 | Orphan Will dreams of his past. Dropped off as a baby one evening at the castle steps, Will knows little about his parents or even his last name. He knows his father died a hero, and Will imagines him as a knight and dreams of following in his father’s footsteps. As the career day approaches, Will has one problem: he’s too small to be a knight. Rejected by both the battle master and the horse master, it looks like Will is doomed to a life as a farm hand. Then Ranger Halt shows up and takes Will as an apprentice. Rangers work directly for the King by collecting intelligence and protecting the kingdom. Will is trained in the art of silent movement, archery, and knife wielding. Rebellious barrens, mythical monsters, and rescuing friends are some of the many adventures Will finds himself in as he becomes a Ranger. |
Series format: episodic
Adventure one: Early years as an apprentice (books 1-4).
Adventure two: Will’s first assignment alone as a ranger (books 5-6).
Adventure three: Rescue mission (book 7, chronologically 4.5).
Adventure four: Hunting down a scamming cult (books 8-9).
Adventure five: Aiding a friend caught in another country’s civil war (book 10).
A collection of short stories: (Book 11).
The books have the same core characters.
Positive elements
Flanagan does an excellent job building lovable characters. Honor, bravery, duty, respect, and loyalty are positive traits that many characters show throughout the stories.
The idea of servant-leadership is also a strong theme: “Those of us who enjoy great privilege have a greater duty.”
King Duncan is a king worth following. He (and other barrens) see it as their duty to protect and care for the people under them. When the king thinks a family member has been killed, he says “Private matters come last. Matters of the kingdom come first.” And he continues to plan against the evil lord’s invasion.
All of the main characters put themselves at risk for the good of the kingdom or for their friends.
The series has a witty humor laced through out it.
Romance/sexual content
There is an ongoing romance between Will and another girl he grew up with. They kiss and dance together, and get married in the last book.
Only married couples live together.
An odd story pops up in book 3 (and is retold in book 8) when Halt is traveling with knight-in-training Horace. While passing through a town, Horace asks why two girls are wearing mini-skirts, Halt lies and says they are mail-carriers and skirts help them run faster. Horace believes him. Years later, Horace teases Halt for lying to him and they all laugh at Horace’s naiveté.
In the 10th book, a young lady must learn that it's okay for her love-interest to have other non-romantic, female friends.
Family structure/gender roles
Since most of our characters are orphans, there is little direct family structure shown. An older couple becomes a father/mother figure for our orphan brigade.
After a character marries, there’s a running joke/subplot that the wife is in charge now. When meeting a tribal leader and his wife, Will reflects that he “like husbands the world over, he answered to the ultimate authority of his wife.”
Only men are knights and soldiers, and there is the idea that men should protect women during a battle (though the ladies often fight in some way).
Women should be career focused, same as their male counterparts. They are trained in their craft and are expected to serve the kingdom, even on dangerous missions. They are also trained in weaponry.
Patriarchal societies are seen as ‘bad’ or ‘oppressing women,’ but matriarchal societies are seen as fine. Every character who states women should stay at home and take care of children is portrayed as backwards. (Flanagan leans into this theme more in the Royal Ranger books with the first female-ranger as the main character).
Drugs/alcohol
Adults drinks wine or ale. A character pretends to be drunk as a part of an operation.
To crush his resistance, Will is forced to take warmweed, a drug that turns him into an addict with a blank mind. He goes into shock and convulsions when too much time has passed between hits. A friend weens him off before he finally comes back to himself. Once free, he loathes the drug and in later books, hates when he has to use any medicine with warmweed in it.
Assassins use poison on their arrow tips. A character is drugged as part of an interrogation. Laced water affects a knight’s vision during a combat tournament.
Language
Each book has 5-10 of “d**n’”, “oh g*d”, and “h*ll.” “The devil” is also sprinkled in there.
A female dog is called a "b**ch."
Several characters swear by the names of their gods.
Religious/spiritual
It is unclear what faith our character’s hold. There are references to “the good lord” or “whispering a prayer of thanks.”
Throughout the series, we either meet or travel to neighboring countries, and these societies have their own religions: Celts worship gods of iron and fire; Skandians believe you must die with a weapon in your hand, etc. Of the official religions, they are presented as having equal validity.
In the 7th book, a band of raiders are called “Forgotten of God” who “despise the true religion and worship devils and demons, and are committed to murder, robbery, and pillaging.”
In the 8th/9th books, Will is tasked in stopping a religious-cult. The cult leaders will trade gold for protection from their false god. The books drive home this religion is false, evil, and only in it for profits (they often cause the trouble they will ‘protect’ you from.)
