This is good scifi. The author T.C. McCarthy was the real life version of the desk job that Jack Ryan was supposed to be, a CIA/DOD analyst. Reading all those reports must have inspired and depressed through immersion in the mess of a Land War In Asia to create this novel. Germline is the fully realized promise of the (US Army) Land Warrior Program, complete with HUD, working armor, waste disposal, power pack, radio, GPS, computer: the whole works. Why are they there? Strip mining leads to inevitable resource war conflict. The last century of war was all about resources, mostly oil. Someday the oil will be gone, and we'll fight over something else. The smart money is water, but once that is resolved, it leaves rare earth elements, based on what they can do for industry.
This book is essentially All Quiet On The Western Front, with loss after loss, and the growing madness that the wars bring onto the poor bastards fighting it. Most of the action takes place in Kazahkstan, Uzbekistan, and Iran. The uniforms worn are actual full armor made of bulletproof ceramic. Naturally, weapons are upgraded to punch through them, but so is the napalm to burn hotter and enemy weapons are very effective. They have optical camouflage and magnetically launched flechettes, which are essentially 2 inch long darts banned by the Geneva Convention in the 1970s for being effective. The Geneva Convention bans weapons that work, but only for our side.
There are drones and serious mining equipment, because it is all about the mining, after all. Access to Rare Earth Elements for the electronics industry back home. The tanks are ineffective armor, cheaply made to mostly carry around a crew served weapon and stop only the smallest arms, but drawing all fire because that's what crew served weapons do. Any Tanker who has seen action, a veteran, will tell you this. Tanks need infantry to protect them long enough to shoot and scoot. And since Abrams Battle Tanks are expensive, they aren't reasonable in a real war with actual economics. Tanks aren't supposed to be safe. Abrams are too effective to remain in service. Light ceramic tanks, built cheap, only able to stop 20mm is probably good enough. Crews won't like that, but you're all cannon fodder, and losing your population in battle attrition is also winning, to a politician.
The character is basically a gonzo journalist, complete with drug addiction and insanity, only not much comedy. Its not that kind of novel. Any returning Veteran would likely appreciate this, if only to see how bad it would be if we stayed in Afghanistan for the next 60 years. He is VERY unlucky because plot armor keeps him alive through event after event, barely. The people he meets, mostly other soldiers, are likewise insane, haunted by their own ghosts, and walking wounded. If you stop, you die. If you lose it under fire, you die. Its a grim reality, one we could very well see if the Russians succeed in retaking the Empire, the USSR. They can copy our technology, and have the means to produce it, presumably. The Chinese antiship missiles and rocket torpedos make aircraft carrier battle groups obsolete. Easily destroyed in a hot war. Pearl Harbor with a few tacnukes. We can't even stop them. This is the world we've got, and where things are heading is worse. A sort of worse that's in the book.
There are two sequels, which aren't available at my library yet. Maybe too new, maybe not promising enough for others to be requesting it. Germline was very good. I recommend it, if you can stomach a grisly war story.
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