I've just finished and I'm undecided on my opinions. I quite liked Toru and the Knot as characters, and everything they did seemed realistic.
I didn't pick up on the implications that it's David seeding the worlds until reading this thread, but that does seem to make a certain amount of sense.
I'm not a big fan of Zula, so her being sidelined was fine for me, but the way the actual EU expansion plot was done, was poor. Either stick to the plot about the miners or about the jackals, and since the main story was about the miners, I'd have gone with them. As it is, the book ends up on an MCU style 'post credits stinger', so to speak, and I dislike that.
Magic black plot goo has once again been reverted from some semblance of sense, to magic black plot goo.