as a sidenote: I HATE that on any cover I could find that portrays the main character (and his teacher or others) everyone is shown as white, even though most of the main characters in this book are described as having dark skin and hair. It sours the reading experience a little to know that that kind of thing slipped through unnoticed. 
 For the book itself! Very interesting world with a main character that has motivations and experiences that are easy to empathize with. Lots of court-drama kind of stuff, but interspersed with a lot of drama and emotional content. I never found it stilted or dull. It was a very engaging and fun read, and I'll probably seek out the others in this series.