I'd also recommend David Weber's Honor Harrington series, starting with On Basilisk Station. While it isn't as hard sci-fi as some, he tries to be consistent. But more importantly, he describes the basis for in-system interceptions and describes some ways of getting in to inter-spatial conflicts. A lot is dependent on huge scan ranges relying on ship drives, and how interstellar travel operates which narrows the volume of predictable traffic.
Keep in mind that no matter how much you try, FTL drives and capabilities, along with sensor capacities, will be a huge factor in how getting the fleets to face each other work, especially for setting up intercepts. STL drives will be a factor in where and how they meet up as well once they find each other.
It can still be difficult if you are in the know. New discoveries happen all the time. Each discovery alters our view of the universe. And people are always willing to come back and mock earlier concpets that were made without prior knowledge.
Pick an FTL drive from your favorite classic sci-fi show. How many would fall apart with known physics today? How much would today's standards be laughed at in 30 years from now? 100? If we don't end up killing ourselves, how would those discoverers of real world FTL travel mock Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, and so on?