on
3.5/5
Non-Fiction
- Get link
- Other Apps
Rating: 4/5
Started: 28 February 2024
Finished: 28 February 2024
Pages: 249
Summary:
Will No-Name, Horace called him--a orphaned ward in the Baron's castle, too small to become a heroic knight like his father, too old to remain a ward any longer. Then Will is chosen as the apprentice to the mysterious Ranger Halt, where he slowly learns that his small size and his cleverness will serve him well as a spy for his country. As Will learns more about a Ranger's skill with bows, knives, and moving unseen, as well as the Ranger's honor, for the first time he begins to feel excited for his future. But then Halt receives bad news: the evil Lord Morgarath has sent out a group of elite monsters and killers to take revenge on the leaders who bested him during the war a few years prior. And it's Will and Halt's job to hunt them down.
Thoughts:
This book brings me so much comfort; it's the epitome of the principle of indelible is a word for stories. The black-and-white, honorable way that this book portrays the world is so lovely to read. This time around I did admittedly notice a few concerning things. First of all, this book is fantasy (monsters! hypnotism!) but the rest of the series is most definitely not, with multiple books centered around the debunking of possible magic. Which does not make much sense. The sexism also stood out to me a bit more this time through; Flanagan puts girls on a pedestal of sensibility and perfection that is technically complimentary but also does not allow them to be interesting characters which is not great. That being said, this book will probably never not bring me immense joy and I'm very glad to have read it again.