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What our customer's say!

"Read it!.... But You Might Want To Wait On Buying", Why do I say to read but not buy? Because all though I loved the book it took me only a few hours to read. So, unless you have a disposable income or a younger child i would strongly recommend that you take a visit to your local library; or a used book store and get it for cheap.

With that said i will now tell you why you will like this book (or why you won't.) I personally loved this breif book; the characters had some depth, and were (naturally) likeable. It's the opening book to the series so its mostly about Will being accepted as a Ranger's apprentice and the subsequent training with a little more action near the end. If you enjoy the genre of knights, castles, kings and the inevitable occurence of some mysterious faction which people regard with both fear and respect, this book is for you. If you loved those books where some luckless(?) youth/orphan happens to be taken on by the sage mentor and who quickly wisens under their tutelage (yet still has much to learn) then this book is for you. It's all very predictable, the same old formula with a little extra dash, but, as I noted before I loved it. It doesn't come out flat as one might expect from the synopsis, the environment is detailed which definitly adds some life.
But if you're a person looking for Tolkien or R.R. Martin incarnate do not read this book. Because if you're looking for that type of epic than this will doubtless be dissapointing and will lead to further less-than-stellar reviews. Instead go for the Deeds of Paksenarrion trilogy if you have not already read it and it may satisfy your craving.

"Enjoyable Juvenile/Teen Fantasy - Recommended", The "The Ruins of Gorlan" is the first book in The Ranger's Apprentice series. While the writing style is geared for younger readers, the story telling and flow are engaging and are able keep adults interested (both my wife and I enjoyed the book).

The story centers around a young orphan named Will (no last name) and his transformation from a child living as a Baron's ward into an apprentice Ranger. No spoilers from me, but being a Ranger was not high on Will's list of possible occupations, despite some early indications that he some natural talent for the position.

The author did a reasonably good job of character development and the main players were fairly well fleshed out by the end of the book. The plot and story lines moved along nicely and, while sticking to the normal fantasy formula (young unproven hero, experienced mentor, evil bad guy, long traveling quest, etc), was nicely written.

This book was clearly written to establish the characters and settings for the sequel The Burning Bridge (The Ranger's Apprentice, Book 2), which we are looking forward to reading.

Recommended! For a non-fantasy look at a coming of age story in a medieval society, I also recommend the classic Men of Iron

"Entertaining YA Story", I listened to the audio CD for this book, so I really can't comment yet on the quality of the writing. The quality of the storytelling is decent. I feel like I've heard the story about a trillion times. It's worth experiencing once, but I don't think it's the type of thing I would go standing in lines for hours over.

Ruins of Gorlan has everything a YA fantasy should have, a young orphan (why can't these hero types ever keep their parents around?), some tough decisions, an almost unspeakable evil bad guy whose name must inevitably begin with "m", etc. Will is a likable character. Purposefully not the hunky hero type (those can all be found in the chick lit section), Will is a small, agile, intelligent lad who finds his dream of being a knight crushed, and so settles for becoming a Ranger's Apprentice.

His friends aren't very well developed, but being book 1 of 9ish so far, I'll let that go for now.

"Addictive.. ", This is the first in the Ranger's Apprentice that I've read, and I loved it. I'm 36 so not in the obvious target age range, but I was quickly engrossed. I agree with the many reviewers who said that Flanagan's strong point is his characters. I quickly found myself caring for both Will and Horace, and becoming part of their struggles and their triumphs. I also loved the often subtle humour, particularly the baron who hates that nobody dares laugh at his jokes. The relationship between Will and Holt is also endearing and believable. Many reviewers have complained about Flanagan's tendency to switch POV. Personally I found it unusual, but in no way distracting from my enjoyment of the story. I also disagree that his tendency to stop the action for description distracted from the flow. He does have a tendency to tell rather than show, but I felt his descriptions were vivid and didn't distract. If I were to list the one thing that I didn't like it would be the odd hybrid mediaeval/fantasy world the characters inhabit. In my mind it didn't feel real or thought out, and some of the apparent anachronisms grated (coffee? showers?). It's a testimony to Flanagan's skill as a storyteller that despite this I still enjoyed the book immensely. As a 12 year old I would have adored this book, as a 36 year old I enjoyed it and would recommend it to all ages.

"2 Thumbs Way Up!!!!", I honestly did not think that it was a plagerism of Tolkien but rather a venue to read more about rangers. They fascinate me so and Tolkien gives a lot of insight into their world, but not as much personality. I find these books amazing and wonderful books for children's and adults of all ages and, as a writer, I find nothing wrong with the writing! It's writen for children and so the writing is simpler! Nothing wrong with that! Nothing at all! Besides, not all children can read Tolkien, but maybe the Ranger's Apprentice Series is a good opener to Tolkien's works, especially in the case of younger kids. Anyway, I want to close with thanking Mr. Flanagan for his AWESOME books! I can't wait for the next ones!!!

