I have read almost all of this author's books. Some books of his I did not care for such as the Alpha World and Apocolypse Gates series, but most have been quite good.
This series, I will admit that I started reading more to support the author than an interest in the books themselves. I feared this series would be too gamish (my main problem with the other books he has written, as I am too damn old for video games and do not see the attraction of them) which so far it has not been.
This book continues where the previous book left off. One thing this author does frequently with his series is have the time between books either mere hours, or even a few days pass between them.
I do like the unusual and creative twist with the traditional Western (even some Asian) mythical creatures in a Science Fiction setting. So maybe these books are Science Fantasy? Is that even a genre?
One thing I dislike about this series and this book in particular - the lack of orbital bombardment and the lack of nuclear weapons. From what little we have learned of the Antecedents, it seems that they purposely set up those that came later to die. If those able to pilot mechs are so rare, why ensure that many will die? Wasting resources (pilots, mechs, weapons, etc.) does not strike me as something an advanced, technology superior race would do without good reasons.
I can see the "we've always done it that way" mentality, as I saw it frequently during my military career. Maybe the author intends that stupidity to be something that Badger fights against. The toxic culture of not being open to new ideas is still prevalent in the military. History teaches us that those that fail to learn from history are determined to repeat it.
I would love to see BDRs (Big Dumb Rocks - i.e. an asteroid) and other orbital bombardment in future books. I would also like to see nukes enter the battlefield (see Starship Troopers, the book not the horrible movies) as their exclusion seems stupid to me with how many life-bearing worlds that are available. Drop a few advanced "clean" nukes on the bugs, and clean up gets much easier.