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The Ruins of Gorlan

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The Ruins of Gorlan

Book One

by John Flanagan

John Flanagan

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The international bestselling series with over 5 million copies sold in the U.S. alone!
They have always scared him in the past—the Rangers, with their dark cloaksand shadowy ways. The villagers believe the Rangers practice magic that makes them invisible to ordinary people. And now 15-year-old Will, always small for his age, has been chosen as a Ranger's apprentice. What he doesn't yet realize is that the Rangers are the protectors of the kingdom. Highly trained in the skills of battle and surveillance, they fight the battles before the battles reach the people. And as Will is about to learn, there is a large battle brewing. The exiled Morgarath, Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, is gathering his forces for an attack on the kingdom. This time, he will not be denied. . . .
Here is the fantasy adventure that launched the Ranger's Apprentice series, an epic story of heroes and villains that has become an international phenomenon. Perfect for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone, Christopher Paolini’s Eragon series, and George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire series.

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Subjects-

Languages:-

English

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Available:

1
Library copies:

1

Levels-

ATOS:

7.0
Lexile:

920
Interest Level:

MG
Text Difficulty:

4 - 5

Excerpts-

From the book 5

IT WAS LONG AFTER MIDNIGHT. THE FLICKERING TORCHES around the castle yard, already replaced once, had begun to burn low again.Will had watched patiently for hours, waiting for this moment—when the light was uncertain and the guards were yawning, in the last hour of their shift.

The day had been one of the worst he could remember.While his yearmates celebrated, enjoying their feast and then spending their time in lighthearted horseplay through the castle and the village, Will had slipped away to the silence of the forest, a kilometer or so from the castle walls. There, in the dim green coolness beneath the trees, he had spent the afternoon reflecting bitterly on the events of the Choosing, nursing the deep pain of disappointment and wondering what the Ranger’s paper said.

As the long day wore on, and the shadows began to lengthen in the open fields beside the forest, he came to a decision. He had to know what was on the paper. And he had to know tonight.

Once night fell, he made his way back to the castle, avoiding villagers and castle folk alike, and secreted himself in the branches of the fig tree again. On the way, he slipped unnoticed into the kitchens and helped himself to bread, cheese and apples.He munched moodily on these, barely tasting them, as the evening passed and the castle began to settle down for the night.

He observed the movements of the guards, getting a feeling for their timing as they went on their regular rounds. In addition to the guard troop, there was a sergeant on duty at the doorway of the tower that led to Baron Arald’s quarters. But he was overweight and sleepy and there was little chance that he would pose a risk to Will. After all, he had no intention of using the door or the stairway. Over the years, his insatiable curiosity, and a penchant for going places where he wasn’t supposed to, had developed within him the skill of moving across seemingly open space without being seen. As the wind stirred the upper branches of the trees, they created moving patterns in the moonlight—patterns that Will now used to great effect.He instinctively matched his movement to the rhythm of the trees, blending easily into the pattern of the yard, becoming part of it and so being concealed by it. In a way, the lack of obvious cover made his task a little easier.The fat sergeant didn’t expect anyone to be moving across the open space of the yard. So, not expecting to see anyone, he failed to do so.

Breathless,Will flattened himself against the rough stone of the tower wall.The sergeant was barely five meters away and Will could hear his heavy breathing, but a small buttress in the wall hid him from the man’s sight. He studied the wall in front of him, craning back to look up.The Baron’s office window was a long way up, and farther around the tower.To reach it, he would have to climb up, then work his way across the face of the wall, to a spot beyond the point where the sergeant stood guard, then up again to the window. He licked his lips nervously.Unlike the smooth inner walls of the tower, the huge blocks of stone that comprised the tower’s outer wall had large gaps between them.Climbing would be no problem.He’d have plenty of foot- and handholds all the way up. In some places, the stone would have been worn smooth by the weather over the years, he knew, and he’d have to go carefully. But he’d climbed all the other three towers at some time in the past and he expected no real difficulty with this one.

But this time, if he were seen, he wouldn’t be able to pass it off as a prank.He would be climbing in the middle of the night to...

Reviews-

July 4, 2005
Bestial villains, noble knights and deposed despots prepare their forces for impending battle in the first book in the Ranger's Apprentice series by Australian author Flanagan. Fifteen-year-old Will, orphaned as a child, and his close friends anxiously await Choosing Day, when each will be chosen-or not-for apprenticeship in one of several schools. Those not chosen wind up as farm labor to help feed the castledwellers. "It was a fate Will feared more than anything." He entertains notions of entering Battleschool like his classmate-and sometime adversary-Horace. But because of Will's diminutive stature, and a knack for climbing, hiding and all things clandestine, he is instead chosen to be a Ranger, under the tutelage of Halt, who years earlier exiled the evil Morgarath to the land of the Mountains of Rain and Night. As Will learns archery and stealth techniques, he makes peace with Horace (who is being tormented by older classmates at Battleschool), and the two must then travel with a contingent of Rangers and warriors to fight invading, "almost invincible" Kalkara-bearlike assassins sent by Morgarath to kill Halt. On the whole, the story owes much to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Flanagan's Rangers more than recall Tolkien's, and the deposed Morgarath and his inhuman Wargals parallel Saruman and the Orcs a bit too closely. Still, for the uninitiated, this is an exciting tale of battle and honor. Ages 10-up.

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Penguin Young Readers Group
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