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These books are a great example of how lazy characterization can suck all the life out of a really interesting plot. The aliens, the AI, the different factions and the political intrigue are all fascinating to me in theory but the ending just left me so cold. There was no emotional payoff. I knew the good guys would win. Some of them died and some lived but I didn’t really care. We didn’t find out who was behind the plot, why, what was their reaction when it failed, what might they try next. And the characters didn’t grow over the course of the series. Not just that the characters themselves didn’t change or mature but we didn’t learn anything new about them. They were always described the same and only ever had one bit of backstory that was always the same. Which was made even worse by the stilted expository dialogue where they reintroduced themselves to each other in the exact same way they had in every other book. It’s so frustrating and it’s not even like this book is that much worse than the others. It’s just too much of it.