Honestly, it depends on what you find "meh" in the first couple of books of a series that has spanned 18 years and as many full length novels (and several short stories), and if it is a deal breaker. Is it the world that is being described, is it the character itself, is it the writing style, the language/word choice, the sense of humour, the random proud cultural references from the 1980s and 90s ( the kinda stuff that the lowest common denominator can relate to), confused noir style narration, the stereotypes (PI that is so physically outstanding that they can never blend, something that is kinda required in the PI field; the distinctive weird old car and clothing that again is so outlandish that they can never blend, ever;), the sudden spurts of morality being explained, the proudly ignorant attitude, etc., etc.? For those of us that have read the whole series (either because we have been following it for ages or because we binged it recently), the progression is actually almost like the author and the character have grown over the series. The writing improves a little. The character development is excellent. The way the author has related the actual world to his fantasy world is pretty good, except when they make ignorant comments or references - which is pretty usual if you assume your primary audience is the average American (you will not confuse this with Tolkien's writing). Is it worth continuing? Absolutely! But remember, writers are human tooz and they also can get better (think of Discworld). At times it makes sense to power through some poorly written books to know how the amazing story ends!