All of the books follow this pattern where 2/3rds or more is split between really bad and unlikeable characters meandering and waxing philosophically for whole chapters at a time–putting the plot in limbo–and terse, emotionless, transactional conversations sprinkled in to break up the log jam with boring exposition. It was absolutely infuriating, and I originally quit in the middle of book 2 because I could not stand another second of Luo, until my reading buddies at work hounded me to finish. They would all climax with a sudden scramble to wrap everything up in an interesting way, but the problem became worse with each subsequent book. I really don’t get how this series took off.