I did a once-through, and I'm already in love. The articles and ads give the world a lived-in flavor, the starter campaign is just the right kind of weird for Lancer, and the new mechs are amazing. Gun-cube, pacifist onion, recoil-flight, walking-gun-that-is-shaped-vaguely-like-a-Drake, and even more suicidal Sherman! There's so much character and atmosphere dripping off of every page.
If this really is Volume One, then I am already looking forward to Volume Two. And even if there is no Volume Two, then this turned out great all on its own. It's really up there with stuff like The Short Rim as one of my favorite third-party supplements.