Review by Nathan:
The Rangers Apprentice Series by John Flanagan tells the stories of several rangers in the mythical country of Araluen. Rangers are the backbone of the law enforcement in the country. They train for five years in archery, throwing knives, unseen movement , horse back riding and more to keep the peace in their large island country.
Note to Parents: All of these books contain some form of violence and/or death. This mostly involves criminals getting killed and a few major battles. Also Will (the main character) is an orphan due to the fact that his father died in battle and his mother was murdered.
The Ruins of Gorlan is the first book in this series. It focuses on Will, an orphan who nobody wants, except the local ranger. The ranger takes Will and trains him in the skills of being a ranger. Will's first major task is when the rebellious former baron Morgarath starts trying to invade Araluen. Morgarath sends his allies the Kalkara (fierce dragon like creatures) to wreak havoc in the kingdom. Will and his master(trainer) Halt must stop them but they put Halt's life in danger. Can Will save Halt?
The Burning Bridge In this book Will, Horace (a fellow orphan- now Knight) and a girl who says her name is Evanlyn must burn down a bridge to stop some of Morgarath's troops from sneak attacking Araluen.
The Icebound Land Will and Evanlyn have been taken captive by Skandian mercenaries. They are taken to Skandia, a land of freezing temperatures where they are put into slavery. Will soon gets addicted to Wormweed and may die soon. A Skandian man helps them escape and get Will off the drug.
Note to Parents: When Will gets addicted to this drug he can think of hardly anything else. But the book clearly states the evils of this drug. You can not skip the addiction part of this book due to the fact the the results of it play a major in this and the next book.
The Battle for Skandia (also known as Oakleaf Bearers) Will and Evanlyn (who is really Princess Cassandra) have escaped and join Halt and Horace who have come in search of them. They must combine their efforts to help the new Oberjarl Erak (the same man who helped Will and Evanlyn) to stop the Temujai from invading Skandia.
The Sorcerer of the North A new full-fledged Ranger, Will is sent on a special mission to the North of Araluen to track down rumors of a sorcerer. His undercover backup is another fellow orphan who he has a crush on; Alyce. Toward the end of the book Alyce is taken captive and Will must free her.
Note to Parents: The Sorcerer is actually a healer who creates strange lights in his woods so people don't stumble upon him while he cares for the malformed outcast. Both in this book and in the next book Keren the rouge Knight who has taken over Mackindaw Castle hypnotizes Alyce to get information out of her.
The Siege of Mackindaw With Alyce prisoner in Mackindaw Castle Will enlists the help of ship wrecked Skandians. Also Horace has arrived to help him. They break into the Castle but when Will gets to Alyce, he finds her ready to kill him, thanks to Keren. Will must think very fast.
Erak's Ransom Erak is sick of doing paper work as leader of a country. He decides to go on a raid but his enemy's are smarter than him. They take him for ransom. In order to free him the Skandians request help from Araluen. Will, Halt, Gilan (Halt's apprentice before Will) and Cassandra go to pay the ransom and get Erak. But they must travel across the desert to get him. Will gets lost and the rest of the group are kidnapped by the same people who now have Erak. Their execution date has been set.
Kings of Clonmel
A cult called the Outsiders is going around indirectly telling people give us your Gold and we will keep you safe and the people in Hibernia are falling for it. The recently formed Rangers Special Task Force (Will, Halt and Horace) is sent to stop this cult. Will is shocked when he finds out that one of the six kings of the Hibernia is actually Halt's brother, a fat uncaring King. Will is even more shocked when he finds out that Halt was the first born but fled when his brother, Ferris, tried to kill him. Now as the task force destroys the cult Halt must meet his brother again.
Halt's Peril
The outsiders are down to the core group as they run from the Ranger's. Tennyson the cults leader has decided to take his practices to the Northern fiefs (states) in Araluen. Along the way the task force is "ambushed" by two of Tennyson hired assassins and Halt is shot in the arm with a poisoned arrow. He soon gets sick and starts to die. There is only one person in all of Araluen who can help Halt: the healer Malcolm in Mackindaw. Will rides hard to fetch him.
