This is a collection of the first two books of a four-part series that is very well written and has a super-compelling setting (a far future Earth civilization that is in a dark ages after an era of galactic exploration), and yet: at the end of the first book (e.g. halfway through), the first-person narrator/epic Hero says, "Here I pause. If you wish to walk no farther with me, reader, I cannot blame you. It is no easy road." I listened to the man and GTFO, and you probably will too. Perhaps the recurring involvement of busty, partially-clothed, and sexually-subservient female characters would have been enough to hold the interest of my 12 year-old self, but at this point, I can just acknowledge he's a boob man (and something of a misogynist), and move on.