This is my first Brian Stableford, and it appears unfortunately in the midst of a series. I did really enjoy it though...I would say more pulp detective/hammet meets scifi than the harder scifi of its day. And despite Stableford being a traind sociologist, it comes across as a lot less preachy and thought-experimenty regarding other human civilizations than, again, a lot of his contemporary science fiction writers.
I'll definitely be looking up the rest of this particular series, and likely some of his lovecraftian stuff as well.