Depending on who you listen to, this is either the first book in the John Grimes Rimworld series (as listed at isfdb.org) or the second book (as indicated at Goodreads). In either case, it's part of a series with over 20 books. It can be read as a single novel.

I don't think of myself as a reader of character-oriented stories. I don't imagine you can have fiction without characters, but I don't tend to appreciate stories that are just a character drama with an SF backdrop. That might be an exaggeration to describe Rim of Space that way. Still, the focus is more on the characters than what I usually read. Nevertheless, I found some appeal in it. It's not that it's "great literature". It's not that I've tended to read this kind of 1950's / early 1960's space adventure for many years. There is some appeal to me in the idea of the outer edge of the galaxy. If nothing else, it seems to be a nice change of pace.

We have a group of spaceship crew members who have for one reason or another found themselves outside the mainstream, prestigious and more lucrative starship careers. They now work for Rim Runners, a interstellar transport company on the galactic rim. Meanwhile, the planets on the rim are moving in the direction of making themselves independent of Earth. As a result, they're trying to keep such information hidden from the Earth authorities.

The ship travels to several planets. In a sense, each is a short story about a visit to a different planet.

On one planet there's sort of a Renaissance-level culture. The Church is promoting education, technology and political change to benefit the masses. (Yeah, right. Well, they do say the thing about aliens is they're ALIEN.) So, the crew gets caught in the struggle between the forces of change and the nobility.

On a planet mostly covered by water, their rocketship is threatened with being knocked over when a hurricane shows up. (Yes, they seem to be using the old fashioned long, thin rocketship with a pointy nose.)

They try to rescue a starship / cruise ship that is spiraling down towards a highly-volcanic planet.

Meanwhile, there's a romance between the new mate on the ship and a crew member with the nick name (and reputation) of Calamity Jane.

Conclusion: Old-style light-reading space adventure. Short book.

Regarding my pet peeves

They have instantaneous interstellar communication via a psionics officer who has a bottled piece of dog brain to help him. This does play a role in the story at times, but it didn't annoy me too much.