You know what I want to read about right now? Competent people being competent and competently handling whatever the author throws at them.

What's out there? I've got a few to mention myself:

I just finished K. B. Wagers' A Pale Light in the Black.

Has Elizabeth Moon written anything that *doesn't* fit this description?

Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear.

A Brother's Price by Wen Spencer.

The first three of Lois McMaster Bujold's World of the Five Gods series ... I'm not sure Penric entirely qualifies under my criteria, though. Ditto for a lot of the Vorkosigan Saga, there's a lot of just skating by in those.

Martha Wells' Murderbot series does qualify, in my opinion.

The only John Ringo books I've ever liked are his Troy Rising series, which are loaded with competence and explosions.

I haven't read anything like all of C. J. Cherryh's books, but there's definitely been a lot of competence in (most of?) the ones I've read.

Somebody already mentioned Ann Leckie's Ancillary series - thank you! I need to get a hold of the 3rd one.

Genivieve Cogman's Invisible Library series is also a good one for this, I think.

Switching over to mysteries, Donna Leon's very long Commissario Brunetti series features a lot of quiet competence (including superior management of an incompetent superior )

And then there's Robert B. Parker's mysteries. The books are much better than the TV series, IMHO, though I understand his writing style is not for everyone.