Engines of Empire

I read this book in Russian and was very disappointed by it, although I was very eager to read this novella.
First of all, it was very-very light read. Overall the book was simple and plain in everything: characters (adults were behaving like children, teenagers were too arrogant or plainly stupid without proper background that would explain such things), prose (too simple with lots of mistakes both in style and grammar). Only the entourage seemed interesting to me as well as some parts of world building.
There are many ideas that can be extended and enhanced.