Introducing My Review of “The Ruins of Gorlan”
Here is a review of a book called The Ruins of Gorlan. Its author’s name is John Flanagan. This book is one of a multi-book series called the Ranger’s Apprentice.
Synopsis of the book
Will, a fifteen year old boy with brown hair and a small build, is chosen to become an apprentice to a shadowy and mysterious Ranger named Halt. Not long after Will starts his training he gets thrown into a wild boar hunt where he and his nemesis Horace help kill two massive boars where they both almost lose their lives. Then a rumor starts that the Kalkara, huge beasts who are almost impossible to kill, start picking off leaders in the kingdom. When Will, Halt, and another Ranger named Gilan go to track the Kalkara Will is sent for help. Will wonders if the Kalkara might be coming after Halt since he is a sworn enemy of the Kalkara’s master or King Duncan himself.
My personal thoughts on this book
What I really like about this book is that it’s not the usual story of some kid who is the only one that can save the whole world. The author really made it so it depended on a bunch of people not one solitary figure. What I also liked is that the author put a lot of well placed jokes in the story.
My final verdict?
Overall I thought The Ruins of Gorlan was a very well written book designed to keep the readers on their toes the whole way.
A little bit more on “The Ruins of Gorlan”
The Ruins of Gorlan is the first book of the Ranger’s Apprentice series written by Australian fantasy/adventure author John Flanagan.
The other books that follow The Ruins of Gorlan are listed below (in order):
- The Burning Bridge
- The Icebound Land
- Oakleaf Bearers
- The Sorcerer of the North
- The Siege of Macindaw
- Erak’s Ransom
- The Kings of Clonmel
- Halt’s Peril
- The Emperor of Nihon-Ja
- The Lost Stories
- The Royal Ranger
Other books in the Ranger”s Apprentice series will be reviewed in other hubs in the future.
During the 1990s Flanagan wrote these stories to incite his then-twelve year old son into reading. A decade later, he decided to publish these stories into books. When it was widely plugged at a bookstore in Austin, Texas, that’s where the book’s sales began to push up. Overall, the Ranger’s Apprentice series have been generally getting good reviews and sold over five million copies worldwide.
Critics praise The Ruins of Gorlan for its fast-paced story, and for the fact that Will becomes a hero without the aid of magic powers, unlike in other fantasy-adventure books, although some bash at the book’s conventional and rather predictable storyline.