I'm cheating a bit by listening to the audiobooks instead of reading the stories. But that way I will hopefully get more volumes done. Though there is not a story arch I particularly dislike, I think the series would benefit from narrowing down how many archs each books covers. The constant jumps between story lines (in this one: the Fantan ship, prisoners at Ferreol, Rico, and Bernhard Frank and his daughter) keep me from being completely involved with the characters.