Awwwwww. I LIKE coming-of-age stories. And this is a cute one. It has all the ingredients you'd expect: young boy plucked out of obscurity to learn the secret trade, deals with his past, struggles a bit to adapt to the present, succeeds, then happily accepts his future. The plot drags a little big in places but the world-building is fantastic. A great opening chapter - I'm looking forward to the next one. And I can't WAIT to see how it ties in with the Dragon books.