Book Blog #75: The Royal Ranger by John Flanagan

Title: The Royal Ranger
Author: John Flanagan
# of Pages: 464 (hardback)
Genre: YA, Adventure, Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★★
Synopsis: After a senseless tragedy destroys his life, Will is obsessed with punishing those responsible - even if it means leaving the Ranger Corps. His worried friends must find a way to stop him taking such a dark path.

It is Halt who suggests the solution: Will must take an apprentice. The candidate Halt has in mind surprises everyone - and it's a request Will cannot refuse.

Training a rebellious, unwilling apprentice is hard enough. But when a routine mission uncovers a shocking web of crime, Will must decide where his priorities lie - finishing his quest for revenge, or saving innocent lives?

Review: I can't believe it's really over. HOW IT CAN IT BE OVER AFTER ALL THIS TIME?!?! Twelve wonderful works of art, just to never hear from them again. Unless their mentioned in the Brotherband series, of course. But I think that series might take place in a different time period...?

Anyway, I was defiantly teary-eyed when I read the first half of the book. The death of Crowley was shocking and really emphasized how much time has passed since the eleventh book. And in the very beginning, when Will said the a Courier died in a fire, I had a sneaking suspicion that it was Alyss. But when Flanagan confirmed it, I was heart-broken. Of all the people, it had to be Will's wife. He deserves to be HAPPY! He had a rough childhood; at least allow him to have a happy marriage!!! Honestly, I was a worried as Halt, Gilan, Pauline, Horace, and Cassandra; I didn't want Will to be so unhappy.

But when Will took Maddie as an apprentice, it brought back so many memories. But, like Will, I was a little disappointed how experienced Maddie already was in the beginning of her training. I was hoping that she would try to use the bow without an arm-guard.

And, yes, in case any of you were wondering, I am a little too attached to the series.

But what the heck was the remaining half? Will and Maddie go on a simple mission; to stop a ring of slave traders. Yet they almost DIE! I don't know about any of you, but compared to the other missions Will has been on, it seemed like a pretty easy job.

And the epilogue!!! I wanted it to be about Will, not Maddie. She's just a new character; I don't feel as much compassion toward her as I do Will and Halt. It's great to have the "new beginnings" feel for the ending...but it wasn't a big "WOW" feel I was looking for. So, in that way, I am unhappy with the book.

Yes! I recommend this book! If you've gotten this far, you might as well read this book anyway. Finish of the series...and be amazed.

Book Blog #74: The Lost Stories by John Flanagan

Title: The Lost Stories
Author: John Flanagan
# of Pages: 422 (hardback)
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Adventure
Rating: ★★★★☆
Synopsis: Unconfirmed accounts of a group of Araluen warriors - tales of adventure, battle, and triumph over evil - have spread for centuries throughout the known world. Most notable is a clan shrouded in mystery, phantom warriors known as the Rangers.

Two names pass the lips of every storyteller: Halt, and his apprentice, Will. They and their comrades in arms are said to have traveled throughout the kingdom and beyond its borders, protecting those who needed it most. If true, these rumors can be only part of the story.

Only now, centuries after these men and women walked the earth, do we have confirmation of their existence. Behold The Lost Stories, Book 11 in the Ranger's Apprentice epic.
Review: Holy crap. Flanagan is truly amazing.

I decided to read The Lost Stories because of the release of the last book, The Royal Ranger (I had The Lost Stories sitting on my bookshelf for the longest time. I didn't want to read it yet because I wasn't sure if it was going to be the last book or not).  I was a little surprised when I heard that The Royal Ranger came out already. How come I didn't hear of it?! Anyhow, I finally convinced myself that now was the time to read the eleventh installment of the Ranger's Apprentice series.

