It's possible I was just a bad reader- I had trouble suspending disbelief; the science part of the science fiction somehow didn't reach the threshold "fiction" level for me not to just kind of pick it apart as being wrong... I'm glad I finished the series, but I think I liked all of the characters a little less throughout this third book.
And, as always, I will never read the name Tobias without thinking of everyone's favorite Analrapist, Tobias Fünke.