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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
This book would be perfect for boys; jam-packed of action, adventure, sailing, and humor, the lack of romance is a refreshing relief. Hal, a half-Araluen half-Skandian, has never really fit into Hallasholm. Yet he forms an unbreakable bond with seven other outcasts, realizing that the Skandian value of physical strength may not be the most important trait after all. His natural ingenuity and brilliance are reminiscent of Will's, but there's a little something extra in Hal. A few characters like Stefan and Jesper are absolutely hilarious; all the numerous others are wonderfully brought to life. As for the cliffhanger at the end... ouch.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
john flanagan is shit at disability representation unfortunately desoite this i find his books very appealing
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-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:
No
A must for folks who also love Flanagan's Rangers Apprentice series. The Brotherband series follows the (mis)adventures of a band of Skandian boys as they make their way into adulthood. Really fun read.
4,5 ⭐/5
Świetna historia i genialna końcówka!! Nie spodziewałam się, że historia może pójść w taką stronę ❤️❤️
Świetna historia i genialna końcówka!! Nie spodziewałam się, że historia może pójść w taką stronę ❤️❤️
I will admit I was nervous about reading Brotherband because I was afraid it would not met up with Ranger's Apprentice. I am an avid fan of John Flanagan's writing and his books are an instant recomendation from me. Finally I picked up the first book in the series and read it. And now I am pining for the next one. As I should have expected, Flanagan did not disappoint. His writing and storytelling was up to par right with Ranger's Apprentice, and his characters were fantastic. I fell in love with them all, and as my mother will attest, I was on the verge of crying when I finished the book.
Oh Wow to this series... I couldn't put it down even being sick. So Hal is a boy entering the brotherband which is a coming of age trial/warrior thing that the boys do in Skandia. His father was a great Skandian hero who died in battle and his mother was an Araluen slave (the araleun's were the race that was featured in the ranger series.. which Will was mentioned in this book a little bit) So Hal is a thinker and they don't see much of that in their town. But since Hal is a mutt the others think of him as an outcast... They form a brotherband of the outcasts. (read the book guys its great) the brotherband is written by one of my favs authors of all time. So I'll be finishing the Ranger Series and trying to get my hands on the next book to this series!
3.4 stars
It was okay. The thing is, it feels like Ranger's Apprentice fanfiction. Some authors can use the same formula for every book they write and it works. But this time, I just kept thinking how similar everyone is to the RA characters. I kept thinking about when this took place in relation to RA (I found out yesterday. This is two years prior to book #10). I’ll be comparing to this to RA. Probably not the best idea since I should be judging this for what it is. But I can’t really do that. There are so many similarities! So mild spoiler alert for Ranger’s Apprentice too.
Our main character whose father died a hero is especially good at something but not respected. His best friend is a bit intimidating but caring under his tough shell. The main character has a mentor who started out as a loner who everyone was weirded out by. He moves around unnoticed sometimes, making hardly any noise. The mentor lives with and either takes care of or looks after the main character. He seemed like a curmudgeon but really just needs the main character to bring some light into his life. Is this the plot of Ranger's Apprentice or Ranger's Apprentice with a new coat of paint...and ships…and pirates (aka Brotherband)? I don’t think Flanagan really knows how to write different character types for the main cast.
Even though they’re similar, I don't feel very connected to the characters or the story. Everything involving ships wasn't that interesting to me, but Hal's new sail was kinda cool. I remember reading Emperor of Nihon-Ja and thinking "How come we've never heard of this half Skandian/half Araluen? This sail design is intriguing. I'd like to learn more please." And here I am! Reviewing a book about that very half Skandian/half Araluen!
Hal
I like how his mother is from Araluen but his father was a Skandian war hero. That adds something to the story, in my opinion. I understand why he wants to be and do all the things he is/does in this book. He wants to prove himself and doesn’t like being an outcast. Other than that, this kid is basically Will. He does seem to be smarter than Will in Ruins of Gorlan, though. Hal knows what to do and how to handle things very well. But since that’s the case I can’t see him progressing as a person. He’s already pretty well-rounded. He’ll get better skill-wise, but I can’t see much improvement from him. Is that a bad thing? No. It’s not. At least he won’t annoy me with his decisions in the future!
