Well, I'd be strongly inclined, at this point, to drop back and read how it all came to be. Especially since
Crystal Variation just released on Webscriptions a few days ago, and is an omnibus of the first three books in the timeline.
Of course, by now I've read them all at least a couple of times, so I'm not sure my perspective is completely accurate for a new reader. But I still think it's useful to get the pre-story at this point.