Ohh, first foray into Tchaikovsky? I would love to hear how you fare with more of his books. Specially the third one in that series.
This was my year of easy books, wanted to reach 100 so I read a lot of easy to digest books.
Old man war, from John scalzi Good page turners, fun universe feel good story. Would recommend light read. The science is fun and is integral to the story so it checks a lot of the sci-fi urges.
The interdependency from John Scalzi was also a forgettable but fun Sunday read. The ftl system of a space society is facing issues and the have to work around it.
Murder bot diaries was recommended a ton, I woul add myself to the list of recommenders.
I did my reading of Philip k dick stories this year and I can't recommend them enough. His novels are a different subject, but the short stories you see how the influence all of sci Fi. I'd you read a lot, you have to read his short stories.
Ubik was also great!
Come on, it's a fun book! Yeah the concept is weird but it's not a hard read. It's not the three stigmata of palmer eldritch.