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Review of Ranger's Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan and Morals

By Jashan

Ranger's Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan is the first book in the Ranger's Apprentice series, and follows the adventures of young orphan named Will who aspires to be a knight but instead takes an unexpected turn in career. Set in the kingdom of Araluen, The Ruins of Gorlan setting largely resembles medieval Europe. At this point in time, Will is 15 and is prepared to face war against Lord Morgorath, an evil overlord who tried to take over Araluen at the time of Will's birth, and is determined to strike again. Though small and not the strongest of boys, Will wants to be apprenticed by Redmont Castle knight school, as he wants to follow the legacy of his father, who supposedly died fighting as a knight, a hero. However, he is not accepted. Though Will is devastated, he is shortly offered an apprenticeship from the Ranger Halt. Rangers are the tacticians and watchmen of Araluen. Their ubiquitous weapon of choice is the bow and arrow, which Will is very skilled at. Halt, being the mentor of Will, notices that being a Ranger is the perfect job for Will, an intelligent young man looking for answers about his life. Horace, a former bully to Will and an apprentice in the knight academy, is saved from a boar attack by Will, and realizes his mistakes. Before long, they are friends. The rest of the book still follows young Will and Horace as the kingdom gets ready for the attack of Morgorath. They are fastly approaching manhood, and they will have to experience all of its pains along the way.

Though Ranger's Apprentice is a dozen-book long series with a prequel and spinoff, The Ruins of Gorlan still manages to present a unique story with a well-imagined world, as well as teaching lifelong lessons to readers. Even in the first 20-30 pages I was struck by the realistic characters and the struggles of the protagonist. Will has no idea as to what he will turn out to become, putting all of his loose hope on becoming a knight. The book displays the principle of personal identity through this situation. Will he become a farmer? Will he become a knight? Who even is he, besides a small orphan? After training to become a Ranger, he realizes that this is what he is meant to be. He fights off monsters, showing him that he is capable of bravery. The reader grows with Will as the book progresses, and by the end, they will be pleased to see Will have a substantial goal in front of him: to protect his kingdom and friends at all costs.

As he discovers who he really is, Will also finds his courage, another important theme. In the beginning of the book, Will is scared of his soon-to-be friend then-bully, Horace, and always goes to hide out in his tree. He is used to running away, instead of actually standing up for himself. However, after becoming a Ranger's apprentice, Will single handedly defeated a Kalkara, or monster minion of Morgorath with strategy rather than strength. He then saves Horace from a boar. There is a great jump in courage for Will from the beginning to the end of the book.

One of the few cons of this book might be how the point of view of the characters often changes too quickly. Suppose you are getting used to one character's point of view, and as soon as things start getting interesting in the chapter, the point of view will change. This gives some sections of the book an incomplete anticlimactic feel.

For anyone who wants to read a meaningful, riveting, fantasy novel, The Ruins of Gorlan is for you. You will follow relatable characters through their adventures that range from humorous to dark. Most importantly, you can learn from their world values that you can apply to yourself.

My rating:
9.5/10

Comments

  1. I actually wanted to scream "YES" when I saw this post because Ranger's Apprentice is one of my favorite series ever. You did great job summarizing and I agree with your positive stance. I'm not sure if I agree with what you said about switching viewpoints, though. I did find that annoying because I obviously really wanted to see the end of conflicts, but switching story lines right before the climax made me want to keep reading which I think is what the author was going for.

    There are two things about the series that bug me a bit though. Firstly, the author overuses phrases a lot. It makes sense that his writing style stays consistent throughout the whole series, but there are some things that he describes the same way every time or phrases he uses multiple times without changing a word. The second thing that gets on my nerves mainly concerns Halt. I feel like there's a lot of inconsistency with his character - he is always described as serious and just a small nod or hint of a smile from him is worth more than a shout of admiration from anyone. This is all good, but sometimes out of nowhere he's suddenly "guffawing" and no one finds that surprising. I might just be nitpicking but that gets on my nerves sometimes.

    Okay I'm done ranting. I love this series and all the characters so much (everyone should read it). Great post!

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  2. I loved the Ranger's Apprentice series when I read them a few years ago. Seeing your review made me think about rereading them a little now that I'm older. I also agree with how you talked about the changing points of view - sometimes it does take away from the build up of the book. As one character is nearing the height of their role in the plot, it switches to another character and readers are distracted. I used to skip entire chapters just to see what happened to one character. Nice review!

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  3. I remember reading this book a few years ago and I still remember how it was just as you described it. At the time I wasn't that interested in it, but now that I think back it was one of my favorite books in middle school. I wish I had continued to read the series. I loved the climax where he kills Kalkara and his fellow troops die. Your post made me consider rereading the book and working my way through all 12 of the books.

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  4. The Ranger’s Apprectice series was one of my favorites in middle school, and I thought that this was an interesting perspective from an older reader’s point of view. I definitely agree with a lot of the aspects of it that you liked, like the character development and the suspense, and I think it’s an overall creative, well thought-out plot that’s also has really good detail. I’d argue that the switching points of view is probably purposeful to build suspense and keep the reader waiting, and it seems pretty common in a lot of these types of books. However, I agree with Aditi that one drawback of the book is that the storytelling aspect is often better executed that the writing itself, sometimes leaving parts with interesting and humorous plot lines, but boring language or even bad overall writing.

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