Identify this recently published SF book from a vague description of the foreword?

Cafe Society
1

I’m pretty sure it was published fairly recently because I found it while browsing the “New SF” shelf, and it was a hardback. The foreword was written in the style of an academic preface, which provided a capsule historical description of the culture in which the story was set. One detail mentioned: at its height this culture was able to launch satellites into orbit, a capacity lost during its later decline. The story took place in a particular city, the name of which may or may not have also been the title of the book. I seem to recall that the name of the city was an ordinary (though slightly science fictiony-sounding) word, like Chromium or Heliotrope or something like that. “This looks interesting,” said I. “I wish I could afford it right now. However, I will surely remember it later on.”

Wrong.

2

Fitzpatrick’s War by Theodore Judson?

3

No, I don’t believe so. I think this SF milieu had few if any identifiable elements from our own time-- it was more like “here’s a city on a planet with a human culture, somewhere in space.” Sort of like Iain Banks’ Culture novels. Of course I only glanced at the book, so I may be misremembering. But I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the book-- for one thing, the cover art is too bold. I think the book I was looking at had a darker cover, possibly without illustration.