I know it's a month old, but I just saw this post and wanted to add some comments.

First of all, I agree with the recommendation on Leckie, especially the Imperial Radch series. It's space opera - not funny like Murderbot - but it's a pretty interesting take on an artificial consciousness.

Second, Wells has written other stuff besides Murderbot that's good. I'm also more of a hard SF reader, but I did enjoy her Tales of the Raksura series, which is straight up fantasy, with people who can turn into dragon-like things.

Third, John Scalzi is also really good at clever/witty dialog. Some of his stuff is more serious, but he's got a few that are both funny and moving. Maybe check out Redshirts, which is kind of the Star Trek situation, from the point of view of the away team members who tend to die while the main characters always survive. Very silly concept, done very well.

I read kind of a ridiculous amount of SF. If you want any recommendations for hard SF, or anything else in the genre, I'd be happy to give my thoughts.