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- Referencenod to comics or other movies
- Cameoa familiar face shows up
- Setupplanted now, pays off later
- Behind the scenesproduction trivia
- Behind the scenesBack in time
Published in 2015, two years after The Royal Ranger, it launched The Early Years prequel series.
source ↗ - ReferenceHalt's mentor
Halt was trained by Pritchard, a veteran Ranger whom Morgarath had driven out of the Corps.
source ↗ - ReferenceFamiliar names
It fleshes out characters The Ruins of Gorlan and The Burning Bridge only mention in passing, like Baron Arald.
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- Behind the scenesPlenty of action
Jane Campbell, reviewing for the Children's Book Council of Australia, wrote: "there is plenty of action and adventure".
source ↗ - Behind the scenesOut in 2016
It came out on October 31, 2016, in Australia and November 29 in the U.S. and UK.
source ↗ - ReferenceLink to The Lost Stories
The first tale in The Lost Stories starts right after this battle.
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- Behind the scenesStories for his son
Flanagan wrote Will's first adventures week by week for his son Michael, who didn't like reading. About ten years later, he found them again and turned them into this novel.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesSmall on purpose
Will was based on Michael: short, agile and quick. Flanagan made his hero small to show his son that size can be an advantage too.
source ↗ - ReferenceHorace was the villain
In the original stories, Horace, based on Michael's friend Jeremy, was the villain. In the novel he became a lead, and Flanagan added the bully-gets-bullied storyline at Battleschool.
source ↗ - SetupThe war comes later
The book ends with Araluen getting ready for war against Morgarath's army. That threat carries into the next book.
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- Behind the scenesHonored in Australia
The Burning Bridge was a Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book, like The Ruins of Gorlan and The Sorcerer of the North.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesAround the world
The book came out in Swedish and Polish in 2007, Turkish in 2010 and Japanese in 2012.
source ↗ - ReferenceWho Evanlyn is
The girl Will and Horace meet in Celtica is really Princess Cassandra, King Duncan's daughter, hiding under another name.
source ↗ - ReferenceHorace's payoff
The boy who struggled at Battleschool in The Ruins of Gorlan challenges Morgarath to single combat and wins.
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- ReferenceHalt in exile
Halt insults the king on purpose and is banished for a year. That leaves him free to go after Will with Horace.
source ↗ - SetupThe Oakleaf Knight
In Gallica, Horace earns the name Oakleaf Knight. In Australia, the next book is titled Oakleaf Bearers.
source ↗ - SetupA rider in furs
In the last scene, a rider dressed in furs shows up near Will and Evanlyn's cabin. Who it is waits for the next book.
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- Behind the scenesOne book, two titles
In Australia it's called Oakleaf Bearers. The U.S. edition became The Battle for Skandia.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesAurealis finalist
The book was a finalist for the 2007 Aurealis Award for Best Children's Novel, Australia's top fantasy prize.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe treaty with Erak
Erak becomes Oberjarl and signs a treaty with Cassandra barring large Skandian raids on Araluen. He also slips in a pardon for Halt.
source ↗ - SetupWill says no
Will turns down a royal lieutenant's post to keep training as a Ranger. That choice matters in the books that follow.
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- Behind the scenesFilling a gap
Flanagan wrote it to fill a gap: Will's doubts about becoming a Ranger and how Halt copes with his apprentice moving on.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesBook of the Year
In 2008 it won the Australian Publishers Association's Book of the Year for Older Children and the International Success Award.
source ↗ - ReferenceIt starts at a party
News of Erak's kidnapping arrives in the middle of Halt and Pauline's wedding celebration.
source ↗ - ReferenceOut of order
It came out after The Siege of Macindaw but is set months before Will receives his silver oakleaf.
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- Behind the scenesIn or of the North
In Australia the book is The Sorcerer in the North. In the U.S. it's The Sorcerer of the North.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesHonored in Australia
It was a Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book, like books 1 and 2.
source ↗ - ReferenceAlyss in the field
Alyss, Will's childhood friend from The Ruins of Gorlan, joins the mission. Will goes undercover as a jongleur.
source ↗ - SetupHalf a story
The book ends on a cliffhanger. The story picks up directly in The Siege of Macindaw.
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- Behind the scenesShorter in the U.S.
The Australian edition runs 371 pages; the 2009 U.S. edition, 324.
source ↗ - ReferenceSkandians on Will's side
To retake the castle, Will hires shipwrecked Skandians as mercenaries. An alliance that only makes sense after The Battle for Skandia.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe star stone
Will sends Alyss a star stone that helps her resist Keren's hypnosis. In the end, Will's confession of love breaks the trance.
source ↗ - SetupThe next one goes back
The next book, Erak's Ransom, came out after this one but is set before The Sorcerer of the North.
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- Behind the scenesLate in Spanish
Spain's Hidra didn't publish the book, as Los reyes de Clonmel, until October 16, 2023.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe Outsider cult
The Outsiders, the cult at the heart of this book, are one of the series' big threats, alongside Morgarath, the Skandians and the Temujai.
source ↗ - SetupThe hunt goes on
Tennyson, the Outsiders' leader, flees Hibernia at the end. The chase picks up directly in Halt's Peril.
