Recently I’ve discovered and started reading John
Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice Series. Initially I did not like the series as it seemed to me to
be sort of plagiarizing off of Raymond Feist’s Magician’s Apprentice Series. In
fact it seems fairly obvious that Flanagan used Feist’s books as a template for
his own, at least in their initial stages.
The Magician books focus on two young orphan boys being raised as wards of a back-country lord. The custom in the area is for all children in the area to spend time working for all of the various craftmaster’s in the keep so that they may be evaluated and chosen into an apprenticeship that is suitable for them. In the Magician one boy has no problem becoming a warrior apprentice but the other isn’t chosen by any of the craftmasters and so is looking forward to a life of exile. At the last moment the Lord’s magician surprises everyone by stepping forward and taking the boy as an apprentice, something that the magician has never done before. The boy has always dreamed of being a warrior and so is uncertain and scared of the life this promises him.
The Ranger books does the same thing, although I don’t think quite as well. Only orphans are faced with needing a craftmaster to choose them to be an apprentice, otherwise they become common field hands. And there is no period of the children working under the craftmasters to be evaluated, it is much more of a… ‘yah, they look like they could do it’ kind of selection. But like the Magician books one of the boys is immediately selected for warrior training and the other is left standing alone and scared with nobody asking for his service… until the Lord’s mysterious ranger does so, something he’s never done before.
After I finally got over this dislike of the mirroring of another author’s work I did actually come to really enjoy the books. My main complaint with the Magician books (and most other sci-fi/fantasy series) is that after the first several books in the series the hero’s had accumulated so many powers that they were no longer really mortals. I haven’t seen this in the Ranger books so far (I’m only about three books into the series) as the character’s train and learn they do refine their skills with the bow, sword, knife, etc but never to the point where they are supernatural. This means that the characters remain relatable and likable much longer than I often see in other series.
The books are also very easy to read. They were written children (probably age 10-15) and aren’t filled with too much depth, vocabulary, or sub-text. And while I do love all that in a well-written book, I don’t find myself missing them while reading these.
About half-way through the first book the pacing changes as well. The first half is slower and deals more with their adolescent angst, establishing the setting, and a lot of interesting technical information (how boar-spears work, different types of knives and what they are good for, etc). Then the book turn more to action and become a bit darker with our young protagonist accompanying his Ranger master to save area from an evil monster.
These books have been an enjoyable and easy way to keep my mind occupied. They don't require much mental energy to read but still managed to keep me engaged and entertained.
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