Stig
And this guy is basically Horace! He’s a tough but secretly sweet (y’know, that cliché character) and he became friends with the main character after being saved by him, whether it involved mother nature or bullies. (BTW when they were on that scavenger hunt thing at the end, I thought the place where liars fish was where Stig and Hal met…I guess not. But that would’ve been cool.) The only thing I can think of that’s different than Horace is Stig’s temper. He doesn’t have that much else to him than that. His mom cleans clothes for a living, so I guess that’s different. But Horace didn’t even have a mother, so...
Wulf and Ulf
I smiled the first time they bickered. It got old. I hope they don’t fight that much in future books. I liked them better when they were sticking up for each other. When they yell at each other, both saying the other has something they want when they could just switch, it’s kinda stupid. And did the others really think they wouldn’t put the wope on the other’s wist? It’s the twins switching places trope again! They had this in Ranger’s, but it was cooler when they did it.
Ingvar
He’s kind of like Horace in the sense that he’s a big guy, but other than that he seems like a new character. I liked him because he appeared to be one of the nicer members of the brotherband. It was cool how he came up with their name. I also sympathize for him because he can’t see well. I understand how that can be an issue considering what he wants to do, but do you have to mention his poor eyesight so often? We get it!
Edvin
I don’t think he did a lot. He was introduced to be very forgettable but smart (I think), and yeah, that’s true. I don’t remember him having a big role other than him mentioning stuff about the challenges a couple times. I don’t know him very well and I hope he’s used more in the future.
Jesper
I like Jesper alright. He seems very skilled and the thief thing did come in handy. I have nothing else to say, really. That’s it.
Stefan
I was looking forward to him when he was introduced! He sounded funny and helpful. He did have a shining moment during one of the challenges when he was imitating people. That was my favorite chapter in the book. But other than that he didn’t do a lot. I wouldn’t want his talent to get overused, that would make it boring. But by the end of the book, I was still forgetting his name along with three other members of the brotherband.
SIDE CHARACTERS
I imagine Tursgud is the evil Horace that Flanagan never got to write. When he was telling his son the Ranger’s Apprentice stories, he made Horace the antagonist but decided to change that for the books. Tursgud is basically bully Horace in book 1. (Except Horace never had a “stay away from my girl” moment with Will.)
I like Roland. More of him! Please, anything but whiny Tursgud with his “My daddy’s the Maktig!” I hope Roland’s around longer. He kinda disappeared at the end after wrecking his ship. What happened there? It was too damaged so they were disqualified? IDK
Thorn is Halt if Halt lost a limb and was a drunk at some point. The part of him that’s a recovering alcoholic is new, but he has the same kind of relationships and characteristics. He was saved by the main character’s father in battle and promised to take care of the said main character. He moves quickly and quietly without people noticing. He teaches the main character (But Halt would never advise punching. It’s an excuse to break your fingers). He’s secretly the best of the best but doesn’t talk about it. Yeah. Halt.
Couldn’t he have dealt with losing his arm, though? It’s sweet that Hal made him a new arm, but if he’s such a tough guy I wanna see him grow and learn from this. He was the Maktig three years in a row! Whenever a character loses a limb or something important, a lot of the time it’s fixed and they don’t have to deal with it.
Hal’s mom seems nice. I feel bad for her since her son has run off with his friends to fix his mistakes. Seriously, all these boys just leave their families! I get they’d be shunned for the rest of their lives and they need the Andomal, but that’s sad.
Sigurd confuses me. Sometimes he’s tough, specifically mean to the Herons, and (admittedly) fair but sometimes he helps them. Why? I don’t get you, man. Mood swings, over here.
All in all, the characters were fine. They all had kinda the same voice so it was hard to distinguish between them sometimes. They were good but nothing spectacular I’m going to remember for the rest of my life. I did enjoy the teamwork aspect to this book, though it didn't happen as often as I'd like. But I do prefer one on one bonding to a group. With a group, it’s harder to get to know everyone and bond. With one on one, like in Ranger’s, you can see how close they are to each other.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
STORY
The Andomal came out of nowhere. And when it and the pirates, who also came out of nowhere, were mentioned, I knew exactly what was going to happen. The whole book was kind of predictable aside from some of the challenges. That being said, the chapter where the pirates showed up was awesome! “Finally!” I thought. “Some real action!” But then nothing happens the whole book. The pirates are shooed away and we just know they took the Andomal. Anticlimactic, but okay.
