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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
So AWESOME! I loved it the whole time! It's so beautifully written, and I love the characters (aside from Tursgud of course) and all of their personalities were unique. This book made me laugh at times and also reconsider situations, it was so planned out that the events linked together smoothly. I recommend this to everyone who love to read!
adventurous
fast-paced
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An entertaining training montage, with vikings and pirates and complex sailing ships and a widespread cast of characters to appreciate.
The straight-out telling instead of showing emotions was a touch grating. Partially that's due to the third person omniscience. It's a good tactic for reluctant readers, but the number of times we're told what a character is thinking in a baldly flat way is slightly tedious.
Example paragraph:
"Truth be told, he was still angry with Hal. But he had spent the last two days regretting his outburst at the Common Green. He felt he had been too hard on the boy, but he was too stubborn to come out and apologize. After all, Hal was in the wrong, he thought. He'd had no call to talk about Thorn's past. . . . It had been some time since Thorn had faced a moral dilemma like this, and inevitably, he acted as he always had done in the past few years. He shut himself away from the problem."
Like, that's fine, but in a more mature book, I feel like the reader would have been trusted to reach that conclusion on their own, rather than have it spelled out. This sort of internal conversation monologue that strips all intrigue and self-discovery from the text is frequent. It holds your hand and leads you too often. My personal preference notes that whenever it does this, it also starts to feel singsongy-monotone in sentence structure, but that's pure personal note and has no bearing on the rating.
I appreciate the characters, though. Even if what they're thinking is spelled out, they themselves are all fascinating people to read about. To be fully clear, the minor characters primarily have One Character Trait And That's It (thief, strong, bickering twins, jerk-villain), but when combined they do make for a fun cast. The main characters, including the Oberjaal and Thorn, are more varied and entertaining. There's enormous amounts of growth for the two main boys, and nothing is ever easy to solve, and despite the omniscient narrator there are some twists and secrets and surprises here and there to keep the energy going. It's the characters that give this novel life, and the way the landscape and their phrases and actions are sculpted by their world. (There's like one girl in this whole book and it's his mom, though.)
It's also got some nicely bloodthirsty pirate violence scenes without going overboard (lol boo hiss sorry).
It ends sharply on a cliffhanger, same mood as the end of the movie version of Fellowship of the Ring, so you might want to have the next book on hand. I think the book could have been edited a bit to be tighter, but it's a riotously popular series so enough people think it's great without my fuss.
The straight-out telling instead of showing emotions was a touch grating. Partially that's due to the third person omniscience. It's a good tactic for reluctant readers, but the number of times we're told what a character is thinking in a baldly flat way is slightly tedious.
Example paragraph:
"Truth be told, he was still angry with Hal. But he had spent the last two days regretting his outburst at the Common Green. He felt he had been too hard on the boy, but he was too stubborn to come out and apologize. After all, Hal was in the wrong, he thought. He'd had no call to talk about Thorn's past. . . . It had been some time since Thorn had faced a moral dilemma like this, and inevitably, he acted as he always had done in the past few years. He shut himself away from the problem."
Like, that's fine, but in a more mature book, I feel like the reader would have been trusted to reach that conclusion on their own, rather than have it spelled out. This sort of internal conversation monologue that strips all intrigue and self-discovery from the text is frequent. It holds your hand and leads you too often. My personal preference notes that whenever it does this, it also starts to feel singsongy-monotone in sentence structure, but that's pure personal note and has no bearing on the rating.
I appreciate the characters, though. Even if what they're thinking is spelled out, they themselves are all fascinating people to read about. To be fully clear, the minor characters primarily have One Character Trait And That's It (thief, strong, bickering twins, jerk-villain), but when combined they do make for a fun cast. The main characters, including the Oberjaal and Thorn, are more varied and entertaining. There's enormous amounts of growth for the two main boys, and nothing is ever easy to solve, and despite the omniscient narrator there are some twists and secrets and surprises here and there to keep the energy going. It's the characters that give this novel life, and the way the landscape and their phrases and actions are sculpted by their world. (There's like one girl in this whole book and it's his mom, though.)
It's also got some nicely bloodthirsty pirate violence scenes without going overboard (lol boo hiss sorry).
It ends sharply on a cliffhanger, same mood as the end of the movie version of Fellowship of the Ring, so you might want to have the next book on hand. I think the book could have been edited a bit to be tighter, but it's a riotously popular series so enough people think it's great without my fuss.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Honestly this is a better "pilot" novel than the first Ranger's Apprentice novel (loathe as I am to say it). I forgot how much I enjoyed this series when I did get around to reading it. I don't think I ever reread any of the novels before this, though. If I had remembered the ending I wouldn't have tried to finish it before sleeping 😭 rookie mistake.
I love all of the characters. The simplicity and complexity really shines. I can only hope that the Royal Ranger is half as good. I'll always be partial to reading about ships after my project for Mr. Bosworth in 8th grade.
I love all of the characters. The simplicity and complexity really shines. I can only hope that the Royal Ranger is half as good. I'll always be partial to reading about ships after my project for Mr. Bosworth in 8th grade.
I fell in love with this author reading the ranger series!
I just realized that this isn’t really my thing!! It’s a little too focused on masculinity and I really don’t read most books about teenage boys because they aren’t for me. It’s also written for a younger audience, and while I’ll read some young adult, this felt more middle grade!!
After the rangers apprentice series, I was kinda worried the this book would fall short of my expectations. As I read I found I had no reason to worry this story was new and fun and I loved it!
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's been a long time since I read rangers apprentice, but I still liked Hal.
This was nice in that it was about friendship and facing up to bullies. Kind of reminded me of Ender's Game except it was much lighter (though still mildly violent), was set in Viking style land instead of space, and had a happier though not totally happy ending.
This was nice in that it was about friendship and facing up to bullies. Kind of reminded me of Ender's Game except it was much lighter (though still mildly violent), was set in Viking style land instead of space, and had a happier though not totally happy ending.