Hah. Well, this is the point in the series where it actually starts getting readable, and the lead characters actually sympathetic. But yeah, I don't really know how much sense it would make without the three books of nonsensical backstory.

Song of Homana is probably the best entry point to the series if you ever wanted to tackle it. (Shapechangers is worthless and you can get the gist of the story there.) Legacy of the Sword is pretty wretched (as you've seen. Poor Bronwyn), but it does have some decent plot beats, which is good because sadly, it's probably not skippable.