Many have already said this, but the “love interests” were really shoehorned into this book. I would’ve been fine with an all male cast aside from a few moms. But no, these girls (who are bland versions of Evanlyn and Alyss) show up for two pages, one of them makes out with Hal at the end because when you win something girls have to kiss you, and that’s it. I was just sort of told they like each other and they’re close. I didn’t feel any of that. I didn’t really care like I cared about Alyss or Cassandra.
Flanagan isn’t that good at writing romance. I feel like these girls in Outcasts are just there because. I don’t see them moving the story along or anything. But who knows. I might write more about this on Dork Talk with Izzie. Or not. Truth is, I’m not all that excited about this one. After I finished it, it took me a while to be like, “Yeah, I guess I’ll write a review.” And I have way too many thoughts about this, so I’ll stop here.
This book was kind of slow. It was an introduction. You can tell this was the first book. It had “action”. If you’re a RA fan, you might like this.
It was okay. The thing is, it feels like Ranger's Apprentice fanfiction. Some authors can use the same formula for every book they write and it works. But this time, I just kept thinking how similar everyone is to the RA characters. I kept thinking about when this took place in relation to RA (I found out yesterday. This is two years prior to book #10). I’ll be comparing to this to RA. Probably not the best idea since I should be judging this for what it is. But I can’t really do that. There are so many similarities! So mild spoiler alert for Ranger’s Apprentice too.
Spoiler
Our main character whose father died a hero is especially good at something but not respected. His best friend is a bit intimidating but caring under his tough shell. The main character has a mentor who started out as a loner who everyone was weirded out by. He moves around unnoticed sometimes, making hardly any noise. The mentor lives with and either takes care of or looks after the main character. He seemed like a curmudgeon but really just needs the main character to bring some light into his life. Is this the plot of Ranger's Apprentice or Ranger's Apprentice with a new coat of paint...and ships…and pirates (aka Brotherband)? I don’t think Flanagan really knows how to write different character types for the main cast.
Even though they’re similar, I don't feel very connected to the characters or the story. Everything involving ships wasn't that interesting to me, but Hal's new sail was kinda cool. I remember reading Emperor of Nihon-Ja and thinking "How come we've never heard of this half Skandian/half Araluen? This sail design is intriguing. I'd like to learn more please." And here I am! Reviewing a book about that very half Skandian/half Araluen!
Hal
I like how his mother is from Araluen but his father was a Skandian war hero. That adds something to the story, in my opinion. I understand why he wants to be and do all the things he is/does in this book. He wants to prove himself and doesn’t like being an outcast. Other than that, this kid is basically Will. He does seem to be smarter than Will in Ruins of Gorlan, though. Hal knows what to do and how to handle things very well. But since that’s the case I can’t see him progressing as a person. He’s already pretty well-rounded. He’ll get better skill-wise, but I can’t see much improvement from him. Is that a bad thing? No. It’s not. At least he won’t annoy me with his decisions in the future!
Stig
And this guy is basically Horace! He’s a tough but secretly sweet (y’know, that cliché character) and he became friends with the main character after being saved by him, whether it involved mother nature or bullies. (BTW when they were on that scavenger hunt thing at the end, I thought the place where liars fish was where Stig and Hal met…I guess not. But that would’ve been cool.) The only thing I can think of that’s different than Horace is Stig’s temper. He doesn’t have that much else to him than that. His mom cleans clothes for a living, so I guess that’s different. But Horace didn’t even have a mother, so...
Wulf and Ulf
I smiled the first time they bickered. It got old. I hope they don’t fight that much in future books. I liked them better when they were sticking up for each other. When they yell at each other, both saying the other has something they want when they could just switch, it’s kinda stupid. And did the others really think they wouldn’t put the wope on the other’s wist? It’s the twins switching places trope again! They had this in Ranger’s, but it was cooler when they did it.
Ingvar
He’s kind of like Horace in the sense that he’s a big guy, but other than that he seems like a new character. I liked him because he appeared to be one of the nicer members of the brotherband. It was cool how he came up with their name. I also sympathize for him because he can’t see well. I understand how that can be an issue considering what he wants to do, but do you have to mention his poor eyesight so often? We get it!