After tricking a general to think a soul-eating demon is after him, he shares military information.
Violence
There’s a lot of fighting.
People are shot with arrows, sometimes fatally, other times piercing arms or thighs. There are cuts, slashes, and stabbings. Villains die by knife to the heart, arrow to the chest, beheaded, crushed, or ax to the back. One traitor has acid through in his face and shoved out a window. Will gets his opponent’s blood all over him in a close hand-to-hand confrontation. Characters are punched, kicked, and beaten. A main character is seconds from being beheaded before intervention saves him. One man is knocked out by a slingshot and seems brained-damaged when he wakes up.
Describing these wounds vary. Most of the time, the injury only involves blood, but sometimes we get more detail. When examining a cut, Will describes how there would be pulsing blood if the arrow had cut an artery. A horse is attacked by a wolf who cuts through muscles and tendons. Some soldiers are wounded multiply times before going down.
Because Flanagan head-hops fluidly, we are in the point-of-view of a dying character a handful of times. These scenes include the pain of the mortal wound, then nothing or darkness as the character becomes unaware of their surroundings.
Non-real creatures/magic
Wargals: with long muzzles and yellow fangs, these creatures make up the bulk of the dark lord’s army.
Kalkara: huge bear-like monsters who can paralyze you with their eyes if you get too close.
Magic: In short, none, BUT—a lot of characters are accused of using magic. Many think Rangers use magic. In the 5th book, Will investigates a “sorcerer” who turns out to be ahead of his time with his knowledge of medicine. Any claims of magic turn out to be advanced technology or technique beyond the common-folk’s understanding.
Other negative elements
In the 3rd book, Will and his companion are captured and dragged to a foreign country as slaves.
One character struggles with seasickness and vomits at the start of every voyage.
A young man almost dies of dehydration in the desert in the 7th book. He becomes delirious and his hands bleed as he crawls over hot sand.
An assassin is poisoned with his own poison to make him confess the true antidote.
A tribal group gambles religiously.
Writing quality
Flanagan is king of character building—we know all the main character’s thoughts and motivations.
While he has a wide world, many of the cultures he incorporates are carbon-copies of real-world cultures.
The writing is not concise. He often pauses the story for exposition. Sometimes this works, sometimes it just stops the interesting story. And he explains EVERYTHING. You don’t have to think too hard in these books—our author will spell it out to you.
Final thoughts
Flanagan’s lovable characters, detailed weaponry, and adventures are the heart of his book series. After getting use to his writing style, I actually enjoyed the series more the second time through. This book holds up many virtues and gives us selfless characters to admire and cheer for.
Adventure one: Early years as an apprentice (books 1-4).
Adventure two: Will’s first assignment alone as a ranger (books 5-6).
Adventure three: Rescue mission (book 7, chronologically 4.5).
Adventure four: Hunting down a scamming cult (books 8-9).
Adventure five: Aiding a friend caught in another country’s civil war (book 10).
A collection of short stories: (Book 11).
The books have the same core characters.
Positive elements
Flanagan does an excellent job building lovable characters. Honor, bravery, duty, respect, and loyalty are positive traits that many characters show throughout the stories.
The idea of servant-leadership is also a strong theme: “Those of us who enjoy great privilege have a greater duty.”
King Duncan is a king worth following. He (and other barrens) see it as their duty to protect and care for the people under them. When the king thinks a family member has been killed, he says “Private matters come last. Matters of the kingdom come first.” And he continues to plan against the evil lord’s invasion.
All of the main characters put themselves at risk for the good of the kingdom or for their friends.
The series has a witty humor laced through out it.
Romance/sexual content
There is an ongoing romance between Will and another girl he grew up with. They kiss and dance together, and get married in the last book.
Only married couples live together.
An odd story pops up in book 3 (and is retold in book 8) when Halt is traveling with knight-in-training Horace. While passing through a town, Horace asks why two girls are wearing mini-skirts, Halt lies and says they are mail-carriers and skirts help them run faster. Horace believes him. Years later, Horace teases Halt for lying to him and they all laugh at Horace’s naiveté.
In the 10th book, a young lady must learn that it's okay for her love-interest to have other non-romantic, female friends.
Family structure/gender roles
Since most of our characters are orphans, there is little direct family structure shown. An older couple becomes a father/mother figure for our orphan brigade.
After a character marries, there’s a running joke/subplot that the wife is in charge now. When meeting a tribal leader and his wife, Will reflects that he “like husbands the world over, he answered to the ultimate authority of his wife.”
