Review by Stuart, my son, age 10

books:


	• The Ruins of Gorlan (The Ranger's Apprentice, Book 1) John Flanagan Puffin, 2006 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 86 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Review by Stuart, my son, age 10

This book is suspenseful and satisfying. Will doesn't directly defeat the terrifying Kalkara, because that would be phony, but he figures out a way to get the job done. Halt knows about Will's dad, who died before he was born, who wasn't a knight, but he was very brave.

The Ranger's Apprentice

I gave 5 stars because I am assuming that the category is judged along with other "young reader" selections. I thought the book was great. The author has such a vivid youthful imagination. The book starts out with the young main characters as wards of Castle Redmont. Then comes choosing day when each young ward is assigned to masters of various crafts or trades. Young Will, the main character is chosen to train with Ranger Halt who is mysterious and elusive. Horace goes to Battleschool to become a knight warrior...and so on. Though obviously fictitious situations, the story line is imaginative and well thought out. The characters grow into young heroes through much hard work, sad and humorous situations, to prepare for the battles to come against the evil forces of Morgarath.

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Good book

"Interesting book that keeps building to the end". My 12 yr old son would recommend it to all who like action filled fantasy. We are getting the next 2 in the series.

Loved it!

This was an excellent book. I couldn't put it down. I finished it so fast I could barely wait for the other books to arrive. I highly recommend this book.

Awesome New Fantasy Series!

John Flanagan has created one of the most seductive fantasy worlds I've seen in a long time. He slips his readers into Castle Redmont with incredible ease and introduces them to Will, a fifteen-year-old orphan who hopes to become accepted to be a warrior. Will is worried, though, because he's small.

The readers feel Will's heartbreak when he isn't selected for fighter training, but he is offered the chance to become a Ranger, one of the secretive warriors no one knows much about. The offer is extended by Master Halt, one of the most legendary figures in the kingdom.

Prompted by a mysterious note given to the king by the ranger, Will reveals hidden skills as he sneaks back into the castle. When he gets the note, however, he finds Halt lying in wait for him. From the moment the note was passed, and after finding out Will had a history of climbing the walls and being in places he wasn't supposed to be, I knew what was going to happen. But Flanagan expertly took me through the steps to get there and I had a great time with the sequence.

Of course, there's a second surprise waiting on Will when he sneaks back into the room to check out the note, but I was expecting that one too. One of Flanagan's strengths as a writer is that he gives you what you're looking for in a story. He's straight-forward and takes his time developing the world and the characters.

After leaving the castle, Halt begins training Will in the ways of a Ranger. The training is well-detailed and comes into play later in the story.

With all this going on, I felt the story took a little time to build up my interest because I saw no villain on the horizon, but once Flanagan had me hooked, I was solidly hooked. So was my son. After that, we hung on every word, waiting to see where Will and Halt's adventures took them.

One of the best aspects of the novel is Will's relationship with Horace, a fellow orphan that was accepted to the Battleschool. At first I was a little put off that we were following Horace's adventures. I didn't care for him and thought he was a bully, but Flanagan deftly drew out my interest and my sympathy for the character. When Horace and Will met again, I hoped they wouldn't fight and argue as before, but they did.

It's not till later, during a truly fantastic action sequence, that the matter between Horace and Will is resolved once and for all. The story underscores everything good and noble about warriors and men who have risked their lives together.

Flanagan really makes the big character and story arcs pay off. My son and I flew through this book. When we weren't reading about it, we were talking about it - about the weapons, the training, the way the characters were brought together, and about the adventures that probably lay ahead of them. You know you've got a good book on your hands when you can't stop thinking about it even after you've finished it.

Flanagan began writing the series for his son, a reluctant reader, and the books first came out in Australia. So far seven of them have been published there and only four have been published in the United States. However, the United States publisher has stepped up the publishing program so the readers of both countries will soon be waiting breathlessly for the same new book.

This is a great series to read whatever your age. Flanagan tells a timeless story, and he tells it well. School librarians should definitely pick this one up and put it on the shelves. Fans of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series will love these books just as much.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

He had always wanted to be a warrior. The Rangers, with their dark cloaks and shadowy ways, made him nervous. The villagers believe the Rangers practice magic that makes them invisible to ordinary people. And now fifteen year-old Will, always small for his age, has been chosen as a Ranger?s apprentice. What he doesn?t realize yet is that the Rangers are the protectors of the kingdom. Highly trained in the skills of battle and surveillance, they fight the battles before the battles reach the people. And as Will is about to learn, there is a large battle brewing. The exiled Morgarath, Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, is gathering his forces for an attack on the kingdom. This time, he will not be denied . . . .

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