Adrian Tchaikovsky

"Shards Of the Earth" Scrappy band of outsiders are trying to fight giant, mysterious machines [?] that destroy entire systems, apparently for fun.

He's probably the best of the new.

Poul Anderson.

"War Of The Wingmen." A fat, lazy space trader is marooned on a plaent where all the food is poison. He'd got to overthrown a few kingdoms to survive. SF classic from an old master