I liked this much less than many other of Scalzi's books, I think for two reasons. The first is that it doesn't follow one or two characters all the way through. Now, it does follow a relatively small cast, and many of them we already know from The Human Division, but generally I prefer to spend a whole novel following the same person and getting to know them deeply, rather than these shorter novellas each focused on a different character (with the others in the background). I will say Scalzi did an excellent job with the format, pulling it together into a cohesive whole, but still not my cup of tea.
Secondly, it is very political. It's not that the book touches on modern issues which have been politicized, but that the subject of the book is, fundamentally, intergalactic politics. Again, interesting, but I prefer to view politics from a more focused zoom on one person.
It was good and overall fairly enjoyable, just not totally my cup of tea.