Edge of Dark (The Glittering Edge, #1)

Pretty good space opera sci-fi. It's got spaceships and space stations and the trillion people who live in space actually have different cultures.

Also, there's robots and post-human intelligence that is explored in an interesting way. If there's a sequel, I'll read it.

And I'm going back and reading the books that appear to be set in the same universe but earlier.

Spoiler: No talking cats or rodents even though you'd think the technology to create them would exist.