Edvin
I don’t think he did a lot. He was introduced to be very forgettable but smart (I think), and yeah, that’s true. I don’t remember him having a big role other than him mentioning stuff about the challenges a couple times. I don’t know him very well and I hope he’s used more in the future.
Jesper
I like Jesper alright. He seems very skilled and the thief thing did come in handy. I have nothing else to say, really. That’s it.
Stefan
I was looking forward to him when he was introduced! He sounded funny and helpful. He did have a shining moment during one of the challenges when he was imitating people. That was my favorite chapter in the book. But other than that he didn’t do a lot. I wouldn’t want his talent to get overused, that would make it boring. But by the end of the book, I was still forgetting his name along with three other members of the brotherband.
SIDE CHARACTERS
I imagine Tursgud is the evil Horace that Flanagan never got to write. When he was telling his son the Ranger’s Apprentice stories, he made Horace the antagonist but decided to change that for the books. Tursgud is basically bully Horace in book 1. (Except Horace never had a “stay away from my girl” moment with Will.)
I like Roland. More of him! Please, anything but whiny Tursgud with his “My daddy’s the Maktig!” I hope Roland’s around longer. He kinda disappeared at the end after wrecking his ship. What happened there? It was too damaged so they were disqualified? IDK
Thorn is Halt if Halt lost a limb and was a drunk at some point. The part of him that’s a recovering alcoholic is new, but he has the same kind of relationships and characteristics. He was saved by the main character’s father in battle and promised to take care of the said main character. He moves quickly and quietly without people noticing. He teaches the main character (But Halt would never advise punching. It’s an excuse to break your fingers). He’s secretly the best of the best but doesn’t talk about it. Yeah. Halt.
Couldn’t he have dealt with losing his arm, though? It’s sweet that Hal made him a new arm, but if he’s such a tough guy I wanna see him grow and learn from this. He was the Maktig three years in a row! Whenever a character loses a limb or something important, a lot of the time it’s fixed and they don’t have to deal with it.
Hal’s mom seems nice. I feel bad for her since her son has run off with his friends to fix his mistakes. Seriously, all these boys just leave their families! I get they’d be shunned for the rest of their lives and they need the Andomal, but that’s sad.
Sigurd confuses me. Sometimes he’s tough, specifically mean to the Herons, and (admittedly) fair but sometimes he helps them. Why? I don’t get you, man. Mood swings, over here.
All in all, the characters were fine. They all had kinda the same voice so it was hard to distinguish between them sometimes. They were good but nothing spectacular I’m going to remember for the rest of my life. I did enjoy the teamwork aspect to this book, though it didn't happen as often as I'd like. But I do prefer one on one bonding to a group. With a group, it’s harder to get to know everyone and bond. With one on one, like in Ranger’s, you can see how close they are to each other.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
STORY
The Andomal came out of nowhere. And when it and the pirates, who also came out of nowhere, were mentioned, I knew exactly what was going to happen. The whole book was kind of predictable aside from some of the challenges. That being said, the chapter where the pirates showed up was awesome! “Finally!” I thought. “Some real action!” But then nothing happens the whole book. The pirates are shooed away and we just know they took the Andomal. Anticlimactic, but okay.
Many have already said this, but the “love interests” were really shoehorned into this book. I would’ve been fine with an all male cast aside from a few moms. But no, these girls (who are bland versions of Evanlyn and Alyss) show up for two pages, one of them makes out with Hal at the end because when you win something girls have to kiss you, and that’s it. I was just sort of told they like each other and they’re close. I didn’t feel any of that. I didn’t really care like I cared about Alyss or Cassandra.
Flanagan isn’t that good at writing romance. I feel like these girls in Outcasts are just there because. I don’t see them moving the story along or anything. But who knows. I might write more about this on Dork Talk with Izzie. Or not. Truth is, I’m not all that excited about this one. After I finished it, it took me a while to be like, “Yeah, I guess I’ll write a review.” And I have way too many thoughts about this, so I’ll stop here.
This book was kind of slow. It was an introduction. You can tell this was the first book. It had “action”. If you’re a RA fan, you might like this.