First Australian edition of books 1–5 of the "Ranger's Apprentice" series. |
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| Author | John Flanagan |
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| Country | Australia |
| Language | English, Turkish |
| Genre | Fantasy, Adventure |
| Publisher | Random House (AUS & NZ) Philomel (US & CAN) Yearling Books (UK) Beyaz Balina (TUR) |
| Published | 1 November 2004 — 3 October 2011 |
| Media type | Print (paperback and hardcover) E-book |
| No. of books | 11 |
Ranger's Apprentice is a series of fantasy novels written by Australian author John Flanagan. The first novel in the series, titled The Ruins of Gorlan, was released in Australia on 1 November 2004 and in the United States on 16 June 2005. As of 2011 all eleven books have been released in Australia and New Zealand, with other countries following behind. The series follows the adventures of Will, an orphan who is taken as an apprentice Ranger, as he strives to keep the Kingdom of Araluen safe from invaders, traitors, and threats. He is joined on his adventures by his mentor Halt and his best friend Horace. Author John Flanagan has stated that he will be writing a total of 12 books for the series, and is currently working on a new series in the same world, but with new characters and taking place in Skandia, called Brotherband.
The story takes place in a fictional world based on European medieval times. The series has sold two million copies in 16 countries around the world. The series was originally 20 short stories Flanagan wrote for his son to get him interested in reading. Ten years later, Flanagan found the stories again and decided to turn them into a book. BookPeople, a bookstore in Austin, Texas, helped promote the book through a five day camp. The series is well praised by critics. Various film companies are interested in adapting it to a film series but film rights are still available.
Contents |
Will is an apprentice throughout the books The Ruins of Gorlan, The Burning Bridge, The Icebound Land, Oakleaf Bearers, and Erak's Ransom. In the US, Oakleaf Bearers is published as The Battle for Skandia. The first four books tell the story of Will's first two years as an apprentice while Erak's Ransom told about Will's final mission as an apprentice.
Alongside others, Will is an orphan in Castle Redmont. At age 15, the orphans are expected to either become an apprentice of one of the masters or go off to work in the fields. After much stressing and suspicion of his own behalf, Will is chosen to become a Ranger. Rangers are the intelligence force and unofficial "police" of Araluen. They have mastered the art of unseen and unheard movement, camouflage, knife throwing, knife fighting skills and long-range weaponry, specifically the long bow. However, Will is too small to use a long bow, so he uses a recurve bow. This is a bow that curves in the opposite direction at the ends. After being an apprentice for a few days, Halt takes Will to see his horse Tug. With Tug, Will trains in the skills needed to pass his assessment at the annual Ranger meeting, called The Gathering. However, The Gathering is cut short with rumors of Morgarath's underlings, ugly creatures that look like a mix of ape and bear which walks up-right like the wargals, called Kalkara, breaking through the Three Step Pass, the only known access into Morgarath's lair in the Mountains of Rain and Night. Will slays the Kalkara with a burning arrow, saving Halt, Baron Arald, and Sir Rodney.
In the second book, The Burning Bridge, a war is approaching and Will, Gilan, and Horace, Will's friend from Battleschool, are sent to Celtica to ask for reinforcements. However, when they arrive they realize Wargals, Bearlike monsters working for Morgarath, have slaughtered nearly killed the entire population. They find a Araluan girl named Evanlyn. Gilan moves on ahead of Will and Horace to report to the King. Meanwhile, the three ride about a day behind Gilan and encounter Wargals. They follow them to the Fissure; a deep gorge thought to be impassable. The Celtica miners were all captured to complete a bridge across the Fissure. The bridge would allow Morgarath's army to assault the King's army straight from behind destroying the King's forces. Will, Horace and Evanlyn burn the bridge, but Evanlyn and Will are captured in the process. Horace rides back with the horses and meets up with Gilan and a group of infantry trying to rescue Evanlyn, who is in truth, the Crown Princess Cassandra. Horace tells Gilan what happened and they ride back to the main army. The war goes well with the bridge destroyed and Horace kills Morgarath in a trial by single combat.
