I really liked this series, though when I gave the first book to my dad and he quit reading it because it took forever to start the story, I realized that the whole first book was to set up the next three. In retrospect, it seems like the first 500 pages of the Sword of Shanarra.
I really did enjoy the characters though. you really can't not like Jonas, and Dread's pretty cool even though he's insane... He reminds me a lot of Kefka, only with Dread you actually get to see his justification of delighting in slaughter... He thinks that he is the hero. There used to be a poster called TheEvilHero on this site that had a quote in his/her signature stating something to the effect that every villain is a hero in his own eyes. I know that the most interesting villains always are.