This was very nearly another 5.
During this re-read of the Company Wars, it has struck me that the books have always had strong elements of political economy, imaginative world building and a sense of historical scope. This one has all those elements, but is at heart a simple coming of age story. Not just of a person, but of a society.
On its outer shell this is told from the perspective of a 17 year old who was left behind by his ship in the womb (during the events told in Downbelow Station). Now the ship is back for him, again, and this time things are changing.
This is also a book about how you stop prosecuting a war when said war has no defined end, there is no dictator dead in his bunker or anything like that. It's just a war that is dragging on in the shadows mostly because no one quite knows how to stop. A bit on point for the modern experience of war. This story is about how one set of people have a vision and the will to have a go at stopping it. It's gripping stuff in my opinion
The reason I can't quite get to a 5 star review (and it was very close) is I had a sense that the book didn't really come to life until the protagonist went into space. Or, in story terms, the opening act maybe dragged a little? It is, as I say, a minor quibble.
This book is the end of the Company Wars sequence but I still have 2 more (maybe 3, I am never sure of 40,000 in Gehenna) to go in this dive back into Cherryh's worlds. Those books cover roughly the same timeframe in the story's timeline but from a vastly different viewpoint.
Of course this is recommended.