To Honor You Call Us discussion

I picked up To Honor You Call Us by Paul Honsinger, and I want to like it. I'm trying to like it. I just can't. It reads like fanfic to me, with a Marty Stu protagonist, exposition-heavy dialog, bizarre world choices (bullets? From 1911 pistols in the year 2315?), extreme number of pop culture references from 300 years prior to the novel, etc.

So I pose the question: does this series improve? DOES the author STOP WRITING like THIS? Are the characters dynamic and interesting, with real dialog instead of info dumps? Should I try the sequels?