No spoilers. Honest review from a techie.
The bad:
The story started with an interesting premise but quickly revealed it leaned heavily on a blatant trope which is never given a reason by the end of the books. Then near the end, you might as well just swap the story for a Marvel comic. Shemer Kuznits is also known for excessive use of convenience and this story doesn’t disappoint in that respect. There were too many things coincidentally available, too many people willing to be friends, etc. to the degree of having a necessary aspect to the story practically drop on their doorstep. There are also a lot of repeat responses or reactions by different characters. Enough to where it felt copy-pasted as filler.
The reason I give it a 3 is because he obviously knows little about science, space and physics and presumably did not get a consultant to proof the book so there are a lot of high school level errors, examples of ignoring physics and sometimes even the rules he himself puts in place. I understand Science Fiction is part fiction but it is also part science and that deserves a little research. Suffice to say, is it a safer bet to stick to his fantasy books.
The good:
Narration: Jeff Hays. I always enjoy his performances. Great job here as well.
Characters: They are all significantly different from each other and he does a fantastic job of slowly revealing their background and personal development. They don’t just get stronger, they develop as people in various ways specific to each individual and that level of detail for characters is well appreciated. There were enough characters to make it interesting and they weren’t all tropes.
The overarching story: Interesting but not ground breaking. The progression was well paced so you don’t have any moments where you feel bored and in space, that is hard to do. If not for cutting corners on sourcing details that are never explained, it would have been good.
There are a lot of really good reviews of this series. This is my take as a science and sci-fi fan. My guess is that a lot of people either do not know or do not care about the science and sourced tropes so it becomes a mute point to them.