content: Shallow characters, uninteresting story, and an unoriginal fantasy land fail to sate my sense of wonder. It's like so many previous reviewers said, its all been done before and Chris has just stapled all these mediocre fantasy staples into one humdrum conglomerate of nothingness. Kind of what Stephen King did in the Dark Tower (Adams,Baum) only at least King can write!!!!!!!!!Anyway don't bother with this steaming pile of sentence fragments and embellished adverbs. If you want a GOOD young adults fantasy saga check out Philip Athans "His Dark Materials", contrary to this you WONT be disappointed