by John Flanagan
Conditional Recommendation: While tracking the fleeing Outsiders cult, Halt is poisoned and Will must face a skilled enemy and race against time to save his beloved mentor.
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
Despite it’s slow beginning, this book is another worthy addition to the series. The well-known Ranger skills plus Horace’s expertise with a sword come together once again to finally put an end to the Outsiders cult we came to know very well in the previous book, The Kings of Clonmel. Definitely read that book before this one as the two most certainly go together in a two-book story arc. You can read that review here: The Kings of Clonmel.
The history between master and apprentice and the loyalty between friends new and old both make this book more sentimental than the others. Plus, Halt’s getting old, don’t you know? Nevertheless, the end of the book brought a tear to my eye. After so many installments, I might be sentimental about the characters too…
For more info on the series read my review of book one here: The Ruins of Gorlan.
Rangers walk the line between life and death every day, but never before has that line appeared so thin or death felt so certain. Hot on the trail of the Outsiders—a cult that’s been making its way from kingdom to kingdom, conning the innocent out of their few valuables—Will and Halt are ambushed by the cult’s deadly assassins. Pierced by a poisoned arrow, Will’s mentor is near death and in dire need of the one antidote that can save his life. Time is not on Will’s side as he journeys day and night though the harsh terrain to Grimsdell wood in search of the one person with the power to cure Halt: Malkallam the Sorcerer.
The team doesn’t just want to capture Tennyson, they want to expose his deceit to the people he’s swindling under the guise of religion. Unfortunately, Halt accomplishes this by calling on Tennyson’s god, Allseiass, to strike him with lightning to prove he’s real and the god of light. Of course, nothing happens. This is a faulty way to test that a god exists. Why? Because it assumes that a god will answer your demands and obey your authority by appearing on command. All it proves is that whoever you’re talking to doesn’t want to answer you. 😉