So I decided to give the series another shot and I'm glad I did. The first was too ham-fisted or at least a bit to obvious in the social commentary for me, but this one ran with a more adventure theme that left behind most of the us/them dynamic and instead focused on ethics where we weren't doing a lot of traveling and hunting for clues across the country. 
 The twist, and yes, there's more twists, were very decent and I can't complain when it comes to my high-satisfaction quotient. :) 
 I've respected the author for quite some time now, and that goes a long way to my having given the series another shot. It's a different kind of book even when it contains a lot of the same characters, and thankfully, it hit the spot this time. (It helps that the l-triangle is practically gone. Yay!) 
 I will continue! :)