It's an unremarkable but readable tale of a student wizard's first days at school. There are other wizard in training books out there (you may have even read one in a popular series, ahem) but the best is still A Wizard of Earthsea--buy that first, then return for this book if you must. It's not awful, it's mostly harmless, but it isn't her best work.Note: 3 stars, for me, is a pretty good review, 4 is for extremely distinguished works, and 5 only for those I consider classics. Most of what is published is, unfortunately, a 2 or less.