The whole series is like a tease. I like book 4 a lot too because I started reading this series to read about alien monstrosities, etc. Then the next three books turn back into a political theatre and it only gets good again in book 8 when they start looking at different alien systems. The series should have been a lot less books, but it makes sense the writers themselves have said they have the whole story in mind, up to the last sentence, and they’re just adding in pacing. I think it’d be better to have a trilogy with the first two books, the second two and then the last trilogy (no need for books 4&5 since, as I said, I’m wanting to read about an ancient alien civilization.)