Also strongly recommend Greg Egan, who I place in a similar bucket to Chiang.

Egan has some books that fall into an (afaik) completely unique sub-genre that I have heard described as "math-fi".

Some of his books are (credibly) described as a textbook wrapped in a narrative veneer. E.g. he has 3 books set in a universe with a ++++ metric tensor, and another book set in a ++-- universe. He painstakingly rederives many details of physics, chemistry, etc. to a level of detail that I've never seen even in physics textbooks, and then creates a story where characters in that universe discover its properties. The books are good even without paying too much attention to the math, but if you find that part interesting, he has detailed supplemental materials on his website.