This is a young adult fantasy novel with fairly standard fantasy elements. In the world of this book, some people are born about to tap into magic. There are very few of these people, and while the king of the kingdom in question has always had such a person as an advisor, they are also generally feared if not hated. At the start of the story, the current king is killed and his adolescent son comes into power. The son needs to discover, with the help of the king's magical advisor, who murdered his father. Additionally, every king in this kingdom is endowed with magical power of his own through a special ceremony which is passed down to the new heir. This ceremony is secretly created by the king and is hidden for the heir to find. So the son also is working to re-gain his power before a magician from a rival country shows up to challenge his kingdom.

From there, the standard fantasy plot ensues, with riddles to solve, intrigue and counter-intrigue, and surprising revelations about who has magical powers and who doesn't. And a big magical battle at the end.

It's a fun story, but nothing new. I'd give it a '0'. If the sequel showed up in my hands and I was in the mood I'd read it, but I won't go out of my way to look for it.

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