Will and Evanlyn are taken as slaves to Skandia, a frozen, pine forested neighboring country north-east of the Araluen border. Will is forced to work outside in the bitter cold of The Yard. He quickly becomes addicted to warmweed, a drug that gives a person warmth, but builds up addiction and destroys the mind. The Skandian who captured Will and Evanlyn, Erak, sets up a plot to rid Will of his addiction and escape with Evanlyn. The two succeed in escaping, and take refuge in a small log cabin for winter. While there, Will overcomes his addiction with much help from Evanlyn. To rescue Will and Evanlyn, Horace and Halt also set off for Skandia.
While living in the log cabin Evanlyn is captured by a Temujai warrior, the Temujai are a fierce, nomadic tribe of horse warriors from the east and masters of the recurve bow. Will tries to rescue her, but almost fails until Horace and Halt come along. Halt captures one Temujai alive and realizes the Temujai are back to try and take over the western world again. 20 years earlier they almost succeeded until politics, and a serving of bad shellfish, got in the way. Halt agrees to help Skandia drive off the Temujai since Halt feels if the Temujai defeat the Skandians, they will attack Araluen next. The Skandians win the battle, but the Oberjarl (leader of Skandians) dies and Erak is chosen as the new Oberjarl. After returning home Horace is knighted and Will is offered the position as the lieutenant of the Royal Scouts, the country's archery trainers. Will does not accept the offer knowing that the Ranger life is his true calling.
After receiving his Silver Oakleaf and given a fief to take care of, Will takes on his first mission as a full Ranger throughout the books of The Sorcerer in the North and The Siege of Macindaw. A few days after arriving in the fief, Will is sent north to Macindaw in order to investigate claims of sorcery. The lord of the castle, Syron, was poisoned by an unknown substance. Many believe a sorcerer to be the cause of the illness since Syron's ancestor was also once poisoned by a sorcerer who some think is Orman, Syron's Son or Malkallam, an old sorcerer who poisoned Syron's ancestor. Alyss is sent up to help Will, but is captured by the rogue knight Keren, responsible for poisoning Syron and Orman. Will manages to escape with Orman and his assistant Xander,and enlists the help of the sorcerer who is in fact a gifted healer called Malcolm. Horace is also sent up north by Halt to provide back-up.
To rescue the castle and Alyss, Horace and Will devise a plan. They receive the help of the Skandians that Will gave supplies to and use them to assault the castle. Horace explains that to successfully capture a castle, a three-to-one ratio is needed. With only about 25 Skandians and 35 soldiers in the castle this would seem impossible. Malcolm, the sorcerer who is actually a very skilled healer and a scientist sets up some conjurations that draw the attention of the soldiers in the castle to one side, allowing Will and Horace to enter the castle on the opposite side. Soon the Skandians also enter the castle. Will quickly climbs up to the dungeon where Alyss is being held. However, Alyss was hypnotized into believing Will is the enemy. Will tells Alyss that, "I love you, I always have", and the hypnosis is broken. As Keren attacks Will, she throws acid into his face and Keren stumbles backwards and falls out the window while the Skandians are able to take control of the castle.
Will returns to his fief with his first mission as a full Ranger a success. At his log cabin he receives a letter from Alyss stating that Will told her in a dream that he loved her. Horace tells her that although it seems like a dream, it might not be. She writes in the letter, "I love you." Will leaves his log cabin again with Tug, to deliver his own letter to Alyss.
In Kings of Clonmel and Halt's Peril, Will, Halt and Horace are sent to Clonmel to prevent a cult called the Outsiders from taking power. The cult offers to protect a village from bandits that are actually part of the Outsiders in exchange for gold. When the village has been stripped of its possessions, the cult runs off to the next village. In this fashion, they take over five of the six kingdoms of Hibernia. Halt, Will and Horace are sent to Clonmel, the last section, to try to prevent the cult from expanding into Araluen. Halt tries to persuade his twin brother, King Ferris, to use his troops to drive the cult out. In the end, the cult loses power in Clonmel, but the leader, Tennyson, runs away to try to reach the other five sections, which he controls. During the confusion when Tennyson escapes, King Ferris is killed. Will, Halt and Horace leave Clonmel to chase the false prophet.
