Should probably make my a new topic, but there aren't too many people here that I'll be bothering if I continue talking about Prince of Thorns, I think.
I did some poking and found that people really like Lawrence's prose, though I'm not sure why. Lots of people crooning over the worldbuilding, which again I don't get.
I asked a friend who said that some of the coincidences get explained a bit later because of the nature of how magic works, but it sounds wholly unsatisfying to me. Soft magic, rather than hard magic?
One of the larger hurdles is that its told in first-person from a 14 year old. Unreliable narrator aside (we all understand how that works here lol), he portrays the world through the eyes of your typical 14 year old... So even if there's a decent setting, we'll never know because everything is filtered through the thoughts of a sociopathic prince - think of it like if a TSA prequel was told by 14 year of Xerias lol.
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On a much more positive note, Reality Dysfunction has turned out to be a very interesting novel. Well written, well imagine, with several concurrent plot-lines to keep things moving. I'm impressed so far and look forward to reading more from Peter F. Hamilton.