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Rangers Apprentice The Ruins of Gorlan ", The Rangers Apprentice is a breath taking novel where you will find yourself biting your finger nails throughout the book. The writer uses a unique style of in most cases writing about Will and then the next chapter is about Horace his former wardmate. Although, in some parts you will find that the book may be repetitive as he uses 1 or 2 pages for explanations. This is nothing to worry about because this will lead to action and the start to adventures. This book is a great book 9-10+ year olds.

"Great!!!", How would it feel if you wanted to follow in your father's footsteps and become a knight but get rejected? Well obviously it wouldn't feel too good. Will has to go through it in a great fantasy novel called Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan.
Will is a young, teenage boy living in Redmont Castle. Will lives in the ward with his friends. Horace, one of the stronger kids living in the ward, always picks on Will. Horace is much stronger but Will seems to be able to run and get out of Horace's way because he is so agile. Will has always been a short boy, but everyone has told him he just has to wait for a growth spurt. Well, the choosing is coming up and he is still just as small.
Will has always looked forward to being a Knight just like his father used to be. The choosing comes and they all go to pick their profession that they want to be. All his friends get their pick of choice but not Will. He asks to be a Knight but he gets rejected. He sits there not knowing what to do thinking about having to work in the farms. Halt, the ranger of Redmont Fief, slides a note onto the baron's desk. They all exit out of the room and go back to the ward. Will, curious about the note, sneaks over to the courtyard, using the shadows to conceal himself from the guards, and climbs up the wall and into the room with the note on the desk. He gets caught by Halt, not even noticing he was there. Halts reports him to the Baron and Will thinks he is done for, be he's not. It was all a test to see what Will would do and the note said that Halt wanted Will to be his apprentice.
Will goes through lots of training with Halt. Throwing knives, shooting bows, up-close combat, and riding horses. Eventually Will becomes very skilled, the same with Horace. Rumors come that Morgarath, the Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, is gathering his forces, and soon to come, something devastating will happened.
Ranger's Apprentice is a really great book that you won't be able to put down. There are more books in the series that I am sure will be great also. I look forward to reading them soon.


"A good start.", I first discovered the Ranger's Apprentice series with the third book "The Icebound Land." As the first book in the series, "The Ruins of Gorlan" starts off a little slow compared to the other books, but it really provides some essential background information about Will, Halt and the Ranger way of life. Like the other books in the series, John Flanagan writes a well-developed story that appeals to readers of all ages and skill levels. I would highly recommend The Ruins of Gorlan, if for no other reason than as an excuse to buy the rest of the series which provides clean stories in an extremely well-developed and historically accurate medieval world.

"Okay for kids", It's hard to quibble that a book is too childish when it's written for children, but as an adult, I didn't care for this.

I thought the characters were very simplistic (every "good" character was incredibly noble and the absolute best at what they did) and the plot was equally predictable.

I did not think the writing was very good. I agree with the reviewer who said the POV kept slipping and too much "explaining" was done. I will add that the books were also anachronistic -- a battle school straight out of the 20th century and an apprentice complaining about the lack of hot showers. And no, it's not a history book but it would be so easy to make things a little more authentic.

Yes, I know it's intended for kids and I probably would have thought it was fine at that age. As an adult, the only thing I can say is that there's nothing inappropriate in the book -- the kids even drink non-alcoholic beer.



"Start here, read them all, and not just for kids", The Rangers Apprentice series is a series of "juvenile" adventures written in a spare intellectually engaging style that will appeal to pre teens of both genders and to parents of all ages. I actually think that anyone of any age who has not read them will enjoy them, and would not limit this to juveniles any more than I would the Dragon Riders of Pern.

The third book (for my money) is the best in the series, although my son has read the Australian versions and likes the fourth book the best. (There are 7 books out in Australia, with an eighth due to be released.)

The Australian versions are aimed at a slightly older audience, with the words spelled differently but not much is lost in the American version. What readers should know though is that Mr. Flanagan is a warm and engaging guy and responds to all emails on his web site. The books started as a labor of love, as stories told to his son at bedtime. (Like Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin). So the earlier books like this one are a bit cliched in setting and plot, and therefor a little tough to get into. But what comes through is the warm relationship between the orphaned apprentice ranger Will, and his teacher Halt. Many virtues are taught, to include discipline, perseverance, ascetism and as it builds, the series works nicely with temptations and vices as well -- to include dealing with drug addiction in a very constructive way.