As an example, I love the Martian, and I think a lot of older books from authors like Asimov are heavily into engineering / competence porn. Other favs in this category include the standalone novel Rendezvous with Rama to leave you wishing for more, most of the Culture series for happy utopian vibes, Schlock Mercenary for humor, Dahak series for fun mindless popcorn.
Edit: I’m so happy to have found a replacement for r/books and the rest of them.
Just finished Exodus: The Archimedes Engine on audible. Space opera with a lot of world building. A bit slow to get started, but I really enjoyed it.
Argh. Peter Hamilton. Don’t all his books end with deus ex machinas? I got so annoyed at how Night’s Dawn ended that I’ve avoided all his books ever since.
I’ll agree on Night’s Dawn, but his Pandora Star series is still one of my favourite series and good competence porn. The characters aren’t stupid and actually solve problems and predict events.