Barnes starts off by describing a huge number of characters across the globe and off it. As a side effect of the battle enough methane is dumped into the atmosphere to raise temperatures and cause massive hurricanes. Blend in a massively redundant 'Net, a lot of AI cyberpunk concepts, together with Intelligent Agents explained quite successfully and you have a wonderful novel. The characters are reasonably believable, and there are enough of them that you are bound to find one or two to identify with. Buy From Amazon UK Or The US Great fun.
Few things can grow on a planet almost entirely devoid of savoury foodstuff.
Brown and white, granulated, cubed, and iced. To live there you need the specially developed sweatsuits to survive. Without them you get unbelievably fat, which is a fate best left to the evil Baron Hardchargin who needs an antigravity belt just to stand up. Beer, largely consumed by the Guild of starship pilots, and the Freedmenmen, is the valuable export which makes Arruckus the perfect site for a chain of theme restaurants. It is to Arruckus that Duke Lotto's son, Pall, comes.