Book 1: Good, well paced, decent. The struggles that while challenging were overcame and helped create a strong foundation.
Book 2: kept course for the most part. there were some stublmbling blocks and very questionable motivations at times. lots of threads that don’t have conclusions but not the end of things.
Book 3: The story realized this was going to be a trilogy like 2/3 of the way in and rushed to what it thought would be a good ending.
Overall, I think the author struggles with creating good story connected medium level threats. There were attempts with the syndicate speaker and the brine broodmother, but both of those don’t have a good connection to the main story threat. There should have been a herald for the system lord. Galatis works because there is a silver surfer. Without a lieutenant the boss causes there to be such a massive scale of powere that it opens ups more cans of worms than it is really worth. And the ending becomes all the less satisfy for it. The issue that paths grades also brought in the end also really put a sour note to things and gave the whole story a predeterminist bent with how the legacy of the relict went.