Great books sets up the universe for Wild Wastes, Supersales on Super Heros and Dungeon Deposed, and Faust.
I’ve given the author crap on the Jacob cillian though lol
the storey keeps you interested and takes a turn you may or may not see coming, it sets up the way the universe will work, it’s a great jumping off point that will only get better as you read the other trillogies. Runner is important, more than he has any idea and he does his best to handle all the crazy that comes at him and tries to hang on to whatever sanity he can.
Also I still maintain Runner would have ejected Jacob right away simply due to the action and information given at the time.