This is a spinoff from the Ranger’s Apprentice series, through which I’m currently making my
delighted way. I admit I had only read the first book in that series, The
Ruins Of Gorlan, when I read this, and saw
some resemblance to that book, although it’s set in another country, Skandia,
the Norse analogue, rather than Araluen, which is clearly Britain.
Hal Mikkelson is the son of a Skandian warrior and his
Araluen wife, who was brought to Skandia as a slave, then bought and freed.
Hal’s widowed mother is now running a successful food shop.
Boys of Hal’s age are required to undertake training in the
skills they will need as warriors – fighting, ship-handling and so on. It involves being divided into teams
called brotherbands, which live, train and work together in a sort of boot camp
and compete for the prize at the end. The only problem is, brotherband teams
are the same in Skandia as they are in the average school in our world: there
are always the ones nobody wants on their side, who are left over when the
choices have been made. Hal is part of a group nobody else wants, for various
reasons. There’s a boy who has a tendency to lose his temper, twins who are
always fighting each other, a thief and other unpopular boys. But Hal has
something the big lumbering types don’t have: a brain. He’s an inventor who has
built a boat much more efficient than the traditional Skandian wolfship, among
other things. His Heron team may have more of a chance than they think.
Like Ruins of Gorlan,
this book has a hero who isn’t a tall, muscular warrior type, but has a
friend who is. Like Will, he has other skills he can use. And like the first Ranger’s
Apprentice novel, it's about the training and not a lot happens till
near the end, but stick with it. It’s an introductory volume that concentrates
on building up the characters and the background. Somehow, it manages to end on
a cliffhanger and I fully expect a much more action-packed sequel.
You just have to love the Skandians, despite their culture
of “liberating” stuff from outside and then getting upset when someone steals
from them. Their idea of battle tactics is, “Charge!” By the
time of this novel, there’s an Araluen archer team in the town of Hallasheim, started at
the end of Oakleaf Bearers when Will, Halt, Horace and Evanlyn helped push back Temujai (Mongol) invaders.
Things I really like about this book and the original
series: the character development, the humour, the believable societies, the
way it feels like history set in another world rather than standard fantasy. I
love the world-building. I love the fact that even Mr Flanagan's heroes make mistakes, sometimes with hilarious results, such as the mayhem that results from Hal's attempt to supply his mother with running water in the kitchen.
I do advise you to read the original series to get more of a
feel for this universe, not to mention the great fun of the series. It’s well worth the effort.
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