After reaching a smuggler's port and managing to get information on Tennyson's whereabouts, the trio hires a ship to take them to Picta, where a smuggler had taken him. The chase is on as the three pursue him through a drowned forest, and finally, at an encounter with Tennyson's hired assassins, Halt is shot with a poisoned arrow and incapacitated.
Due to Picta's geographical location being near Macindaw, Will does a tiring one-day one-night ride to reach Malcolm, the man that assisted them before and is possibly the best healer in all of Araluen, if not the world. After bringing the healer back, Will learns that Halt was poisoned with a toxin that has another toxin extremely similar to it, and the both have antidotes, but the wrong one will kill him. Will then captures the assassin that fired the arrow, and forces him into telling which type of toxin he used, and Malcolm cures Halt. Later that night, the assassin tries to escape, but Will manages to kill him before he does.
The group, on the move again, manage to find that Tennyson is up to his old tricks again and is trying to swindle the money out of more countrymen. Using Halt's similarity to King Ferris, whom Tennyson murdered, they manage to discredit Tennyson in front of the farmers. The trio then proceeds to use their reputation as Rangers and drives the men off. Will manages to kill Tennyson by dropping the entire batch of Malcolm's self-made smoke bombs, causing a cave-in that kills Tennyson and his followers in the debris, giving Halt, Horace, and Will a heroes' welcome when they return to Araluen.
The The Emperor of Nihon-Ja begins with Horace and George (of the Ward) in Nihon-Ja, speaking with their Emperor. Meanwhile, Will, Halt, and Alyss are watching a Toscan general demonstrate his military tactics (creating a near impenetrable wall of shields and stabbing between the gaps) while at a treaty signing between the Toscans and the Arridi, both allies of Araluen. During a ride in which the Emperor of Nihon-Ja accompanies Horace and George back to the city in which they could sail back home, they are told by the Emperor's Cousin, Shuikin, that there has been a coup against the Emperor. Furthermore, a Senshi (Skilled Nihon-Jan swordsmen) ambush nearly succeeds in killing the Emperor, but Horace intervenes and decides to help the seemingly ill-fated Emperor find a legendary, impenetrable fortress known as Ran-Koshi while George goes to the nearest city and sends word to the famous Ranger duo. Back in Tosca, the Crown Princess of Araluen, Cassandra, appears and enlists the help of the two Rangers, Alyss, and Selethen to go after Horace, using Gundar Hardstriker's ship (From Books 5 and 6). En route to Ran-Koshi, Horace's party befriends the local woodworkers known as the Kikori. For Halt's party, they encounter a pirate ship but make short work of it. After paying a Kikori village for their hospitality, people from that village catch up and tell the Emperor that a Senshi scouting party destroyed their village. From then on, Kikori of various villages came to join Horace's group on the trek to Ran-Koshi. Halt's group hits Nihon-Ja and they arrive at an inn, making a rendezvous with an ally of the Emperor. Horace, on the other hand, allows Shuikin and a few Senshi delay Arisaka's (the enemy general) enormous Senshi party of around five-hundred while they buy more time by crossing a bridge and destroying it. In this encounter, Horace drops his sword into a ravine. Halt's group learns of Horace's whereabouts and Horace's group hits Ran-Koshi-- An impregnable fortress composed of extremely high mountains and a thirty-meter entrance. Horace's group settles in while Halt's group sails around and enters the plot of land nearest to Ran-Koshi. Halt's group is apprehended by a Kikori scouting patrol, but when presented to Horace, he recognizes them and gives them a warm welcome. They set up a large wooden wall to stop Arisaka's army, and in the first day, they manage a victory with about two losses. Horace gets a new sword, which was Shuikin's dying present. The girls, (Cassandra and Alyss) set out across an enormous lake in a canoe to recruit a gigantic tribe of warriors allied with the Emperor: the Hassanu. Will, noting how the Kikori work together excellently, copies the Toscan general at the beginning of the book and forms the same fighting position as he does. They launch an attack against the second Senshi scouting party, and in this encounter, Will manages to intercept a flying arrow and Horace kills the enemy in single combat. Alyss and Cassandra manage to make it to the other side of the giant lake and establish contact with the