the basics: it is a military sci-fi in which everyone is plotting against each other and the good guys are comically obviously the bad guys

the good shit: it has a really cool aesthetic flavour where the little details matter - some people like card games, or robots, or pastries, or kimchi, or geese, and all this shit winds up being significant and beautiful

the main technology hooks are abt abstract mathematics except TOTALLY FICTIONAL, which i found interesting

bonus: there are no straight people. There's no romantic plotlines but the book takes the time to make it clear that the main character is a lesbian, her foil is a bi dude and the Xanatos Grandmaster is basically Revolver Ocelot