Secret Histories review (Books 1-6)

Note: At the time of this writing, I have only read the first six books in this series. I'm aware that there are more books in the series (six more, to be exact), but it's probably going to be a while before I come back to those.

Having read some of Simon R. Green's other written works in the past, I went into the Secret Histories series with fairly high expectations. The man's writing is by no means perfect, but his style of language is interesting, his sense of humor is always on-point, and his books frequently feature the kind of larger-than-life characters that I've always had a soft spot for. However, as much as it pains me to admit it, I have a feeling that my hopes were a bit misplaced this time around.
For those not in the know, Secret Histories follows the life and times of one Edwin Drood. (named after the Charles Dickens novel "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", though sadly there's no relation) Edwin, or Eddie as he prefers to be called, is a member of a secret family known as the Droods, who serve as clandestine protectors of humanity. These Droods are born with "torcs" which, long story short, give them access to gleaming golden suits of supernatural armor that grant them superhuman physical capabilities and protection from pretty much every form of attack you can think of.
Now, to be fair, the series is not without its upsides. Green's trademark witty dialogue and characterization are a constant throughout the books, maintaining a solid amount of charm and humor that, mostly, prevents the dialogue from getting stale. Certain plot points and narrative twists really did manage to come out of nowhere the first time through, with the first three books being especially noteworthy in that regard. And I have to say, the series' occasional nods to Green's other books are amusing, both from a fan perspective and contextual one. (Apparently Eddie once out-cheated the Nightside protagonist, John Taylor, in a game of poker some years prior to the first book. Anyone who's read that series will tell you why that's hilarious.)
Unfortunately, the above paragraph is where my compliments end and my criticisms begin.
For starters, quite a few chapters of the books just don't have any atmosphere. More that once, I came across passages that felt empty to me, because the imagery and emotional undercurrent that I tend to look for just wasn't there. There's an almost tone-deaf quality to some of these passages that really hurts the amount of magnetism each book has, and as a fan of Green's works, I find this to be especially unfortunate. Green has shown plenty of times that he can build a solid tone and ambience with his writing. In fact, his descriptive, free-floating writing style usually lends itself well to that sort of thing.
Another major problem I have is with the main character. The books manage to flesh him out well enough, but they don't do a very good job of giving the reader a reason to rally behind him. In fact, once you get past the first handful of books, he just stops being likable after a while. He's extremely snide in a way that isn't very charming, and there isn't much the way of justification for the constant insulting and sneering he does throughout the series. The books spend a lot of time focusing on the manipulation, inner politics and overall dysfunctionality of Eddie's family, as well as his ongoing struggle to keep himself out from underneath their heel. But despite how overbearing and almost Mob-like the Drood family is, his attitude feels unnecessary a lot of the time and really gets on one's nerves after a while.
Alongside Eddie, we have a fairly large cast of supporting characters, but most of them are either flat and static or, in worse cases, victims of serious Flanderization. Molly Metcalf is an exceptional example of the latter; over the course of the novels, she transforms from boisterous and funny to annoying and almost suicidally arrogant, with all of her prominent attributes escalating past the point of being endearing. I thoroughly dislike when writers do this to their characters. You can't expect me to enjoy reading about someone who slowly becomes a caricature of themselves, no matter how many funny lines and extraordinary powers you give them.
Speaking of extraordinary powers, that might actually be my biggest gripe about this series. As main characters, Eddie and Molly are simply too powerful. Between Eddie's armor deflecting everything that hits it and Molly's magic producing practically any effect the plot needs it to, the two of them have an annoying tendency to breeze right through every single battle and conflict they end up in. Most of the fights can be boiled down to Eddie walking right through everything that hits him and Molly conjuring up some strange and absurdly potent spell that she probably won't use for the rest of the series. It's a formula that gets really old after a while, and it reduces the series' narrative tension to absolute zero.
And that leads me to my other major issue with the series, which is the story itself. All of the books after the third are as formulaic as the fighting is, with Eddie and co. jumping from one action scene to the next on their way towards some new, world-threatening entity who's somehow bigger, badder and more hardcore than the last. Quite a number of the plots in these books serve as little more than an excuse to send Eddie to new locales and have him battle new enemies, which is not a good thing when looking at the sheer predictability of the fights themselves. Because of this, the stories become really hard to care about after a while, especially when so many of the characters aren't all that compelling to begin with.
Beyond the above, this series have some of the usual flaws that come with Green's books; overused catchphrases, occasional narrative conveniences, "kitchen sink" syndrome, and an almost comic-like approach to its writing conventions. These things are usually easy enough to overlook (in some of his books, like Shadows Fall, they can even serve as a plus), but when the elements surrounding them are as lacking as they are in this series, such smaller flaws become much more noticeable.
All in all, I expected more out of this series than what I've gotten so far. Green is a great writer when he wants to be, and his bombastic style and sense of humor can make for some great popcorn reading. But as of this writing, the Secret Histories series stands as a regrettable entry in his bibliography, and what little merits these books have can be found elsewhere in his catalog, in much greater capacity.