re: Help with a fantasy/sci fi/fiction reading recommendation

Those are both good series, but I'd suggest the First Earth saga books first (starting with the Ties that bind trilogy).

But of those two probably War eternal (though I need to read the last two books of that series he released recently, they are next on my reading list after my current book actually).

Mortal techniques is good, but they are all loosely connected stories set in the same world with different characters.