| Ranger's Apprentice: The Sorcerer of the North (Ranger's Apprentice) | 
 enlarge | Author: John Flanagan
Publisher: Philomel
Category: Book
List Price: $17.99
Buy New: $11.01
You Save: $6.98 (39%)
New (40) Used (10) from $9.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 230
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0399250328
EAN: 9780399250323
ASIN: 0399250328
Publication Date: November 4, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Time has passed since the apprentice and his master, Will and Halt, led the Araluens to victory against invaders, and Will is now a full-fledged Ranger with his own fief to look after. The fief seems sleepy boring, evenuntil the king is poisoned. Joined by his friend Alyss, Will is thrown headfirst into an extraordinary adventure propelled by fears of sorcery, and must determine who is trustworthy to the king and who is trying to take his throne. Will and Alyss must battle growing hysteria, traitors, and most of all, time. The king is fading, but when Alyss is taken hostage, Will is forced to make a desperate choice between loyalty to his mission and loyalty to his friend. Adventure abounds in this absorbing installment of the New York Times bestselling series.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 finaly rangers apprentice 5 November 30, 2008
finaly the 5 book of rangers apprentice is out the past four books have been great and this book is no exeption. at the beginning of this book will has just been assigned to his own fief. his life there is realatively uneventfull utill he is assigned to help out with a fief in the north. in which the baron of the fief has hit with a mysterious illness. will travels there as a bard learning what he can about what is going on there. a great amount of things happen there but that can be read in this book though the end has a huge cliff hanger it didnt spoil the book at all.
please enjoy book 5 of the rangers apprentice sieries.=)
Ranger's Apprentice Book 5 November 29, 2008
This book was preordered and came on the exact day it was supposed to. The person it was for was so ecstatic!!! He read it in two weeks and never used to read befor this book!! This is and excellent series!!! I recommend it for anyone who wants their teenager to read!!!
 A must read saga continues November 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Ranger's Apprentice: The Sorcerer of the North (Ranger's Apprentice)
I loved this book just as much as the rest of the series. The ingenuity of Will in solving problems, and the growing relationships he has as he matures as a ranger makes for non stop action and adventure. These characters, Horace and Alyssa and the older rangers continue to delight and engage. This book left us hanging, can't wait for the next one! This series is appropriate for children over around 8-10yo and can be read by the whole family.
 Don't read this until you've got book 6 as well November 10, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
I've always enjoyed the "Ranger's Apprentice" series. While there isn't really anything new or inspired about them, they've proven popular with my students and quick, enjoyable reads.
The series centers around Will, a young Ranger, who is your typical hero in these sorts of stories: expert in woodsmanship, personal concealment, tracking, archery, being mistaken for a sorceror, that sort of thing. Naturally, he's an orphan, and naturally, "great things are expected of him in the years to come" which doesn't surpise us, given that he is "highly thought of, though of course he didn't know it."
I say this not to be disparaging, but with amusement. Will is exactly who we expect him to be. Simple and good.
But this latest installment into the series fails to impress me, and that for one simple reason: it isn't an installment into the series. The book doesn't end. It merely runs out of pages. The term "cliffhanger" seems inadequate to describe the final pages of this book.
I understand that this is a series, and that the overall story will be told over the corse of several books. Books in a series often end in cliffhangers. Flanagan has done this before - at then end of the series' second and third installments - but in this case it is far more jarring. Those books had a clear climax, the major conflict established in the early pages of the book were resolved. And while they certainly ended with a clear cliffhanger, the overall story had advanced. Not so, with "Sorceror of the North."
Again, I understand that this is a series, but in any series, each book should be able to stand on its own, even if greatly diminished. Each entry needs its own plot and conflict, even if subordinate to the overall story.
"Sorceror of the North" book lacks that internal plot. The story begins with a completely irrelevant visit to Will's fief. The area he is responcible for watching. But he has only enough time to unpack his bags and flirt once or twice with his maid's daughter before being whisked away to the north. His fief, his responcibilities, the girl -- never mentioned again. And there isn't a single thing that happens during this visit that is necessary to the story. You could start reading the book a third of the way in and not become the least bit confused.
Eventually, will is told to do that which probably should have just been his first assignment: he is told to act the part of a travelling minstrel, while seeking to determine the cause of a mysterious sickness that is afflicting the lord of a small but important fief in the north.
Once there, he finds things are not well as a power struggle is in place between Orman - the bookish and unliked son of the stricken lord - and Keren - the popular illegitimate cousin-soldier. Will must decide which of the two he must trust. Meanwhile, there's a pesky sorceror out in the haunted woods (favored lair of evildoers in these sorts of stories) that Will must find and deal with.
These are the conflicts that are introduced. All of them are compelling, interesting, and do well to draw you into the story.
And then the book simply stops.
Not a single conflict is resolved. Will no sooner discovers who the real enemy is and vows to defeat him "even if I have to tear down the castle stone by stone" than we turn the page only to find the rear flap of the dust jacket telling us how Flanagan grew up in Sydney and so on and so forth...
The book is well written, as is the series on the whole: if not truly inspired. I recommend the series as a light read for a rainy weekend. But as a stand alone, it fails to satisfy. There isn't anything here.
Hold off on buying this one until book six rolls around. You'll want to read the two of them together. Until then, there just isn't any point.
Half a Book! November 7, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I suggest others wait to buy the paperback,its cheaper.
The story is great,that only half of it is there,stinks!
Wait the six months,buy both books so you will get the whole story!
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