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there was a point during the first boss fight (no spoilers) where I walked away for like 2 weeks b/c I was irritated, but I picked it back up & as the book went on I felt like I could see which parts were deliberate and the point they were trying to make more clearly. I enjoyed enough to get book 2!

The first book feels like a critique/parody of reality TV to me. Although I might have a different perspective if I re-read it now that I'm up-to-date in the series. The entire series is about imperialism, appropriation, and resource exploitation.

Very possible. It's been a hot minute since I read it and he starts hitting you over the head with them more and there's less of the reality tv aspect as time goes on.

the talk show stuff is definitely the overt text, but I was interested in the underlying implications of it and some of the worldbuilding backstory which definitely had far deeper thematic shit going on.

Oh yeah there's a lot more going on in the background than is obvious in the first book. I think it's book three that has the railroad level and that's when some of the bigger picture starts becoming more obvious.