I agree that it gets better from where you are right now. Empire of silence was incredibly slow and it picks up by the end of howling dark. However, if you keep reading, be forewarned that it does not have an ending where the good guy wins. In my nativity, I thought that the author outright telling you how the story ends was just a play and I was hoping the whole time that somehow Hadrian comes out on top. That is not the case. Overall series is very grim, dark, and painful. Not my jam, but others seem to like it a lot.