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- ReferenceMalcolm returns
Malcolm the healer, from The Sorcerer of the North, comes back to help identify the poison threatening Halt.
source ↗ - ReferenceGenovesan assassins
The killers hunting the group are Genovesan, and their poison is only identified when the last survivor talks.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesMany languages
Between 2010 and 2018 the book was translated into many languages, including Japanese. Corgi published it in the UK in 2011.
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- Behind the scenesA real name
Nihon-Ja comes from Nihon-Koku, Japan's official name in Japanese.
source ↗ - ReferenceHorace becomes Arnaut
In Nihon-Ja, Horace goes by Arnaut. He stands by Emperor Shigeru, who wants to reform the country's rigid social order.
source ↗ - ReferenceTwo proposals
The book ends with Horace and Cassandra engaged, and Will suggesting he and Alyss do the same.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesNearly 600 pages
The Australian paperback runs 590 pages. In Spain, Hidra didn't publish it until April 2025.
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- Behind the scenesThe Redmont chest
The frame story is set in the far future: Professor Giles MacFarlane finds a chest of stories in Will's old cabin while excavating Castle Redmont.
source ↗ - ReferenceWill's father
One story finally reveals who Will's father was. Another shows what Gilan was up to while Halt was away in The Icebound Land.
source ↗ - ReferenceA Brotherband teaser
The last item in the chest mentions the legend of a boy who reinvented the Skandian wolfship. It's the bridge to Brotherband, the sister series that began in 2011.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe wedding
The final story is Will and Alyss's wedding.
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- Behind the scenesBook 12 or book 1
In 2018 the book was retitled A New Beginning and became the first book of The Royal Ranger series.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe first girl
Maddie, Horace and Cassandra's daughter, is the first girl ever taken on as a Ranger's apprentice.
source ↗ - ReferenceAn echo of book 4
When Maddie turns down being a princess again, Horace tells Cassandra what she heard years before: Rangers have always been different.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe audiobook voice
The audiobook, nearly 14 hours long, is read by John Keating, who also narrates the later Royal Ranger books.
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- ReferenceFox in Latin
The Clan's secret leader goes by Vulpus Rutilus, taken from Latin: vulpes means fox, and rutilus means reddish.
source ↗ - ReferenceA Brotherband crossover
The Herons, Hal Mikkelson's crew from the sister series Brotherband, sail down the Semath River to help Araluen.
source ↗ - SetupToo friendly
Dimon goes hunting with Maddie and trains Cassandra in swordplay before he's unmasked. Note Cassandra pointing out that he's a distant relative of the royal family.
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- ReferenceLessons from training
Dimon helped train Cassandra with the sword. In the final duel he dodges her first thrust because he spots her tell, and she wins by repeating the move without it.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe Herons step up
Hal Mikkelson's Herons, from the Brotherband series, decide the battle: they seize the gatehouse and open the castle to Horace.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe tower holds
Merlon, the guard commander, counters a trebuchet, fire bladders and fake peace talks. Cassandra spies on Dimon through the secret passages Maddie found in the previous book.
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- ReferenceJongleur again
Will already went undercover as a jongleur in The Sorcerer of the North. Here he pulls the same trick, this time with Maddie as a knife thrower.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesMadelyn Regale
For the cover story, Will gives Maddie the fake name Madelyn Regale. She can't stand the surname.
source ↗ - ReferenceWill with no surname
The book recalls that Will grew up without a family name, unlike his four wardmates. Treaty only came in Erak's Ransom.
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- ReferenceThree arrows
When Lassigny tries to stab Horace in the back, he goes down with three arrows at once: Will's, Halt's and Maddie's. Three generations of Rangers in one volley.
source ↗ - ReferenceBack in Gallica
Horace faces Lassigny as the Oakleaf Knight, the title he earned beating Gallican knights in The Icebound Land.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesAfter the fight
Horace has Lassigny buried at his own chateau and leaves the choice of successor to King Philippe. The baron's widow returns to her father's lands.
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- ReferenceIn Morgarath's old lair
Arazan sets up her headquarters in Morgarath's former base in the Mountains of Rain and Night.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe Wargals return
The Wargals, Morgarath's army in The Burning Bridge, are back. This time they follow Marko, Arazan's lieutenant.
source ↗ - ReferenceCeltica again
Celtica is the kingdom Will and Horace found deserted in The Burning Bridge after the Wargal attack. Now there are Wargals roaming there again.
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- ReferenceThe Temujai are back
The raiders on Toscana's border are Temujai scouts, the people Araluen and Skandia fought in The Battle for Skandia.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe latest
It came out in hardcover on October 15, 2024, at 240 pages. It's book 7 of The Royal Ranger.
source ↗ - ReferenceSplitting up
Will and Maddie have to split up to gather allies and information before leading the Toscan forces.
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