Teres

For what it's worth, I've had dreams that seemed 100% real, and in not one single one of them did I ever take it as an opportunity to act like a disgusting human being. I also lucid dream, and not that long ago had one where I had the perfect excuse to beat a guy to a pulp because I knew it was a dream and therefore I had all the power. Guess what - even then I just did not have it in me to hurt him, despite wanting to. Instead I talked him down and no violence took place.

After all, even if it does get better, you shouldn't have to slog through a lot of bad stuff first; that's why I wouldn't really recommend this book to anyone, even though I do like some things in it.

Ugh, agreed. I haaaaate the old "oh but after the first 10,000 pages it gets really good!" excuse. If it's not at least semi-decent from the beginning, I ain't sticking around for some promised holy grail of actual good writing to possibly eventually show up.

I also agree with you on the world-building; the setting here is really interesting with some truly striking visuals and creative ideas. Too bad it's overshadowed by the fact that we're stuck following this miserable whiny asshole around while the plot moves at the pace of an arthritic snail.