I bought this primarily because of the length, and it did take me a while to get into it.

My normal sci-fi/fantasy doesn’t include a lot of swearing, so that did take a bit of getting used to.

However, once I got into it, I really grew to like the characters, especially Kubu. I liked that Esper grappled with her moral conundrums.

I loved that sex is considered normal, and who you have sex with is pretty much your business. I also liked that it didn’t go into graphic detail. It doesn’t rule out jealousy or even bigotry, but demonstrates that we’ve largely progressed to a point that who you bonk is generally accepted as perfectly fine, as long as it’s between adult, consensual, sentient creatures.

The “arguing with the universe” was a novel taken on magic, and essentially boils down to a contest of wills, whether with the typical laws of nature, or against another wizard. I didn’t find it any more unbelievable than any number of similar premises, be it appealing to a deity of some sort (like clerics or paladins in DND), it being a natural ability (elves and other fae folk in any number of universes from Tolkien to Pratchett to Green), or an all pervasive concept (e.g. the Force).