Alright, books!
You said scifi leanings are okay - how are you with post-apocalypse stories? Because I've got two I want to recommend that I love, but I'm not sure you're into that. I can promise you 0% zombies, anyway!
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel - civilisation collapses in the wake of a sudden pandemic. Station Eleven skips back and forth across the divide between pre- and post-collapse, charting the old relationships and the new lives of those who made it through. Unlike so many other post-apocalypse stories, this book is about the average people - the office workers, accountants, paramedics, actors, artists, management consultants, secretaries and garbage truck drivers - and how they deal with the world after the collapse. And unlike so many other post-apocalypse stories, this one is centered firmly on hope. It's a lovely story.
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway - "The Jorgmund Pipe is the backbone of the world, and it's on fire. Gonzo Lubitsch, professional hero and troubleshooter, is hired to put it out, but there's more to the fire, and the Pipe itself, than meets the eye. The job will take Gonzo and his best friend, our narrator, back to their own beginnings." says Goodreads, conveniently leaving out reality-destroying bombs, Asian rebel-leaders, ninja-conspiracies, Elvis, a serious identity crisis and a whole troupe of mimes. This is the post-apocalypse book you didn't know you were looking for. It's seriously one of my absolute favourite books of all time.
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L Howard - Years ago, Johannes Cabal - necromancer, misanthrope, scientist - sold his soul to the Devil. He'd very much like it back now, thank you - but the Devil drives a hard bargain. Cabal has one year to gather 100 souls for the Devil, or he dies and goes to Hell (which he isn't keen on - he's been there, and it didn't suit his tastes). To accomplish his task, he's given a demonic circus with which to travel the countryside to fool the locals into giving up their souls. Now, if only his bothersome undead brother would quit nagging him about being a better person...
This is the first book in a series, of which I've read all but one (haven't gotten my hands on the latest one yet) and I love it. Johannes Cabal is the worst person, and doesn't care who knows it - which actually makes him kind of a great main character, because he's so unpredictable. You can't rely on him doing the right thing, and he gets up to the strangest adventures.
Embassytown and The Iron Council by China Mieville - China Mieville is the master of new weird fiction, and makes everything he touches very much his own. Embassytown is a scifi story in which humans are the aliens of the setting, settled on the fringes of an outpost world where the main conflict ends up hinging on linguistics and the nature of lying. Yes, this is a scifi story about linguistics (and a lot of other things too, but you know). And it's amazing. The Iron Council is my favourite of his Bas-Lag novels, which are all set in a dreamlike/nightmarish weird steampunk-like world; IC is about a bunch of railroad workers who steal the train and the railroad they're working on, and head off into freedom, adventure and mortal peril, chased by the authorities and desperate enough to do just about anything. Also involved; printing presses, social revolutions, the magical equivalent to nuclear fallout.