I love Dies the Fire--yeah, it has the issues you mention but it's a fun read. I've read the second and half the third and have the rest (dad enjoys them). There's a big time jump so everything is more settled in the later books. They even move to England (the books) for a while.

But much, much better is Stirling's original trilogy which is about what happened to Nantucket to start everything in "Dies the Fire". "Island in the Sea of Time" is one of my all time favorite books. I've read it at least a dozen times. the other two hold up as well. Yes, there's a bit of deus ex machina--one woman who knows Lithuanian, a language that hasn't changed in thousands of year so she can speak to the natives; an ancient historian; a coast guard ship stranded as well--but if you didn't have that, you'd have a very short book because everyone would die! lol