This author delivered a great book in 2011 (Constellation Games) and nothing since so I was excited to see this appear.
The bones of this are in Catch-22, it goes straight to the absurdity and waste of war. There is a nice mechanic through the book of where it starts with little to no consequence and the body count then starts to ratchet up as it goes along.
Ultimately though, I feel this one got away from him a bit. At the end there are just too many strands to pull together and it lacks someone to root for which I feel is important in this kind of story.
It's still entertaining and gets 4 stars from me on that basis. Recommended.