Best 2 opening lines of any book I've read in a long time!! This book was a very interesting mix of Ender's Game, The Hunger Games and a little bit of Jaspar Fforde's Shades of Grey. It did follow the basic plot-line and character building of a fantasy/sci-fi novel, nothing incredibly original or mindblowing, but altogether well crafted and compelling. It was also nice that it wasn't spoon-fed to us, there was a small amount of exposition here and there, but for the most part is it assumed that the reader is smart enough to pick things up, work out the intricacies of this world, on their own. That is something many sci-fi writers miss, and I really appreciate when it's done right. I always enjoy reading about the personal struggles of characters that integrate like Darrow did...how perhaps not every Gold is horrible and there are different kinds of people in every strata of society. It's always an interesting study and I'm excited to see how it progresses in his relationship with the enemy's daughter. One thing that made me a bit sad was towards the end when Darrow ripped up the flower petal from Eo (after he thought Mustang betrayed him). That was his symbol, his connection to his past, his love for he wife. He seems to have adopted the Slingblade instead and I feel like that's dangerous, since anger is already an issue for him. But we'll see where it goes... In any case, a very fast moving read, one that I very much enjoyed, and I'll be reading the next ones as soon as they come out!