Having read summaries of the books, I thought the complexity of the overall storyline was excessive for what is a fairly straightforward take on the Fermi paradox and game theory [1]. Maybe I'm being unfair, but having slogged through Seveneves a few months ago I'm kind of grumpy and lacking patience with long, complicated SF epics right now.

(Possible mild spoiler ahead)

[1] Basically: "the forest is full of hunters of unknown strength, so either stay quiet or kill all the hunters." I thought that Greg Bear's Forge of God and Anvil of Stars did a much better job on this aspect of Fermi.