I didn't try Crystal Rain (Buckell's first) because it was described by the author as "steampunk," a sub-genre I've had little luck with, and skipped the others as they were apparently set in the same universe. The review doesn't make it sound very steampunk, though.

I'm vaguely familiar with Landis' idea of Venusian cloud settlement. (I know Buckell's story is not set on Venus).

But for people more familiar Landis' paper, I have a question: okay, sure, the pressure is Earthlike, you get radiation shielding, etc.., but is there any conceivable reason you would want to put a significant manned settlement in Venus' atmosphere (as opposed to a robotic planetary science lab)?