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this is an AWESOME book,and im picky about books,John flanagan has a special spark of imagination that REALY shows in this series,go to [...] to view and buy his work. this book is like harry potter,exept better!!!
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So, the Ranger's Apprentice series caught my eye a little while back but I didn't really do anything about it. Finally, I decided to pick up book 1, The Ruins of Gorlan. Well that was it, I picked it up and didn't put it down until I was done.
For years, I have always been fascinated with Rangers. In role playing games, I always played a Ranger if that was an option. My favorite character in The Lord Of The Rings - The Motion Picture Trilogy (Widescreen Edition) is Strider, a Ranger. So naturally, a book that is specifically about Rangers really appealed to me.
The main character, Will, who is 15 years old has long felt as an outsider. He was kind of the runt of the litter, his father had died before he was born and his mother died in child birth, so he never met them and the local Baron took him in as a ward. When it came time for "The Choosing", it seemed that no one wanted him, that he had no skills that appealed to anyone until a mysterious Ranger named Halt came out of seemingly nowhere. Admiring Will's natural skills of stealth and inquisitiveness, he chooses the boy to be his apprentice.
Halt was a tough teacher, virtually emotionless and seemingly impatient but over time, you see their relationship develop. The other character of note, Horace, was a ward mate of Will's who was highly athletic and chosen for BattleSchool (where one is trained to be a knight). Horace had tormented Will but after becoming a knight's apprentice, he is humbled by his experience and grows as a person throughout the book.
I won't give away any more in case you haven't read it yet but I will mention that I don't care that this is considered young adult. I'm 32 and I loved it and I'm about to start reading book 2.
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As a mother who screens everything her 11-year-old daughter reads, I've taken to looking at books first published in the Commonwealth countries for more and more of our diet of Fantasy books. Some of said daughter's favourite post-Harry-Potter series include "Septimus Heap" and "Children of the Red King" (both first published in England), and, now, "Ranger's Apprentice" first published in Australia.
Although even I was put off by the dark and grim cover art at first, I soon found the first book in the series, "The Ruins of Gorlan" to be most refreshing, in that it serves up excitement without reading like a movie script - no small achievement, considering the writer used to write for an Australian TV show - and it makes no bones about how exactly one should deal with growing up issues (in this case, how to handle getting what you want, not getting what you want, and bullies!)
I also found the editing to be very scrupulous: clearly, there are fewer typos in later editions of a book than can be found in a first edition! My only complaint other than the nightmare-inducing cover is the number of books there seems to be in the series: it's going to get expensive, because I can see us wanting to own each book that comes out! As said daughter puts it:
"The book, 'The Ruins of Gorlan' by John Flanagon is a great start to the series 'Ranger's Apprentice'.
When fifteen-year-old Will is chosen to be a Ranger's apprentice, he is a little concerned that people say the Rangers are a lot to stay away from. Soon though, his fears vanish as he learns the ways of the Ranger, Halt. But when the exiled Morgarath plans revenge, Will has to save his teacher, the battlemaster and the baron from the terrible Kalkaras. Top that with bullies bullying his friend and you have this great book filled with magic, adventure and friendship.
My favorite part was when Halt saved Horace and Will from the bullies, and allow Horace and Will to bully the bullies back (!) to give the bullies a taste of their own medicine because it was funny and just.
I think the book is great and I would recommend it to people who are interested in adventure, magic and spies (and how they find out information)."
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I read this book aloud to my 8 year old son and to my husband as our nightly family read-aloud. We loved it! It was perfect for my son's age (although I admit that we two adults found it a bit too simplistic). It was exciting and fun, with good messages as well. At the end of each chapter the thought of waiting until the next night tortured my son. lol.
The characters in the book teach the reader some good lessons, such as thinking before speaking, integrity, and standing up and taking the punishment for your deeds. Someone earlier mentioned that the character Halt had condoned revenge; upon reading that section I have to disagree. I'm a mom who doesn't like fighting, but even I could see the reason for what he did. It wasn't revenge; he was making sure that the bullying was truly over. I do feel it was a necessary lesson for the bullies as well as for the bullied.
A couple of cautions, though:
There is some mild language, but because I was reading aloud it was easy to edit that on the fly. It's not strong language, just a sprinkling of unnecessary d**n and h**l in their various forms.
The violence is hard to take. When they're fighting against the creatures it's fine, but the description of the bullying is too graphic and they go too far. I do realize that it is for an older age range than my son is, but I still felt that even for the accepted age range it's too much.
The description of the beasts proved to be a bit too much for my son. He got out of bed at night and asked how to get those creatures out of his head! LOL. After that we started reading earlier in the evenings and not so close to bedtime and it didn't happen again.
In all, it's a great book! We can't wait to get the next one!
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I checked out this first book from the library on a whim, and after reading it knew I had to have the whole series. I went through all eight books pretty quickly and then gave them to my teenage daughter to read. She loved them, too. We can't wait for the next book. Danger, excitement, adventure, great characters and completely clean. What more could you want in a series?
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