First is probably Bujold, specifically her Miles Vorkosigan series.
I think of Vinge more in terms of awesome author than awesome characters, but he does have some pretty impressive characters.
Lee Child has an intelligent good guy and intelligent associates vs. intelligent bad guys. (Not sf.)
You may, however, come to strongly dislike the protagonist later in the series.
This is a thread where people can ask questions that they would ordinarily feel embarrassed for not knowing the answer to. The previous thread is at close to 500 comments.