Yes, you're right. So far I've been quite willing to forgive and drift through to the tactical parts.
Another criticism I have is with some of the political/cultural/economic attitudes and seeming principles of the author, which seem to me on the simplistic side and more applicable to pre-21st-Century Earth than to the far future. But again, I'm not bothered much because I'm in it for the combat!
I'm only up to book #5, though.