The Emperor of Nihon-Ja
Horace and a fellow orphan George go to Nihon-Ja for Horace to learn sword skills. But a man named Arisaka leads a rebellion against the people loving emperor, Shigeru. Shigeru's party retreat into the mountains re-enforced by the local logging people. When they hear this, Will, Halt, Alyce, Cassandra, and Selethen (the man who captured Erak-now friend), join them and prepare for an attack in an old hill fort. Using an idea borrowed from another country like the Roman Tortoise Formation they manage to defeat the advancing party, but what will happen when they encounter the main body of the army.
The Lost Stories This book is several short stories about Rangers. At least some of them are answers to questions, John Flanagan, the author of these books has received. It starts and ends with an archeological dig at and by what used to be Castle Redmont hundreds of years later. They find these stories at Halt's/Will's/Maddie's old Ranger cabin. This book contains nine stories and a fragment of one ranging from somebody getting blinded by ink to Will getting married.
For those of you who like maps like me, I have included two maps I have found based on these books.
Royal Ranger (Subseries)
The Royal Ranger
Alyce has died (on a courier mission) and Will is in a bad mood. He ruthlessly hunts the members of the gang who caused her death, capturing two and one commits suicide in front of Will. The gang leader Jory Ruhl and one other member are still out there and Will is neglecting his other duties as a Ranger to hunt them down. In the mean time Maddie the royal princess (Cassandra's and Horace's daughter) is constantly sneaking out of the castle to hunt. Her parents temporarily ground her to her room. The new Ranger Commandant Gilan, Halt and his Courier wife Pauline decide to suggest that Will take Maddie as his apprentice. After the royal couple agree Maddie is sent to Will at Redmont fief. She is being very haughty and her parents disinherit her to help her. By chance Will gets back on the trail of Ruhl when they are sent to investigate the rare death of a Ranger. Ruhl in now in the slaving business. Can Will and Maddie stop him and his new gang and free the slaves?
The Red Fox Clan
After taking care of Jory Ruhl, Maddie has something else to worry about. Her grandfather King is very sick and Cassandra in ruling for him. A secret group called the Red Fox Clan is trying to take over the kingdom on the claim that Cassandra has no right to rule because she is a woman. Maddie is able to penetrate a meeting of the clan but barely escapes. In the meeting, she discovers that their own trusted captain of the castle guard and distant relative is the leader of the Red Fox Clan.
Duel at Araluen
Dimon the Traitor has King Duncan and Princess Cassandra trapped in the south tower at Castle Araluen and Gilan and Horace trapped in an old hill fort miles from the castle. Everything seems to be going well for Dimon except for one thing. He thinks Maddie is with Cassandra and he doesn't know that Maddie is trained as a Ranger. Maddie must recruit friendly Skandians and use the secret tunnels in the castle to defeat Dimon. In the end it comes down to a duel.
Early Years (Subseries)
The Tournament at Gorlan
Lord Morgarath is slowly starting to become king. First he gets the real king to live at Castle Gorlan, Morgarath home. Then he captures Prince Duncan, heir to the Araluen throne, and put him in an allies' castle and has a false Duncan start raiding far off villages to give the real Duncan a bad name in hopes of making Morgarath the heir. Morgarath also starts getting rid of the Rangers loyal to King Oswald. A group of these Rangers gather together (including Halt, Crowley and Pritchard) to stop Morgarath. To do this, they must free Duncan and the king plus capture the false Duncan. Can this elite force complete their task?
Note to Parents: Morgarath is a very evil man. Several of these books in this series tell what Morgarath has done but the books clearly state that what he does is wrong. Also the Wargals are controlled by Morgarath's mind, what he thinks for them to do they do it without him having to say anything. This did not bother me but you will want to consider this. This part of the books is very hard to skip due to the fact that is mentioned several times.
The Battle of Hackham Heath
Morgarath has escaped from under siege in his castle through a secret tunnel. He retreats to the mountains of rain and night where he trains a bear like group of animals called the Wargals to fight for him. He later returns wreaking havoc upon the kingdom where the now King Duncan reigns. Duncan and Crowley pick a place to fight the Wargals. They cause great casualties and then retreat to their next defensive position. Fighting like this, can King Duncan and his men win or not?
I enjoyed this series very much. In the the first 4 days I had read 4 of the books(and these are several hundred page books.) I like how the Rangers help commoners and support good along with their numerous skills.
