I dread to think how many books GRRM's former assistants have smashed out in the time it's taken him not to write one.
Anyway:
James S.A. Corey's hit sci-fi series The Expanse was set in our own solar system, and leaned heavily into the politics of various human factions vying for dominance while an alien threat looms at the edges of awareness. Yes, the protomolecule was dangerous and mysterious and shook up the status quo, but at the end of the day it was always the humans and their decisions which drove the story forward. By contrast, The Captive's War feels more like Mass Effect, the sort of space opera which features a wide array of aliens where you never know what you'll see on the next page.
As a big fan of Mass Effect, this book sounds something I'd like to read.