I'm giving this a solid 4 stars. There was a lot I liked about this book. I cannot help but compare it to the Inheritance Cycle (IC), which I read before this. Primarily the magic system, which is similar to a degree that I'm inclined to think IC plagiarized it. The difference is that I was pretty annoyed with the magic in IC, and in this book it just feels natural. Like IC, this book also is a coming of age story, but the protagonist Greg a really profound evolution of character, which is absent in IC. I don't think it's ever happened to me that reading a book has made me think so much less of another. I recommend this as a nice quick read, and I'm looking forward to reading more in the series.