Day of Their Return

... and I'm surprised it hasn't received more attention. A few years after the rebellion of "The Rebel Worlds," Imperial commissioner Chunderban Desai is trying to reintegrate the planet Aeneas into the Terran Empire. Ivar Fredricksen, scion of an imprtant family, gets a bunch of "freedom fighters" slaughtered by the Marines, and has to flee across the world's widely divergent subcultures, accompanied by an Ythrian whose motives are far from clear. He faces questions that his patriotic idealism can't answer so easily -- What is the nature of freedom? Of faith? Can their price be too high? (Flandry has an offstage cameo, and Aycharaych a major role.) Perhaps you won't agree with the resolution, but you won't be able to avoid thinking about it.