Hassanu, but they find out that they are not willing to cross a forest en route to Ran-Koshi due to a "malevolent spirit." Alyss and Cassandra set out to kill the malevolent spirit. Arisaka's main party arrives near Ran-Koshi, but due to heavy snows, wait for spring to begin their assault. Alyss and the Princess discover that the "spirit" was actually a giant snow tiger, and after a fierce battle, kill it. Spring arrives, and Halt's group attacks Arisaka using their two shield walls. The battle seems evened out until Arisaka's reinforcements arrive. Then, as Will and co. are regrouping, Alyss and Cassandra arrive with the Hassanu. Before a bloody battle can start, the Emperor calls a truce in which they manage to convince everyone, including Arisaka's army, that the Emperor is truly a good man and Arisaka was a power-hungry fool. Arisaka is enraged by this and kills the man nearest to him. Will directly confronts him and kills him with a well-placed throwing knife. On the way back to Araluen, they discuss their nicknames given to them by the Nihon-Jan, with Horace's being Kurokuma (Black Bear/Eating Prowess), Selethen's being Taka (Hawk/Nose or Fighting Capability.), Alyss's being Tsuru (Crane/Obvious), Cassandra's being Kitsune (Fox/Because she's speedy), Halt's being ... Halt, and Will's being Chocho (Butterfly/Because his mind is as nimble as one). Once they return to Araluen, Horace and Cassandra are engaged. The book ends with Will making a very, very poor attempt at proposing to Alyss and Alyss marching off in mock indignation.
John Flanagan stated that he first wrote the series as short stories for his son to get him interested in reading. This continued for about 20 weeks.[1] Ten years later, John Flanagan found the stories again and decided to turn them into the first book, The Ruins of Gorlan. However, he never knew that the one book would be able to turn into so many volumes. He still does not know how many books there will be in total. Instead, Flanagan states "I haven't set a limit. If I have an idea that will progress the characters, I’ll write it. But I don’t want to find myself jumping up and down on the same spot, as it were.[2]
The inspiration for the series comes from many sources, including family, friends and European times. Ranger's are based on two groups of people, the Texas Rangers and the U.S. Army Rangers of World War II. Although the US Rangers were based on British Commandos, Flanagan felt it would be better to use Rangers because of the medieval setting of the book.[2] The mythical world of the story is based on England, Europe, and Scandinavia because Flanagan was inspired by "English and European culture and history". Besides this, John Flanagan is also interested in military subjects, which helped him write the battle scenes.[2] Celtica's mining culture is like Wales while Gallica takes its name and language from medieval France in its chivalric age around the year 1300.[3]
Some of the books' characters were based on Flanagan's family and friends. Will was based on Flanagan's son Michael; both are agile, quick and quite short.[4] John Flanagan also made Will small in size because he wanted to show his son that there's an advantage to being small.[1] The exchanges between Halt and Will are taken from conversations between Flanagan and his son as a teenager. Horace was inspired by Michael's best friend Jeremey.[4] In the original story however, Flanagan made Horace a villain at first, but then in the first book, Morgarath became the real villain and Horace was "rehabilitated" as a main character.[5] Skandians were taken from Norse culture and Vikings, which Flanagan found interesting as a child.[5] The gods and deities of the Skandians were taken from Norse mythology and Greek mythology. The god Loka mentioned a few times is based on Loki, the god of deceit.[5] The Vallas, the trio of gods, are based on the Moirae.[5]
Rights to sell Ranger's Apprentice have gone to 16 countries including North America, United Kingdom, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Denmark and Sweden.[6] In Australia, the seventh book Erak's Ransom reached number two on Australian children’s charts.[6] The series has been on The New York Times Best Seller list for 44 weeks as of 27 June 2010.[7] Over 2 million copies have been sold around the world.[8]
