Hello! I'm looking for scifi that does something neat with culture. Please no 'one culture per species' stuff — even if humanity has some sort of unified government, I expect there to still be interesting cultural divides and clashes. I'm also mainly looking for books focusing on humanity, set in the future — aliens are neat but a lot of what I find interesting is how an author explains why humanity has ended up where they are.
For those familiar, the Portal Future books are a good example of what I'm looking for — despite there being an overarching government and language, there's a lot of discussion about different norms of adulthood, relationships, family, and intimacy between characters raised in different cultures. Plus, background discussion of how technology has impacted religion, and discussions of historical events that add context to how various cultural norms have popped up.
Open to anything from middle grade to adult — I'm comfortable reading complex stuff, but I'm also here for the world more than the writing.
by Blue-Jay27