Science Fiction

I recommend "Old man's war" and "the forever war". Second the murder bot diaries, already mentioned.

"The Martian" was a great movie, but the book was even better. If anything the protagonist is even more snarky. "Project hail Mary" is by the same author.

You might want to consider Project Hail Mary. It's not a book series but it's hard sci-fi with good story telling and great humour. But no pop culture references.

First and foremost, I love the question! I have not read the bobiverse yet, but it have put it on my reading list.

A few comparable series and books (disclamer: have not read Bobiverse yet - take with a grain of salt):

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Light hearted Science Fiction by Douglas Adams.
• Anything by Tom Holt. Dry English humor that combines SF and mythology with normal everyday corporate life.
• Charles Stross's Atrocity Archives. I only read the first of 14-ish parts, but it is humorous, fast-paced and very wry.
• Space Opera by Catherine Valente. Think Hitchhiker's Guide meets the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Legends and Lattes was already mentioned. Its prequel, Bookstores and Bonedust is equally fun. The author is Travis Baldree.

Oh and definitely Murderbot Diaries. That's a quite similar book series, I'd say. Had a lot of fun with it.

Dungeon Crawler Carl is a great series that is not space/sci-fi but a fun LitRPG.

You mentioned you like the light-heartedness of the bobiverse series, not necessarily the hard science aspect. There are a lot of "Slice of Life" fantasy out there. I'm not aware of too much slice of life sci-fi.

Take a peek at:

• Beware of Chicken
• Legends and Lattes

If those are things you are interested in, let me know and I can recommend more.

The Divine Dungeon series scratched much of the same itch for me!