In The Algebraist, Iain M. Banks takes us to a time 1000s of years in the future. The galaxy is very old and has seen wave after wave of civilization come and go. In the current era the bureaucratic, hierarchy obsessed Mercatoria is the dominant galactic civilization and humanity is but one race among many and a pretty minor one at that. And at the edge of the galaxy, in the Ulubis system, is the gas giant Nasqueron and the setting for our story.

OA-like, onto the to read pile