i am not fully sure what the point of this book was. maybe it was to set the stage for an actual plot to happen in the next book since it is a series? essentially the whole point was study for a year and then pass a trial, plus some other things happen that i am guessing will be explored more in book 2 since that seems more important to figure out. 

not sure that i liked this as much as masters of death. 

i will read book 2 and probably book 3 just to see how it ends.