Book Review: Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan

The Ranger’s Apprentice is a series of amazing fantasy novels written by Australian author John Flanagan. The series takes place in a fictonal world, based upon medevial Europe and follows the adventures of Will, an orphan of Castle Redmont who is taken as an apprentice Ranger, as he strives to keep the Kingdom of Araluen safe from invaders, traitors, and threats. He is joined on his adventures by his mentor Halt and his best friend Horace.

The Rangers are typically viewed as magicians by the villagers for their ability to seemingly appear out of nowhere and are masters of unseen and unheard movement, camouflage, knife throwing, knife fighting skills and long-range weaponry, specifically the long bow.  And despite Will’s initail disappointment of not being selected as a knight, he quickly realizes the vital importance the Rangers play in the safety of the kingdom.

Reviewer Chris Dahl is a life-long resident of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  He has aspirations of world domination, but lacks the resources, ambition, and over-all managerial style to accomplish his goals.  Anyone who believes that “still waters run deep” has never met Chris. He believes that there IS crying in baseball and blubbers like a baby every time he watches “Field of Dreams.” He has never been in a fist-fight, but has almost bowled a perfect game.  In addition to reading he enjoys getting sun-burned and the occasional rant about how nobody listens to good music anymore.  To the best of our knowledge, he is not in any way related to Roald Dahl, but we think it would be cool if he was.

Filed under: Book Reviews, John Flanagan, Ranger's Apprentice