It doesn’t give much away to say that Will gets a crack at becoming an apprentice to the mysterious and grim-faced Ranger Halt, but it’s awfully fun to read about how this comes about.Įqually interesting are the details of Will’s training, which includes stealth, practicing with a bow and arrow and with throwing knives, and horseback riding. His worst fears seem to be realized when no Craftmaster will take him, but, as the series’ title suggests, there’s one more option on the table. His only real desire is to be a warrior, as he imagines his mysterious father was, but his small and wiry frame make that increasingly unlikely.

Not to be selected is to be doomed to work on the farms, which the book portrays as meaningless drudgery, but Will has no obvious prospects for apprenticeship. In the course of the story, Will not only learns who he is, but does so by practicing the virtues of perseverance, obedience, humility, gratitude, and courage.Īs the story begins, Will anxiously awaits Choosing Day, the day when the Craftmasters select their apprentices from among the castle wards.

In Araluen, youth is a time of apprenticeship for adulthood, and that means taking on challenging and meaningful duties.

The Ruins of Gorlan, Book I of John Flanagan’s popular Ranger’s Apprentice series, follows Will, an orphaned ward of the Castle Redmont, as he and several of his friends cross over from childhood to youth. In the years following the defeat and exile of the evil Morgarath, a young man discovers who he is, and the important role he will play in the world.

The ruins of gorlan by john flanagan