What a wonderful story, the way the characters are written you get to build them in your mind as they find themselves and grow up. The plot is quite good, I can never turn down a "books as black market items" plots and this takes that and weaves in a bit of magic, bit of war, bit of invention. If you'd like a book that keeps growing until the last page (where you want to get the 2nd book asap) and like characters with flaws that don't keep them from becoming more than they thought they could be, and budding friendships. And adventure, and, well, books, this is something you should definitely read.