I've read the light novels up to volume 5 and I just got around to watching the anime, and I thought it was really good. It's a little hamfisted/on the nose at times but it seems to have pretty decent politics, I like how it shows that the genocide against the 86 has a material basis behind it (the Alba don't want to sacrifice themselves in war so they make the 86 do the fighting for them). I wouldn't be surprised if the author of the light novels was some sort of leftist.