^ I suppose that's where the long delay between New Frontier installments causes trouble.
With much more frequent shows/books, it's far easier to give each member of that extended cast their due attention. In this situation, they all end up compressed into a book, which makes it seem scattered, or are not given much of a run and readers are left feeling a bit lost about their direction.
That would also make it particularly difficult for the author to have much of a direction when he doesn't know how many more books he can produce in the series.