Honestly, the Hope series is the least sciency science-fiction I’ve ever read – the spaceships and alien planets are little more than the place the stories take place. I’m not going to put up any spoilers but ONE of the books contains a sub-story, and one line of it is the only time I can ever remember being absolutely stunned and shocked by a line of text in a book. I was on a train when I read it and I actually dropped the book…
"Man is born in freedom, but he soon becomes a slave, in cages of convention, from the cradle, to the grave."