What I found mildly confusing was why this book was the eleventh book. I knew from reading the inside cover that The Lost Stories was a collection of stories that answered questions from some of the readers. And it was true; the "story" is about Will's past. The second "story" is about Gilan during The Icebound Land (as requested by the readers). However, the rest of the stories seem to shape their own new plot, set in the time after the tenth book until "stories" seven and eight, in which Halt's past is revealed and a mini sub-plotline of Tug and Will takes place. Then the ninth "story" resumes where the sixth left off/

It's all very confusing, and overall it seemed like a long epilogue and a bunch of extras (or "deleted scenes," like in the movies). Even though John Flanagan said somewhere (I think) that he planned to write twelve books for the Ranger's Apprentice series, it almost seems like he planned to stop with this one.

I think one of my favorite "stories" it the Purple Prose. I found it EXTREMELY funny, and I got a good laugh out of it, which I haven't had in a long time. Will's constant conversation with Tug was hilarious too. But, speaking of Tug, I almost cried when I was reading The Wolf. Will was heartbroken when he realized that he could no longer work with his horse whom he worked with throughout Will's ranger years. But, the funny thing was that I felt like I lost a friend too. The fact that Tug is replaced didn't help much either. I really hoped that Flanagan would let Tug keep his old name and just give Tug #2 have a different one, but no such luck. To me, Tug should be Tug, not this look-alike horse. Really, really sad.

Honestly? If you've gotten this far, then it shows that you're pretty dedicated to the series (like I am!). So, yes, it's a must read! A lot of stuff happens in this book, so don't think that you can just skip over it and read the twelfth one. Defiantly recommended.

Book Blog #21: The Emperor of Nihon-ja by John Flanagan

Title: The Emperor of Nihon-ja
Author: John Flanagan
# of Pages: 435 (hardback)
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Adventure
Rating:★★★★☆
Synopsis: In his brief time as an Araluen warrior, Horace has traveled the known world and fought countless bloody battles. All for his country, his king, and his friends. For all that is right.

When Horace travels to the exotic land of Nihon-Ja to study the Senshi fighting technique, it isn't long before he finds himself pulled into a battle that is not his - but one he knows in his heart he must wage. The Nihon-Ja emperor, a defender of the common man, has been forcibly dethroned, and only Horace, Will, and their Araluen friends, along with a group of untrained woodcutters and farmers, can restore the emperor to the throne.

In this final battle in the worldwide phenomenon that is Ranger's Apprentice, a kingdom teeters on the edge of chaos, victory lies in the hands of an inexperienced group of fighters, and it's anybody's guess who will make the journey home to Araluen.

Review: It's funny; I don't think John Flanagan was planning on writing twelve books. He wrote this one (with a little circle that says "The Final Battle" in the center, if you look on the cover. Doesn't that mean that it's suppose to be the last book?) and the Lost Stories, which is, I guess, the "eleventh" book. But it's not REALLY the eleventh book; my copy doesn't have "eleven" written anywhere on it. Then again, maybe he DID know he was going to write twelve books. After all, he didn't write much of an epilogue.

As always, I'm going to start with the cover. It's pretty awesome looking with the lighting and the detail. But that crazy guy that's about to cut someones head off is a little...scary. If you get my meaning.

I was surprise of the amount of fighting in this book (even though Flanagan made it pretty clear by the cover). He tosses you in the thick of everything, and there's all kinds of action right off the bat. If you've read any of my previous reviews, you'll know that me + detailed action scenes = madness.
And when I say detail action scenes, I mean DETAILED action scenes. No, not the graphic blood and gore type of detail, more like battle arrangement detail. The characters are traveling all over the place to the point where I can't quite keep up with the scenery. And in the big finally ending, all I can remember is that the good guys won.

This was not my favorite Ranger's Apprentice book. Actually, it's far from it. I wanted to see more of Will and Halt. I know, I know, they made A LOT of appearances in the book, but I wanted to see them fighting! Not instructing others to fight. Y'know, more bow action! And I missed Tug.

The princess (I can't even remember her name...that Cassandra person) annoys the heck out of me. I feel like I should like her more than Alyssa, but I don't. Maybe it's because she's the princess or because I keep picturing her as some squat little munchkin from the Wizard of Oz. I don't know.

Well, since I didn't love, love, love this book, I'm going to nock off a star. Four stars is pretty good, right?

---

Read the original post here!