Short version as I hate writing on this phone. Will be home in a few days to write something proper.
Great book, 4.5/5
.5 deduction for the kinda confusing action sequences. Some of the abbreviations and such make it hard to make sense of sometimes, at least for me as a non-English speaker. Took many names in those (first,lastz and rank used randomly) also, hard to follow after a few beers.
Dislikes: the above + that the childhood friends are just written off as "they bought it at X" . I would have appreciated some more detail on them, but I can understand how this also gives a sense of scale and realism to the story.
Likes: everything else
Favorite parts: the idea of the political system that works. Flawed explanation but interesting. The lessons. The parts that were adopted for the movie. The basic training.