The Sorcerer of the North: Book Five (Ranger's Apprentice) (original 2006; edition 2009)

Book review by Tom J., posted by CA Library:

"The Rangers Apprentice: The Sorcerer to the North by John Flanagan is a fantasy story that is put together in a very different way than the others books in the Rangers Apprentice series. This book is the 5th book in the series, and the series/book tell about a boy/protagonist named Will and his live growing up as a ranger, except in this book it is seven years after the previous book and Will has been given a special assignment.

The story kicks off with Will heading to his new fief he was assigned too after becoming a full-fledged ranger. After Will arrives to his new fief, he sees that this fief is very boring and lazy. Soon after though Will is told to meet his former master and the head of the rangers for his secret mission.

After given this mission, Will is sent to a frozen land engraved with fear and hysteria. The mission was simple: go to this place, get as much info as you can, and do as much as you can do without exposing who you are. Although soon after Will is thrown into a crazy turn of events that leave him questioning everything, and also leave him to make a decision between his friends or the mission.

I liked this book, but I do wish it could’ve been better. The books story all-in-all is pretty good, but it lacks in comparison to the other books in the series. Most of the surprises in the story leave a big question mark, but they all lead up in the end of this book. This book ends on a cliff hanger so you will have to read the next book to see the conclusion. In the end, I would rate this book a 3/5 stars." ( )

Currently Reading

Will is no longer an apprentice he is issued to a fief miles off land. When will gets a call to move north to a fief on the border with a hostile country. His cover is a jougular he trys to say hidden and uncover the socerer who is belived to make the leader of the fief ill. Will uncovers a plot to take over the fief and hand it over to the evil enemies up north. Will with the help of Allyss they find out that the socerer is a healer and that the fiefs leader is poisened by his son in a plot to conquer the fief. Keren the one behind it is hiring an army. When Will trys to save Allyss who has been captured by Keren he fails. Will saves the leader and hides with the sorcerrer and waits to save Allyss.

This book is alot more story with few action scenes. The book is left open for the next. The book has a good plot with a good idea. This was not my favorite book of the series but it wasn't the worst. I had alot of fun reading this book it was a good story. I gave this book three stars due to the lack of action. But the few action scenes were great. The book wasn't bad. ( )

The Short and Sweet of It
Will finally is set off on his own, but not to fight the straightforward, frontal assault enemies of the past. This time he is up against a legend, an elusive sorcerer rumored to be poisoning the king of a northern fief, a land integral to the protection of the whole kingdom.

A Bit of a Ramble
As with all of the Ranger's Apprentice books, I loved the characters, the battle tactics, the weaving of plot lines, and the setting. Seeing Will strike out on his own was almost poignant, like watching a nephew become an adult. I feel like I know Will, like I am somehow a part of his life, responsible for him or his therapist or something. I also enjoyed the pretext under which Will travels: that of a jongleur, a traveling musician, singing for his supper. This role is so different from Will the Ranger; as a jongleur, he is affable, outgoing, a bit goofy. It's nice to see this side of Will, pushed back because of his secretive, serious duties.

I do have one problem with this installment however. The ending. Or rather, the lack thereof. While I appreciate the fact that a series is a continuance of the same story, I like my books to have a relatively full an complete plot. Books, even in a series, which just end with no resolution whatsoever, or in some cases even a climax, drive me bonkers. Everything is up in the air at the end of this one, an unexpected development in this so-far-self-contained series.

This unsatisfactory ending is why this installment has received an Accept rating instead of a Borrow. While the story itself is just as entertaining as the rest, that one little travesty (in my opinion) really affected my overall judgment. I realize it's a quite specific pet peeve though, and not everyone feels the same as I do.

In a strange irony, I've been flying through this series prior to this book. And now, when I really have to read the next installment to see what happens, I'm putting it off. I'm weird, what can I say? ( )

Flanagan skips ahead a few years with this fifth book in the Ranger's Apprentice series (although he later backed up and filled in part of the gap with the seventh book). The humor's starting to become much more apparent at this point, and he's rounding out the characters nicely. ( )