BOOK REVIEW: Rangers Apprentice-The Ruins of Gorlan(John Flanagan)

Book: Rangers Apprentice, The Ruins of Gorlan

Author: John Flanagan

Rating: 7-8/10

Recommended age: 10-17

Will has always dreamed of being a knight, he's a ward of castle Redmont and never knew his parents,his father died in the war against Morgath,his mother in childbirth. Taken in by the Baron he lives with fellow wards until he's old enough to be chosen by a craftmaster as a apprentice.

Now choosing day approaches and him and his fellow ward-mates  have reached the moment where their futures are decided. Horace-big,strong and someone who will always gets into fights with is a natural for battle school, George- a logical thinker and well reasoning is natural for scribe school, Alyss -already accepted into the diplomatic service and Jenny- perfect for the kitchen and cookery.

Will alone is the only one whose nervous about the upcoming event, small for his age and not the strongest he wants to be accepted into the battle school to follow in the footsteps of his father who died in battle.

The day arrives and everything goes fine-for the other 4 ward mates. Then it's Will's turn.
"Sorry but he's too small" the damning words that the unhappy battle master of Redmont has too say, the words echoed by the other craft masters, Will's life is in tatters and it looks like he may be spending his life working on a farm when the Ranger Halt comes forth with information on a piece of paper that he imparts on the Baron to consider.Baron Arald must think things over and will give his decision to Will tomorrow.

That night Will climbs up the tower and into the Barons chambers,He must know what's on the piece of paper.Just has he reaches it a hand grabs him and he looks into the hard eyes of Halt the ranger.

The Baron is awoken and it seems they expected him to do this  and he is allowed to read the paper,on it are the words:
"the boy Will has the potential to be trained as a ranger.I will accept him as my apprentice "

Filled with a mixture of emotions,grateful he won't be stuck on a farm but confused and scared as the rangers are thought of by many people as spy's who dabble in black magic.
All of these doubts the baron helps him put aside and the next day he finds himself at Halt's hut and training to be a ranger. From housework to archery to knife work he is certainly busy and he gets a ranger horse called tug- who doesn't look like alot but has almost endless stamina.
All of this work is enjoyable and Will although finding it difficult is doing well as are all his fellow wards apart from Horace, he alone is finding life in the battle school unpleasant and hard, and is being picked on by 3 of the higher year students, despite this he's a natural swordsman but the teachers have no idea of why he's unhappy and failing in school work. He gets into a fight with will o the holiday over a very small matter and is generally unhappy.

Weeks later Halt and Will are tracking a boar and there is a boar hunt being planned. Horace gets invited along as a trainee experience and  when the boar is killed, him and will meet the first time since the fight. at that moment a second boar comes charging at them from the lair and the hunters are scattered. Only Will and Horace are left in it's path.In a display of bravery Horace stands himself in the way and tries to protect Will but the roles are reversed when Horace is knocked down, Will distracts the boar enough for it to charge him instead and then Halt kills it with a arrow straight to the heart.

This is a source of pride for the Baron and his Battlemaster but  yet enough source of terror for Horace at the hands of the 3 bullies. they decide that Horace and will should pay, Horace for needing help and Will for helping. so they beat Horace up then go for Will. Horace will not have this any longer and sets after them with a wooden sword to save Will who is already being beaten up until Halt shoots the bullies canes out of their hands and invites Horace to fight them one at a time. Needless to say Horace's superb swordsmanship more than manages to pay back the pain of bullying and the 3 bullies are expelled from the battle school and the area.

It's now time for the rangers gathering and Will and Halt go there and meet Gillian Halt's former apprentice who tries to catch Halt out but forgets about will and ends up making a fool of himself. Will finally feels at ease among rangers but when they arrive every ones leaving . as the try to find out what's going on  halt goes to the command tent as Gillian and Will wait to find out. It's the worst news. The evil baron Morgarath is gathering his armies and has already sent out 2 of the most feared beasts into the kingdom to assassinate the leaders of the kings supreme army.

As the kingdom prepares for war, Halt,Will and Gillian set off into the solitary plains to hunt down the Kalkara before they can do anymore damage.

But how can they succeed  when it took a full 3 knights to kill one and none survived. It's the most daunting task and one from which they may not return.



I would say this book and the series is a must read, it's interesting ,it's  got the right mix of action and adventure and although as the first book of the series it sets the scene alot to start with it's a brilliant read.

Hope you found this review helpful,
The Devonian Book Reviewer



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