I really liked the first two books! The story itself is engaging but I would like to stress the fact that although there is a common thread and a greater story that develops, each book is standalone and can be perfectly enjoyable by itself as the main "questions" of each book are answered within it. These days there is a tendency esp. in fantasy to publish series and in the process most people have forgotten how to properly organize it. So we end up with what are actually volumes of a book instead of separate books. So I am very happy that Michael tries to stick to the proper (IMHO) way of doing things.
The plot (or rather plots) is very clever as it unravels bit by bit giving the reader just the right amount of information to keep him/her going, keeping the interest high. The language is precise and clear (a bonus even for native speakers) and avoids the exhaustive pages long descriptions of facts,feelings or thoughts that plague so many writers.
The characters are thankfully life-like and act as normal persons and the dialogues are very natural. The little "disputes" between Royce and Hadrian are absoloutely brilliant and I suspect that they are everyone's favourites.
I am just looking forward to starting the next one!