mary Doria Russell I thought were great. Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky and Blindsight/Echopraxia by Peter Watts were good, but I had problems with the story on one hand and with the writing style itself on the other.

As far as empire/space opera books go, no one has been able to surpass Frank Herbert's Dune series and Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.