Re: STAR HERO Reading List
I'd add on Niven's The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring. The setting alone has been percolating on the back burner of my mind for some time.
In addition to Cherryh's Downbelow Station some of the other novels in that same universe particularly Merchanter's Luck, Tripoint, and Finity's End. All three are set in the same period as Downbelow.
Someone not on the original list that I would add is
Allen Steele - Coyote, Coyote Rising, Coyote Frontier to start. There are at least four more novels after those but don't want to over load the list after all the summer is alway shorter than we want.