Ranger's Apprentice Ruins of Gorlan

This story starts with a 15 year old boy named Will. He lives near Redmont Castle with his four ward mates. When you turn 15 you are selected by a Craftmaster to be their apprentice. There were many subjects you could be chosen to learn. Some of them were battle school, bakery, horse riding, Diplomatic Service, scribe, and a ranger. If you weren’t chosen by a Craftmaster, you were forced to work on the farms for the rest of your life. All of the wards knew they had the potential to become one of these things one day. All except Will.

When the Choosing Day finally came around, all of the wards went to the castle to be selected by a Craftmaster to be their apprentice. The first four wards got selected by a Craftmaster. Will was the last one to go. The Baron (the king of the castle) asked Will where he wanted to go. Will replied, “Battle School, sir.” Sir Rodney, the Craftmaster of battle school, did not want Will as an apprentice because he was too small. Will’s second choice was Horseschool. He was also not wanted there either. When the Baron asked if any of the Craftmasters could use Will as an apprentice, they all shook their heads. All except the man in a dark cloak in the corner of the room. He was Halt, the Ranger of Redmont.

Will learned many things his first couple of days as a Ranger. He learned that Rangers are pretty much spies. They have to watch over Morgarath and his evil army and look out for anything suspicious. He learned about the weapons that Rangers use. He trained very hard with these weapons every day. He even got his own Ranger horse, Tug. Life as a Ranger was very different from what Will thought.

After many days of training Will and Halt go to the Ranger’s Gathering. All the Rangers from across the land come with their apprentices to show the judges that their apprentice was good enough to continue training as a Ranger. Many apprentices are cut each year because they don’t have the true skill to become a Ranger. When Will and Halt got to the Gathering however, things were different. There had been evidence that Morgarath’s army had been spotted just outside the Mountains of Night and Rain. Everyone thought that he and his army were killed many years ago in a huge war. Instead, Morgarath had come back to power.

Now it was up to young Will and the Rangers to stop Morgarath.

This is a very fast-paced, thrilling, suspenseful book that kept me reading and reading. The series has ten books and this is the first one. Since this is the first book of such a long series, it kind of sets up the whole story because there is a ton to be told. This book has many crazy events that keep you turning the pages. I would recommend this book to anyone!