Ranger’s Apprentice 2: The Burning Bridge

Reviewed by Prashy

     Ranger’s Apprentice 2: The Burning Bridge, by John Flanagan, is currently one of the most interesting books I’ve read so far. So the author, John Flanagan, was born in Sydney, Australia (May 22, 1944). His written 9 other books and they are all a sequel to Ranger’s Apprentice. These books are the only thing that made him famous; and they are already making a movie based on the first book: Ranger’s Apprentice 1 Ruins of Gorlan.

     The main character of the story are: Will, Horace, Gilan, Halt, Evelyn, Erak, Morgarath, and Alyss; but the main protagonist is Will. Will might still be learning how to be a Ranger, but he still does a great job at doing it. His likes to help, and when his friends are in trouble, he’ll do anything to rescue them. So you can also say that Will is very honest, almost never lies about anything. The same goes for Halt, who is a grim and cruel mentor to Will; but during the book, you find out that his actually a nice person in the inside. Gilan used to be Halt’s student. But, Rangers only use bow and arrows, and a small dagger in case the enemy came close; Gilan, on the other hand, was trained onto using a sword. So you could say that Gilan is the only Ranger that wields a sword. He is very nice and nothing like Halt.

     Evelyn is a mistress, who assumed her maids identity because she’s the daughter of the king. She is very friendly and for some reason she felt comfortable around Rangers. Erak is a Skandian, a separate tribe that is introduced in this book. He most of the time is very mean and cruel, but when he captured Will and Evelyn, he showed sympathy and mercy. He and his army saved them from Morgarath (and coincidentally, they worked with Morgarath to invade Araluen and conquer it). Speaking of Morgarath, he is the villain of the book. He desperately wants to conquer Araluen (the kingdom where Will and his friends are from) and he bargained with Skandians help him with his second attempt. Horace is one of Will’s best friends. He very trustworthy and always curios…. Alyss is a very polite mannered person. I found her quite annoying because she was always correcting your grammar… like your mom/dad does.

     The theme of the book was to always rely on your friends when you desperately need help. The moral value of the story was to never abandon a friend in need, especially if that friend saved your life more than 3 times. The other value that the book showed was to never feel guilty if something happened to his friend; if you do, it could lead you into some serious problems.

     I think the plot was handled very well; there were only some unnecessary descriptions in the book. Apart from the cliffhanger that author left (which has tempted me to read the third book), the conflict of the book was when Will discovered Morgarath’s battle plans, but suddenly found out that they were phony (when he was with Horace and Evelyn) and had to somehow alert the castle of this discovery.

     Will and his mentor, Halt, are in the field riding back to their home (Araluen). They encountered 3 Wargals (Morgarath’s army) along the way and killed them. But while Will endeavored to kill the last Wargal, he panicked and was almost hit by the Wargal if it wasn’t for Tug (Will’s Horse) who blocked the hit. When the whole mess was over, they acquired Morgarath’s battle plans. Seeing how Will never acted like that, Halt decided to send him with Gilan and Horace to Celtica and warn them about the war that was going to take place in 2 weeks; according to Morgarath’s battle plans.

     While Will, Horace, and Gilan went to Celtica, it was completely deserted. Gilan knew that Celtica wouldn’t do this unless they were attacked because, if Celtics moved, they wouldn’t have left their valuables; but on the other hand, there wasn’t any sign of a fight. She claimed to be the maid of her mistress. Her name was Evelyn. She confirmed Gilan’s prediction and told them where the Celts were; but most likely captured by now. Gilan Decided to investigate this more so he went deeper into Celtica, while Will and Horace took Evelyn back to Araluen. Along the way, they encountered more Wargals and followed them to a cave and a bridge that the Celts were constructing (by force).

     Will went into the cave and discovered that Skandians had been working with Morgarath. As he returned back to Evelyn and Horace, he encountered a dyeing Celtic. He questioned him about the bridge and he finds out that the bridge was used for crossing the Three Step Pass (a passage that takes you to Araluen, but couldn’t be crossed). He also finds out that the battle plans that he and Halt were phony and Morgarath was going to attack from the front with Wargals, and from the back with Skandians. While he told this discovery to Horace and Evelyn, Evelyn suggests that they should burn down the bridge. So as they did that, Horace went back to Araluen to warn them.

     While Will and Evelyn tried to burn down the bridge (and succeeded), they were captured by Skandians and were enslaved by them. Horace got to Araluen in time to warn everybody about the new attack. While he was there, he met Gilan who too, returned. Then Gilan told the king about Evelyn, who actually turned out to be the king’s daughter assuming her maid’s identity, Cassandra. So as the king still had hope for his daughter, he sent some of his men to kill the Skandians and to kill Morgarath; who has no clue that the king discovered his diabolical plan. So when the fight was over, Morgarath surrendered and challenged Halt to a 1 hand combat. Morgarath has some hatred towards Halt because Halt sabotaged Morgarath’s last attempt to take over Araluen. As much as Halt wanted to accept, the king kept on telling him not to. In the end, Horace challenged him by mistake.

     Somehow, Horace defeated him with luck, but was still injured in the fight. After the fight was over, Halt races across the fields for Will, which was being taken with Evelyn to the Skandian ships. The ships will take them to their territory, which is known to us as Antarctica.

     So this all that I’m going to tell you about the book because I don’t want to ruin the ending for you. Even though this book (262 pages) was short and easy, it included a lot of action, drama, mystery, and a very interesting ending. I recommend it to anyone who loves to read books that pertain to those qualities and love to read fantasy  novels.