This is a superhero/metahuman story about a dastardly plot during the Vietnam War to create super-soldiers. Almost everyone in the story has superpowers of some sort. Those like Archer who don't have a super power that wreaks havoc when invoked, have superior brain power and training that more than compensates for any slight they experienced on the super powers.
Occasionally, this story alludes to a greater, more sinister plot (hence "The Long Game"), but there is not enough information to know what "The Long Game" is or how this particular book fits into "The Long Game." The metahumans introduced in this story were pretty evenly distributed to the forces of good and the forces of evil, ebbing the reader ever closer a battle for dominion of such epic proportions that it will no doubt alter the Colossal universe in ways only the author can foresee.