An honest story but that has not transported me

First a small point coverage: you can criticize the French publishers, but when I see the covers of fantasy novels in the USA or England, I tell myself that much like the kind! And I do not mean the lack of originality of these publishers: the covers are furiously thinking about the work of Tolkien, do not you?

Lynn Flewelling is the author of the series The Kingdom of Tobin that I enjoyed when France Loisirs had edited. She used to original stories and honestly treated even if I do not like évadais with other authors.
In a sense here, we find these characteristics.

Alec is a young penniless and that is no one, he will meet Seregil that will prove a man full of surprises (among other noble and spy). They will make a way together, and somewhere down the road, Seregil Alec decides to his apprentice. Then began learning a bit chaotic and amazing. But Alec is full of respect for his teacher and trains hard for him to be useful.

In this first volume, we will meet with the most important characters (the Queen, her daughter's best friend Seregil, magicians, etc.). If the presentation of the world and its rules is effective and allows the reader find themselves perfectly in the middle of this new world, I found the plot a bit light. It takes place in the background, the author preferring widely highlight Seregil and the young Alec. So as these are the two main characters in the entire series, it is understandable, but nevertheless I'm a little disappointed that the plot is not more dug.

The author relapse again with the search for sexual identity, already addressed in this series. Again here, the heroes are quite ambivalent and the author never know really what is the point of view of the characters on the issue. In the novels that I've read this is not so common and I admire the author for this position. It is shy, but it's a start. The heroes are full and whole with more ambiguity brings spice in their relationship with others.

It remains an honest fantasy novel but frame questions, I expected more.