The book flipped between 'missing the obvious' and 'that was way too easy and lazy writing'. It had some hard-fi, but most reviewers seem to give the author too much credit and ignore the poor plot
You get the constant impression he either didn't have an editor or had an editor with no power to force changes. Especially near the end of the third book where you can tell he's gotten tired of his Big Bad Guys and just decides to end them in half a dozen pages.