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, even—until 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17272 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Booklist
Will is just settling into his first post as a brand-new, just-commissioned Ranger when he is dispatched to deal with problems on the kingdom’s northern border. Though his keen senses and uncanny expertise with his knives and his bow are vital, Will’s success often hinges on his ability to assess the skills and intentions of those around him. The scenes involving Will, his mentor, Halt, and Halt’s mentor, Crowley, work beautifully to fill in background information, dramatize Will’s growing maturity, and entertain readers with clever dialogue. The Sorcerer of the North is a must-have volume for fans of the popular Ranger’s Apprentice series. Grades 5-8. --Carolyn Phelan

About the Author
John Flanagan lives in Australia.

Customer Reviews

Don't read this until you've got book 6 as well
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.

Why do we have to wait for so long between books?
It's been 4 years since Will and Halt helped the Skandians. Four years of growing up into a young man. Will is now a full Ranger, no longer an apprentice. He's being assigned his first mission alone, which takes him to a faraway fief in the kingdom. Along the way he finds a new companion, a sheep dog badly injured on the side of the road. Upon arriving at the castle he discovers the training and precautions are quite lax and things need a Ranger's touch. And he's to meet the Skandians once again. His mission is then moved to play the part of a jongleur. He must trek to the kingdom's boundaries, there are rumors of an age old sorcerer causing havoc and slowing killing a king with sickness. Will meets an old childhood friend, who was an orphan like himself, working as a courier now. Alyss has grownup tall and beautiful. Will there be romance between the old friends, or will the shadow of the Princess hold the Ranger back? Things take a turn for the worse, the king's son has now become ill. Will must seek out the sorcerer for help to heal the prince. Deceit becomes apparent with the poisoning of the prince. In his trek to find the sorcerer Will discovers not everything is as he's heard. Back at home Halt is growing concerned for the young Ranger and Courier and dispatches the best knight in the kingdom. Horace is on his way to help his friends.

This book like the others is a page turner. However, as other reviewers have mentioned it's a bit of half a book. To me, it's like your favorite TV show. They end it on a cliff hanger and you are forced to wait for the next episode. I don't feel this is a bad thing, it keeps the reader eager for the next book. I just wish they came out closer to each other. This is recommend to adults and teens alike, these are excellent books and a superb series.

Just Another in a Series of Fabulous Fiction
While not quite as suspenseful as the first few books, Sorcerer of the North still kept my children begging for another chapter each time I'd try to close the book. The main characters are growing up and it is interesting to see how their relationships grow and/or change over time. Flanagan still manages to mesmerize us with his slightly preternatural world that symbolizes ours but does not exactly reflect it. Though he left the horrifying wargals and Kalkara far behind in book 2, he causes us to fear the dark once again as he describes in terrifying detail Will's encounter with the Night Warrior in Grimsdell Wood. The ending is once again a classic cliff hanger that will make Book 6 a must-read for all Ranger's Apprentice fans!