If you liked the Avatar cartoon series you might like the Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas. It's about a fantasy universe wherein young demigods compete in a sporting event to win honor and carry out a ritual to renew the sun's protection against the forces of darkness.

I don't love the Bobiverse books by Dennis Taylor, but the first one was mostly a series of funny little happenings to a nice man who takes everything in stride and makes lots of nerd jokes, and I'm led to believe the rest of the series is much the same. He travels around space just kind of getting up to this and that. I think the fact that it bored me makes it a good recommendation for you because I mostly like intense stuff rather than pleasantness.

Books I remember loving as a kid but can only recommend tentatively because I can't remember them well:

• Alanna and Wild Magic series by Tamora Pierce
• Witch Week and other Chrestomanci books by Diana Wynne Jones
• Dragon's Milk by Susan Fletcher
• Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams
• The Wild Road by Gabriel King
• Kingdoms of Light by Alan Dean Foster