I'm not going to assign a star rating, since I didn't finish. However, I can explain why this one is a DNF for me. I've been reading this book out loud with my son, and we finally gave up after having reading over 200 pages -- more or less 60%. It's not like we didn't give it a fair shot. There are some interesting elements here -- we liked the two main characters, and there were some very entertaining action sequences. But, as a whole, the plot seems overly complicated. By the time we got to where we were in the book, I'd have expected the story arc to make a bit more sense. There's a magical world, and a bad guy, and a hidden gateway, and all sorts of new terminology (lithens, nits (not the kind that make your head itch), sychophants (a magical designation, not annoying humans), and offings. But by 2/3 of the way through the book, neither of us really understood what the characters were trying to achieve, and that's not a good thing. Finally, when it became clear that the enjoyable moments were far outweighed by the confusing or drawn-ou parts, we decided it was time to quit. This may turn into a great series (I know there are at least five books), but we're not sticking around to find out.