The Problem with Pendragon

I've just finished Raven Rise, book nine (nine!) of the D.J. MacHale Pendragon series, and this book confirms what I realized in book one (and then again in books two through eight) - these books are dreadfully written. The stock characters seem to be lifted from popular TV series (the cocky, sporty girl side kick, the nerdy and smart boy, the aging and wise black man, a young Crocodile-Dundee, etc.), the plot is convoluted and confusing, and the dialogue - ugh - the dialogue is simply awful (the powerful call to battle by Bobby Pendragon, the teen protagonist, is "I say... we are so not done yet").

So why am I still reading them?

These books aren't really a pleasure - they are violent and confusing and just poorly written - but I can't figure out what makes the fantasy tick. I'm waiting for a revelation about how the magic works in MacHale's vision, because I can't for the life of me figure it out. Bobby, a Traveller, uses a magic ring to active "flumes" which are tunnels connecting our world (Second Earth) to nine other locations. But out of those nine locations two more are also "earth" - Earth in the 1940's and Earth in 3000-something. But only one other world has two time locations . Why is that? And sometimes the flumes work and sometimes they don't. Why? And the antagonist (who is so painfully cliched that it is hard to take him seriously) seems to be able to control the magic, but Bobby can't. Why?

One of the trademarks of effective fantasy is the consistency of the magical world, and the clear laws that the magic will follow. A fantasy that allows magic to work unchecked usually is confusing and uninteresting, where magic becomes the unconvincing solution to each of the protagonist's problems.

I've kept reading the series, because every fantasy-instinct I possess tells me that all of these confusing plot lines must iron themselves out.

And yet, I fear that I will be terribly disappointed when the final book comes out.