2312 by Kim Stanley. Her prose jumps around a lot and makes it hard to follow, but I haven't finished many sci-fi books recently. I spent pages thinking midgets were a type of alien because of her weird style of introducing future culture and new people, and I'm still not 100% sure I've got this right. But an alien police officer wouldn't have a ponytail... right? So a "little", despite "looking up at them like a langur or marmoset", must be a human...
No wonder I've been avoiding reading lately. I keep getting these weird books off the bestseller's lists, too. Lem's Solaris was the last enjoyable read I had--and it's from the 60's.