Only men are knights and soldiers, and there is the idea that men should protect women during a battle (though the ladies often fight in some way).
Women should be career focused, same as their male counterparts. They are trained in their craft and are expected to serve the kingdom, even on dangerous missions. They are also trained in weaponry.
Patriarchal societies are seen as ‘bad’ or ‘oppressing women,’ but matriarchal societies are seen as fine. Every character who states women should stay at home and take care of children is portrayed as backwards. (Flanagan leans into this theme more in the Royal Ranger books with the first female-ranger as the main character).
Drugs/alcohol
Adults drinks wine or ale. A character pretends to be drunk as a part of an operation.
To crush his resistance, Will is forced to take warmweed, a drug that turns him into an addict with a blank mind. He goes into shock and convulsions when too much time has passed between hits. A friend weens him off before he finally comes back to himself. Once free, he loathes the drug and in later books, hates when he has to use any medicine with warmweed in it.
Assassins use poison on their arrow tips. A character is drugged as part of an interrogation. Laced water affects a knight’s vision during a combat tournament.
Language
Each book has 5-10 of “d**n’”, “oh g*d”, and “h*ll.” “The devil” is also sprinkled in there.
A female dog is called a "b**ch."
Several characters swear by the names of their gods.
Religious/spiritual
It is unclear what faith our character’s hold. There are references to “the good lord” or “whispering a prayer of thanks.”
Throughout the series, we either meet or travel to neighboring countries, and these societies have their own religions: Celts worship gods of iron and fire; Skandians believe you must die with a weapon in your hand, etc. Of the official religions, they are presented as having equal validity.
In the 7th book, a band of raiders are called “Forgotten of God” who “despise the true religion and worship devils and demons, and are committed to murder, robbery, and pillaging.”
In the 8th/9th books, Will is tasked in stopping a religious-cult. The cult leaders will trade gold for protection from their false god. The books drive home this religion is false, evil, and only in it for profits (they often cause the trouble they will ‘protect’ you from.)
After tricking a general to think a soul-eating demon is after him, he shares military information.
Violence
There’s a lot of fighting.
People are shot with arrows, sometimes fatally, other times piercing arms or thighs. There are cuts, slashes, and stabbings. Villains die by knife to the heart, arrow to the chest, beheaded, crushed, or ax to the back. One traitor has acid through in his face and shoved out a window. Will gets his opponent’s blood all over him in a close hand-to-hand confrontation. Characters are punched, kicked, and beaten. A main character is seconds from being beheaded before intervention saves him. One man is knocked out by a slingshot and seems brained-damaged when he wakes up.
Describing these wounds vary. Most of the time, the injury only involves blood, but sometimes we get more detail. When examining a cut, Will describes how there would be pulsing blood if the arrow had cut an artery. A horse is attacked by a wolf who cuts through muscles and tendons. Some soldiers are wounded multiply times before going down.
Because Flanagan head-hops fluidly, we are in the point-of-view of a dying character a handful of times. These scenes include the pain of the mortal wound, then nothing or darkness as the character becomes unaware of their surroundings.
Non-real creatures/magic
Wargals: with long muzzles and yellow fangs, these creatures make up the bulk of the dark lord’s army.
Kalkara: huge bear-like monsters who can paralyze you with their eyes if you get too close.
Magic: In short, none, BUT—a lot of characters are accused of using magic. Many think Rangers use magic. In the 5th book, Will investigates a “sorcerer” who turns out to be ahead of his time with his knowledge of medicine. Any claims of magic turn out to be advanced technology or technique beyond the common-folk’s understanding.
Other negative elements
In the 3rd book, Will and his companion are captured and dragged to a foreign country as slaves.
One character struggles with seasickness and vomits at the start of every voyage.
A young man almost dies of dehydration in the desert in the 7th book. He becomes delirious and his hands bleed as he crawls over hot sand.
An assassin is poisoned with his own poison to make him confess the true antidote.
A tribal group gambles religiously.
Writing quality
Flanagan is king of character building—we know all the main character’s thoughts and motivations.
While he has a wide world, many of the cultures he incorporates are carbon-copies of real-world cultures.
The writing is not concise. He often pauses the story for exposition. Sometimes this works, sometimes it just stops the interesting story. And he explains EVERYTHING. You don’t have to think too hard in these books—our author will spell it out to you.
Final thoughts
Flanagan’s lovable characters, detailed weaponry, and adventures are the heart of his book series. After getting use to his writing style, I actually enjoyed the series more the second time through. This book holds up many virtues and gives us selfless characters to admire and cheer for.
