Books 1-3 were OK. But books 4 & 5 were majorly depressing. Full of boring, repetitive, self pitying inner monologue that literally had me feeling agitated & depressed. To make matters worse, they are over acted. Each sentence is read like it is the high point of the story with stilted pauses between every few words. It was so annoying, like nails on a chalkboard. "It was fast. She could not catch it. She would not let this happen to anyone again. Not like she lost so and so, then it was blah blah blah, like xyz, like xyz, like xyz. – black eyes. eyes like corpses. eyes like the space between stars. eyes like the dead of night. eyes like the chamber of death. Then a few pages later he’s back to describing them again (like we didn’t already get the picture!) "eyes as deep as the vastness between galaxies, as cruel as winter’s heart, eyes with all the secrets of the cosmos and not a shred of pity." Books 6-7 have the exact same sentences. It’s like all the different characters have the same inner dialogue and depressing self analysis. Things happen in the same way. All the aliens take vast pleasure in torturing humans which he describes in gory detail, over + over + over. And how much they enjoy torturing, how the cries of agony are like mother’s milk to them or a fine wine or or or or. Like, like like. After 5 I’d had enough + figured it wasn’t just a couple of bad books in the series. Then some time had passed, I was look for some books + found 6-7 on Amazon for only 1.99 ea (w/Kindle Unlimited) They’ve raised most prices to 7.49 so I was excited to find some books for the old price. I’d forgotten the series, how bad it was, but as I read the reviews it started coming back to me. I was surprised there were a lot that praised the books + the action. I thought, maybe the author had gotten a clue + taken out all that depressing filler + for 1.99 what the heck. They weren’t even worth that. I couldn’t get past 1/2 an hour before I had to stop listening because it was physically painful. It was the same melodramatic read with the as melodramatic (+ repetitive + depressing) same story filled with whining introspection (5) The self same as already written in the last 3 or 4 books, detailed descriptions of torture (6) + the alien’s enjoyment of it, with the same plodding, repetitive over adjectified (is that a word?) descriptions like the hangover you get after drinking liters of premade screwdrivers, like a jr high wedgie in front of your crush, like an unexpected mouth full of sour milk, like a rotted corpse left out in the humid summer sun for several days, like the bloated corpse of a week old drowning victim, like the guts of a run over skunk in the middle of the road……. DONT bother with these books! I don’t normally write reviews, but these books are SO BAD I can’t believe I wasted my time listening through 4-5, worse yet thought maybe things would get better. Like an abusive partner or a pedophile, they never do. So if this review helps one other person who still hoped the series would improve from subjecting themselves to the torture caused by hearing these books, I’ve done my good deed for the day. Contrary to popular believe, misery does NOT love company!