I considered dnf'ing this half way through, I'm so glad I didn't. This is a great fantasy book.

Initially I found the main character unbelievable and his quest uninteresting. However, all of my doubts were changed by the end and everything came together seamlessly.

There's a pretty big (yet incredibly subtle) plot twist in this (which I don't consider a spoiler mentioning here, since it's not something you would guess easily) which made the whole story even more exciting for me. It's not a twist for everyone's' taste, but for me it gave the world something extra that I haven't come across in my fantasy reading so far. It's a great example of the kind of story you can write with such a subject.

I ended up really loving the characters, I even began to enjoy the main character by the end - despite my doubts of him initially. They really grow on you and I ended up rooting for them all in the final act. Lawrence did an excellent job with writing such an interesting MC. Making an incredibly villainous fourteen year old, and having it work, is certainly an impressive feat. I can see why Lawrence is considered one of the good fantasy writers.

There are still some issues I had with the book. The females sucked but hopefully there will be some women with substance later on in the series. The world building was also a bit questionable for me, but that's something I can't go into without spoilers. To be honest, there's no reason the world couldn't be the way that it is portrayed, I'm just not sure it's what would realistically happen in it's entirety (for those that have read: Patents? Jousting and quills? It's all a little too perfectly in-line considering...) but it's fantasy, so.