I can certainly see what the reviewers say when they talk about Asher's propensity for violent conflict. The combat is quick and very often extremely deadly for most of those involved. The world presented here was also grim, which gave things a bit of an unreal feeling, but the depiction is internally consistent and very brutal all the same.

As for the people, it's hard to judge when the main character is part machine, or becoming that way. It was quite a thrilling read, although I felt a little bombarded by governmental machines and had to struggle to accept things could have developed in quite so Orwellian a fashion even out as far as Mars.

The narrative system was great, up until we stop getting nuggets of Saul's history. The shifts between earth and Antares were as jarring as those between Saul's Now and Then but almost too abrupt sometimes, which is at least in keeping with the uber aggressive combat motif.

Finally, what's with the profusion of fatly? People say things fatly no less than eight times throughout the book, which just strikes me as a stretch. A docking pillar and a mining shaft are both also described as being "like a redwood", which makes me wonder just where Asher's supply of adverbs and metaphors comes from and quite why it was so depleted at certain points in the writing process...
For all that, I got into the story and especially enjoyed as it drew to a close. I'll be reading the second in time for the third I'm sure.