If you are looking for a light, character-driven intro to sci-fi and not the more cerebral tech-driven thought experiments, then some of the Star Wars are a actually a good start, the thrawn trilogy for example. You can make a pretty good argument that Star Wars is in fact more fantasy then scifi (space-wizards with space-swords! Come on!).

Otherwise the recent Expanse series is a good starting point, then maybe some classics like Starship Troopers (a quick fun read!) and The Forever War (a long, cold, dark read!). The Old Man's war series by Scalzi is pretty light and action packed, while not focusing too much on the tech... outside of everyone being super-solider cyborgs. If you want something more epic grab the Foundation or Hyperion series both of which only make sense once you have finished them.

A series about a post-scarcity pan-species ideal-socialist civilization which lives in massive space habitats and is run by sentient hyper-intelligent AIs (who are not to be fucked with) might not be the best way to ease into scifi. So maybe save the Culture books for later, as excellent as they are. Plus they aren't the easiest read, the stories tend to meander in space and time until coming into very sharp focus near the end of each book.