John Flanagan states in an interview that the main theme is, "the eventual triumph of good over evil." He feels that although it does not always happen in real life, it should.[2] Another theme especially prominent throughout Oakleaf Bearers is "the primacy of personal relationships over loyalties to one's country or duty."[9] This is shown when Erak's friendship helps Will and Evanlyn escape which allows the Araluens and Skandians to drive away the Temujai. Other themes include courage, loyalty, and that a person can do anything if they tried hard enough.[2] One review noted that "themes of loyalty, bravery, endurance and friendship leave young readers in safe hands as they learn to navigate dangerous waters on their own."[3]
BookPeople, which also created Camp Half-Blood from Percy Jackson & the Olympians, created a Ranger's Apprentice Corps Training Camp based on the books. A total of 75 kids from the ages of 9–12 were chosen from 1,300 entries.[8] A letter was sent to the kids from the voice of Will Treaty, actually written by John Flanagan, which stated they would learn "all the skills I was taught by Halt [Treaty's Ranger mentor] in the woods around Castle Redmont", including "archery, tracking, and the art of concealment and unseen movement."[8] The 75 campers were divided into 12 fiefdoms where they were taught the skills and at the end, every kid received a T-shirt, a silver oak leaf pin, and a gold-embossed Ranger's Apprentice bookmark. This was the first literary camp that has sold out and has a waiting list besides Camp Half-Blood.[8] There are also plans for another camp in the following summer.
Ranger's Apprentice has been well received by many reviewers. One part many reviewers praised was the vivid details during battles.[10] Another review also praised the imagery and stated, "vivid imagery and detail make the medieval-like elements believable"[11] A review for The Ruins of Gorlan stated, "filled with rich detail and plenty of edge-of-your-seat thrills" again praising the details.
Another aspect commonly praised is the fact that Will, the main protagonist still asks for the help of others.[10] A review for The Icebound Land stated the same thing writing, "Though talented and intelligent, [Will] makes mistakes and he often needs help from those around him—making him a very realistic and appealing protagonist."[12]
One reviewer from Booklist noted that although in The Burning Bridge the point of view constantly shifted, it is not confusing and also stated, "Will's vivid world will entice fantasy readers who are drawn by the lure of high adventure carried out by believable, down-to-earth heroes."[13]In another review by School Library Journal, the review was on Oakleaf Bearers and praised the book on the high tensions raised and recommended it to people who enjoy action and adventure.[14]
However, not all reviews were completely positive. One reviewer thought that the Wargals sounded and were too alike to Urgals in the Inheritance Cycle. The same reviewer also felt that the story was not very original stating, "from the very beginning, it was a story I'd heard before."[15] At the end the reviewer stated, "The books aren't horrible. They're just nothing new."
In a review for The Ruins of Gorlan, the reviewer stated "the pace is a good balance between character development and action, and the rivalry between Horace and Will is developed in a satisfactory way." It also praised how the writing is very descriptive without being dry or slow.[16]
The Ranger's Apprentice has won numerous awards. The series was one of the honour books for the Koala Winners in 2009.[17] The seventh book, Erak's Ransom, was chosen as the Books of the Year for Older Children and the International Success Award.[18] The first and fourth book won the Aurealis Awards while the third book was highly commended[19] Then, the first, second and fifth book each earned the Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book.[19] The first book was also the Longlisted for the Ottakar's Book Prize for 2006–2007 and the first book also was nominated for the Grand Canyon Reader Award in 2008.[19]
As of 7 January 2008, United Artists has optioned the film rights for The Ruins of Gorlan and is in talks with Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis to adapt and direct the movie.[20] When John Flanagan first heard the news he said:
It's just so overwhelming to see that the Ranger's series is set to head off in yet another exciting direction. When I think how this all started as a series of twenty short stories written for my son Michael, it sets my head spinning to think there's the distinct possibility that it will now be translated into movies and seen by millions of people around the world.[6]
However, more recently the film has been delayed due to funding issues. Author John Flanagan advises on his website that writer-director Paul Haggis remains committed to the project.[21]
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