I finished this book yesterday, and it was good for a couple of reasons.  I enjoy fantasy fiction more than almost any other YA genre, so I suppose it would be fair to admit to a certain level of bias.  But this book was constructed of two related narrative threads.  The first thread is about a young woman learning to live, first, on a farm with a domineering father and a strange talent for hearing the thoughts of animals, and later, with two young men who are driven by the objective of restoring magic to its ancient social power and prestige.  This thread overlaps with a thread describing the education of a young man enrolled in a wizard academy.

The book begins with the horrible story of the girl’s birth, and the abuse and manipulation that a charlatan exposes them to.  Her brother runs to the nearest town to summon help for his mother, who is struggling with childbirth.  The woman who is pretending to be a wizard that returns with him allows the mother to die, leaves the child unwrapped on the cold stone floor, and steals everything of value from the house while the father and brother are waiting outside.  The girl grows up with a magical talent that, because of this disaster, she is afraid to show to her father and brother.  She eventually fills the role of her dead mother, and becomes extremely useful on her farm as a shepherd and caregiver for their animals.  But her father’s death becomes an opportunity to seek her fortune in a nearby city.  A young man – Franklin – has been to visit her, and she wants to seek him out in the coastal city of Limori.

The other thread, told in alternating chapters, is the story of a young man who has flunked out of numerous schools and who has been enrolled at the wizard school as a last resort.  He hates his father, and part of the reason for his hatred is the knowledge that he might never see his family again.  Only one person in their class of ten young men, they are told, is going to become a wizard.  There is a good chance that none of them will survive the training to become wizards.  Many students who enter the school are never seen again.  In fact, before entering the school, the boy decides to kill himself, and fails to gather the courage to kill himself at two opportunities.

The training is harsh, even to the point where the students must make food with magic or starve to death, and the young man is shocked at the harshness of the training.  The main character is not always benevolent or kind, either, struggling with hatred for his father and selfishness in his training.  The wizards who train them are not very nice either.

I enjoyed the way that this book makes magic a complex, powerful thing with social consequences among the existing elite.  I liked that wizards are not always nice and honest, nor are they entirely evil.  I enjoyed the connections between the two threads, and the way that they reflect on each other.  I also liked the simple style without extensive magical description, obtrusive or overwhelming exposition, or attempts at establishing a prophecy, a la Lord of the Rings and the prophecy of the Return of the King.

There is some inappropriate language – the young man in the wizard school uses some foul words to describe his slow starvation, even including one or two “f bombs” – and some hints of child abuse.  It’s kind of dark and scary at times, which is one of the reasons that I think young adults would enjoy it.  Much of the novel seems to focus on the abuse of power, and the ways that people manipulate power – and people – to achieve certain goals.  Sometimes people profess to be serving the needs of others while only serving themselves.

I like this book because it seems to take a dark look at the implications of magical power, instead of an idealized good/bad separation.