went through 2 more CJ Cherryh books in the past couple days: Heavy Time and Hellburner. The latter especially is a good book. They're a duology. The first is very very much a people talking in rooms book, for fairly low stakes as those books go. The second is a better book but benefits a lot from the first. Unlike most of Cherryh's Alliance-Union setting, these take place before the events of Downbelow Station, a definite oddity in her writing. A working knowledge of punk culture in the 80s helps a lot when reading. Soft recommend. Last chapter of Hellburner is a capital E *Experience* though. might be worth it just for that even if it doesn't grab you quickly
Also unlike most of Cherryh's books, the scale is zoomed in enough that they can be summarized without sounding like a crazy person! Heavy Time is about freelance asteroid miners and a corporate coverup, Hellburner is about the test program for an experimental spaceship that operates at fractional light speed without automation. Both with the full depth of politics and broader implications that would happen in real life
