I realise that I've never written a book review on my blog so I thought I might as well give it a shot. I've never really read books in the past because they used to bore me all the time when I was still at school. However, I've recently gotten into reading novels even if they are 'young adult' books. I guess the right book never came around to me until just recently. Anyways, I'll get on with the review.
Ranger's Apprentice, The Ruins of Gorlan By John Flanagan (Book 1)
Ranger's Apprentice is a fantasy fictional novel written by John Flanagan. The book is aimed at young adults and 'The Ruins of Gorlan' is the first of twelve in the series.
To be honest, the way in which this book came about to me was because I was searching online for novels that had a character with my name in it and this book came up on the list so I looked it up. I found many great reviews about it and the plot intrigued me to buy the first two books. I was looking for a fantasy genre book and thought this one seemed perfect, I was right on the mark, this book is great! I've only read the first book so far and I will most definitely continue on as it's so good.
First off, a little summary of the plot. The story starts out with the main character, Will who is an orphan, raised as a ward at Redmont Castle. Will is a fifteen year old boy who knows nothing of his family except that the fact that his father was a great warrior. Will has four fellow ward mates that he lived with, Jenny, Alyss, George and Horace. Horace was the one that always taunted Will for being so small while he boasted about himself for being so big and muscular. The day of 'Choosing Day' came about which is the day that the ward mates would be given the chance to choose a path and become an apprentice of a specific craft by being chosen by a crafts master which could change their lives. The options were to either be an apprentice to become a knight, a chef, a scribe master, a horse carer or to the kings diplomacy service. Whoever failed to meet the requirements of these crafts were to become a farmer which no one wanted. When it seemed that Will lost his chance to become an apprentice knight which was the one he wanted most of all because he thinks he would've been following in his father's footsteps he lost all hope until Halt, the ranger who came out of the shadows decided to take Will in. Will was small yet surprisingly strong and agile that he had the potential to become a great ranger. He sets off with Halt to his cottage and trains the way to becoming a ranger. Stealth, agility, swiftness and mystery were all traits of a master ranger.
I think one of the main reasons that I like this book is because the main character is also my own name which makes it fun to imagine him as me. By doing this it makes it easier to imagine what is happening and therefore it feels like I'm watching a film inside my head. He is very likable and small, (like me :D) all of the other characters are likable too and are introduced in very descriptive ways to make it easier to conjure up in the mind. The way the characters interact are very interesting throughout this first book in the series especially the cases between Horace and Will. At the start, Horace and Will taunted each other and did not necessarily like one another. It even got to the point where they had a bout over a misunderstanding. It was only when Horace attempted to take down the giant boar during a hunt to protect Will but he failed and it was Will who lured the boar away to protect Horace. This was when the form of a new bond was shown through courage and bravery, their past quarrels at each other seemed to disappear. I found this to be one of the best moments so far.
Another thing that I like about this book is how the rangers are like in terms of skills. They're agile, stealthy thanks to their awesome grey/green cloak, able to track, good at close quarters combat and even better in long range with the bow and arrow, the trademark weapon of a ranger. Having read all this gives me the urge to try out archery...including wearing the ranger gear, especially the cloak! :D
There isn't anything negative that I could say about Ranger's Apprentice, I just think its amazing. It's probably one of my favourite novels even though I've not exactly read that many...yet. I'm looking extremely forward to reading the second book, 'The Burning Bridge', as well as the others in the series.
