sci fi that isn’t mind-bending and ground-breaking, but also isn’t boring

hi!!

i’m doing 25 books in 2025, and i’m on 14! currently working through Recursion by Blake Crouch and… enjoying it enough. but i’m a little burnt out on the crazy, mind-bending, life-alteringly crazy sci fi. i want to enjoy a plot that has reasonable amounts of conflict and plot (so, not fluff), but isn’t super confusing and requiring tons of world building and vocabulary lessons.

i still want something interesting and unique, but something a little more sitcom and a little less cutting edge.

sci fi i have loved this year:
– anything Andy Weir – Project Hail Mary changed my life, the Martian was amazing, Artemis was great
– Ready Player One was awesome, Ready Player Two was fine
– Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (reread, i’ve read it like 5 times) an all time favorite, one of the greatest sci fi novels of all time imo
– Speaker for the Dead, it’s a sequel to Ender’s Game but can stand alone. i love both of these because they’re high sci fi, high drama, but incredibly grounded (even tho the 6 year olds in book 1 sound like 25 year olds, but they’re child prodigies okay!)
– Under the Dome by Stephen King, not pure sci fi (i typically look for like SPACESHIP sci fi) but was freaking awesome. i love a huge sweeping epic

novels i did NOT love:
– The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers bored me to actual tears. a goodreads user said it better but basically there is no meaningful conflict that doesn’t get resolved within a few pages. everything is tidy and convenient and cushy and boring.
– Rules of Redemption by T.A. White needs to be in a different category that TLWTASAP because i actually really liked it – it just lacked identity. it was both a fantasy in the leagues of A Court of Thorns and Roses, but also wanted to be hard-boiled sci fi a la Trek.

i want something that isn’t going to he difficult to conceptualize (Project Hail Mary is 90% one person on a space ship), is scientifically reasonable and relatively low fantastical elements (so less like alternate universes and talking animals etc), grounded characterization, feels more like an interesting sitcom instead of a confusing mind-twisting mess. bonus points for a female main character but not required.

thanks in advance!!

tl;dr looking for some sci fi that isn’t confusing but still interesting

edited to finish the last sentence, i hit post too soon <3