Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Title: The Ruins of Gorlon (The Ranger’s Apprentice,  Book 1)

Author: John Flanagan

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  Pushing, name calling, humiliation – like having to stand holding a heavy rock over his head, and enduring beatings with heavy sticks.  A boy is held with a knife to his throat, fighting with a wooden sword and canes, and a boy is paddled and kicked.  A monster receives an arrow in the eye, screams in rage and fury, is pierced with arrows and pikes.  There is a battle using war axe, broadsword, arrow, and pikes, without a lot of gory descriptions.  There are 2 or 3 descriptions such as “blood streaming from a half-dozen deep slashes in his back.”  A monster emits piercing screams of agony as it burns.

Sexual Content:  Will is kissed on the mouth once by a girl and he thinks about the memory later.

Adult themes:  Abusive hazing

Summary
Fourteen-year-old Will has one great dream:  to become a knight in the Kingdom of Araluen.  If only he would grow!!  As the smallest of all the orphans being kept by the Baron, his chances of being chosen for Battleschool are slim.  When he is finally assigned an apprenticeship, it is his abilities to move across a field unseen, climb steep tower walls like a spider, and his great inquisitiveness that land him an assignment with the Ranger instead.  The next days are filled with learning about Rangers—they are the intelligence arm of the king’s forces.  The next months are filled with practicing the skills Rangers use—knife throwing, stealth moving, tracking the enemy, listening in without being seen, and learning to work with his unstoppable pony Tug.  In the meantime, Will’s friend Horace is having a harder time in his assignment at Battleschool.  He is humiliated, harassed and beaten by three upper classmen, and he thinks the authorities intentionally look the other way.  A deep resentment starts burning inside of Horace, with a bitterness that threatens long-term trouble.  He doesn’t realize that his instructors look at him as “a natural”, with the talent to be one of the great swordsmen of all time.  Horace alienates his friends, including Will, and then they face life-threatening danger together.  Bigger trouble lies ahead as rumors of war whisper through the intelligence community, and Will joins his master in facing the dangerous beasts called Kalkara that are slaying the military leaders of Araluen.

Will begins as an orphan, a common place to start in this kind of adventure, and ends up in battle, a common place to go.  However, a story does not have to be original to be good!  I like the way the relationship between Will and Horace develops, because friends do butt heads and have hard feelings, and sometimes these things really cement a true friendship.  Although a medieval fantasy, these young men face struggles real kids might face.  I thought many parts of the story were realistic, not overly contrived. Good adult characters add a lot to the story.  Most of the adults in this story act logically and honorably, and show patience and understanding in training the young people.   The Ranger’s description of the Battlemaster is choice: “He’s got a little more up top than the average bush and whacker.”  This adventure would appeal to boys in the 9 to 12 age range.